In the womb of the Espanyol stadium, Rafael Marañón, club legend and professor at the School of Architects, forms a huddle with Denis Suárez, José Gragera and Fernando Pacheco, the last three additions.
Then he hands them two voluminous volumes, the account of the history of the club, and tells them:
I hope you read the book and learn it. We will give you an exam with twenty questions...
The players laugh.
And then they all leave through a door, ready to give the best of themselves.
The message, to give the best of oneself, has flown over the stage. Espanyol tries to reconvert its squad.
The capacity is remarkable. Espanyol presents three players, and with them their agents have arrived, who occupy the armchairs and contemplate the scene. They are also Mao Ye (CEO) and Domingo Catoira (sports director).
(In total, the club has invested twelve million in the winter market: five footballers have arrived, the three who were listening to Marañón yesterday, and also César Montes and Pierre-Gabriel).
At the club, the sporting situation is relatively complex.
Ballasted by a faltering start to the season, Espanyol seems to have gotten back on track in recent weeks. However, the defeat against Almería, on the last day, has once again complicated his life: the team survives one point above relegation.
It was time to shake the market.
Pacheco (30), who arrives from Almería, seems relieved. He is big and has given some rival some displeasure: in October 2020, when he played for Alavés, he had stopped almost everything from Barça. The match had ended in a draw (1-1).
With such a file, Pacheco had disembarked in Almería at the beginning of this course. Bad thing, there he has hardly been seen. Fernando Martínez, starting goalkeeper, was great, and Pacheco had not had minutes. Depressed, he was looking for a way out. The answer came on Tuesday, at the close of the winter market. Espanyol have invested two million in their signing and Diego Martínez once again has three goalkeepers, after the departure of Jerome Lecomte.
“Yesterday (on Tuesday) I spoke more with Joselu than with my mother (Joselu and Pacheco had met at Castilla and Alavés). She would call me every 15 minutes,” she would say.
And what are you looking for here?
A step forward for my career.
Denis Suárez (29), a globetrotter who has played for City, Barça, Villarreal or Arsenal, is political. He says that this is the club “he wanted to be in for a long time”.
He says it with a smile.
His last year and a half has been terrible. He has hardly played in the last seven months. He was in conflict with Carlos Mourino, the president of his club, Celta: Mouriño interpreted that Suárez's agency, Intermedia Sport Player, marketed to lower-class players. He had vetoed the agency and, with it, any conversation with Denis Suárez.
(Espanyol have paid 200,000 euros for Suárez).
“I have been training with Diego Martínez for two days and physically I feel fine. I am in the process of assimilating the match and competition weeks. I have not forgotten to play, ”he says.
José Gragera (22), who comes from Sporting in exchange for 2.8 million, says that his references are Alberto Rivera and Sergio Álvarez, midfielders like him, "but if I think globally, I look at Rodri and Parejo".
