He Spanish tonight it is very likely to shelve 26 years in First Division. All this after completing a disastrous campaign, the worst in its history, in which it is bottom after having won only five games. He decline The team necessarily requires reflection on its causes and its possible consequences. The vanguard He talks with referents of Spanishism to analyze the future of the entity.
It closes a stage in which the parakeet fan has lived historical days, great joys and also disappointments, but always with the tranquility of knowing himself in the highest category. Now he will lose that calm and the reasons are multiple and of varied responsibility, as he explains Paco Floreswhich points to the bad sports planning as the cause of evil. “The signed players have not been the right ones, it has become clear with what has happened this season,” sums up the former player and former parrot coach.
Sports planning, the main cause of the debacle
Of the same opinion is Joan Collet, former president of Espanyol, who reflects “as an amateur and with the utmost respect”. “The planning last summer was very bad. Not for sales. Those who leave are not important, but those who come. The team started with many deficiencies. In Primera you cannot start the season with Ferreyra, Wu Lei and Puado. You spend 18 million euros on two players (Vargas and Calero) who have no significance. He Spanish you can’t afford to spend $ 18 million on two players who don’t play, “he says.
Furthermore, he regrets that “the criteria under which decisions have been made have not been explained. We don’t even know who has taken them. If it was the technical secretary, the sports director … There have been very different coaches among them and it was not taken into account what are the qualities of the squad. But it is not a problem of coaches, but of the low level that the staff has had, “he says.
Rufete and Espanyol’s coaching staff chat with the players. (Carlos Mira / RCD Espanyol)
Daniel Solsona, a former parakeet player in the 70s and 80s, also agrees that reinforcements at the beginning of the season were not well chosen. “You transfer a scorer (Borja Iglesias) who made 17 goals. To replace him they had thought of Ferreyra, who had scored a goal the previous year. Then they bring Calleri and between the two they have each scored somewhat. They signed Vargas, but we all knew that he was not a scorer. AND if you don’t have a goal you’re annoyed“, summarized.
For Rafa Marañón, top scorer in the history of the club, “the reasons concern the people inside the club. I will never go against the coach or the players, who are our heritage. We have to be more humble. Maybe we have sinned with little humility and we don’t think that there could be other better ones ”, he reflected.
The next sports director will be key to return to Primera
Once the declineThere are many unknowns to be solved, from the choice of the coach to the design of the template. For Paco Flores the main thing is that there is “a complete renewal of ideas. The most important thing is for a sports director with a face and eyes to come, from there he decides who is the best coach and the players he considers to return to First Division ”, he explains. Something that also affects Solsona, who warns that “if the sports director is the one who was and things have not gone well we have to be careful.”
Collet also considers the arrival of a sports director “who knows Segunda well and who chooses a guarantee coach. ¿Rufete? I dont know. Do you know the Second Division? It’s responsible? No one has explained it to us. I don’t know if I can have confidence in Rufete if I don’t know what degree of responsibility he has had ”, he warns.
Calleri has not scored the goals expected of him (Eric Alonso / Getty)
Regarding the choice of the future coach, Solsona distrusts the maxim of bringing in an expert man in Second Division. “What does it mean a technician struggling in Second, who has always trained in Second? Has he done something to train Espanyol? ”. In addition, he considers it essential to recover the spirit of the fans as soon as possible. “First you have to convince people to get excited about the team again. The club has to sell optimism with a coach or a player who hopes. That people feel that things are done well. We will spend two or three weeks annoyed, but let this not be delayed. Because if you don’t create uncertainty and the burned people will continue to be burned ”, he analyzes.
Last Monday, the Federation of Peñas asked the property that the president Chen Yansheng take a step to the side so that his position is occupied by someone who resides in Barcelona, alluding to the difficulty in the government of the entity so many kilometers away. For Flores, however, this is a minor problem. “I don’t think the key is that the president is in China, it has already happened that we have gone wrong with a president here,” he reflected. Marañón also supports the owner of the club and considers that “Chen has helped us in many ways, it has been very important. I’m with the club. We are starting a new path and the foundations have to be a strong club. Sometimes you have to duck to hit a big jump ”, he concludes.
