Whenever Espanyol was relegated to the Second Division, they have done so five times in their entire history, they regained the category the following year. In the minds of everyone, players, coaches and fans, the experience of three seasons ago remains, when Vicente Moreno won the championship without great doubt. Luis García, the current coach and main leader of the project, wants to repeat that objective this course, although the differences between the two squads are evident.
That team hardly suffered departures with the decline due to the liquidity problems caused by the covid and could count, among others, on Raúl de Tomás as the main banner. Now the situation is very different. In the first week, the departures of Joselu, the team's top scorer, Pedrosa or Vilhena were already confirmed. In addition, it is more than likely the goodbye of Braithwaite and the already confirmed of Sergi Darder, heading to Mallorca in the absence of officialdom.
After the relegation was consummated, it took Espanyol more than two weeks to fire Domingo Catoira and sign his replacement, Fran Garagarza. That caused a delay in sports planning. But since then the club has not moved in the market either. Espanyol is the only Spanish professional team that has not signed anyone. Garagarza prefers to wait for the last days of the market and, failing him, hold on to the talent of the house to spend the bullet granted by having the largest budget in Segunda.
Due to the inaction of the club, Chen Yansheng is not in favor of making greater investments, the conflict over the fright of Martin Braithwaite joined in preseason. The Dane left the Marbella concentration and returned two days later to look for a quick exit that has not come. The striker is still at the club, but Espanyol has the obligation to seek the best possible agreement for his interests. Completely opposite situation to that of Sergi Darder, the club's main asset in football, who yesterday packed his bags to join Mallorca. The Espanyol captain wanted to leave, but with a sale that would help Espanyol strengthen itself to return to First Division. For this reason, he renounced the assignment contemplated in his contract. The Vermilion club, the only firm bidder for the Mallorcan, fulfilled the parrot demands yesterday with an offer of eight million fixed plus two variables, below the 15 million clause. In defence, Cabrera and César Montes could also leave, in addition to Simo Keddari, confirmed his departure yesterday to Qatari Al-Arabi.
Thus, Luis García works with a very young squad in which Puado, Melamed and Dimata will be the offensive references. Pol Lozano will finally have an opportunity to vindicate himself, but the rest of the block will be the same as last season.
To achieve the goal of promotion, Espanyol will have Valladolid and Elche, recently relegated, as their strongest rivals. But also to Levante, Eibar, Zaragoza or Tenerife, who were already in the top positions of the table last year. Beyond the squad, if the parakeet fans trust someone, it is Luis García, whose offensive proposal is the main hope to get out of hell as soon as possible.
