A 21-day penance

they fit three weeks, 21 days, to the Santander League, and Espanyol lives them as a penance. Without incentives in the domestic championship after the celebration of this day, there is also no news in the entity about the renewals of the sports management or the bench next year, much less about the negotiations with players like Adrià Pedrosa or Sergi Darder. The silence that surrounds the club contrasts with the noise caused by images such as that of Vicente Moreno with Raúl de Tomás on Saturday.

On a sporting level, the results of the day leave Espanyol eight points from relegation of the 12 at stake and six from ninth position. The Blue and Whites are the bottom of the group that seeks to finish in the top ten, which also includes some teams with a lower budget than the parrots, such as Osasuna, Valencia, Rayo Vallecano, Celta and Elche. The defeat at the Bernabéu has caused Vicente Moreno’s men to lose two positions, not very positive news with a view to the television cast next year.

With Vicente Moreno dodging questions about sports planning and the figure of Rufete in the air, the atmosphere is not the most ideal either inside or outside the locker room. Apart from the disaffection in the stands (against Osasuna and Valencia it can be certified that this campaign averages the worst start of the years at the RCDE Stadium), the symptoms from within are not the best. The saw teeth have appeared in this second round and the performance of the players has dropped ostensibly at the individual level.

Espanyol have only been able to win one of the last five games, against Celta in extremis with a goal from Wu Lei in the 88th minute of the match. They lost to Real Sociedad in added time (1-0), to Atlético de Madrid also when the end of the match drew near (2-1), to Rayo Vallecano (0-1) and to Real Madrid (4- 0). The streak confirms the bad second round of the team, which has only added 13 points, and is struggling to avoid making a second leg of the Second Division.

Espanyol’s penance also leaves him with a cheating calendar. Two of the rivals are fighting for the Blue and Whites for those positions in the middle zone, such as Valencia and Osasunaso that before them the efforts to finish the course will be measured the higher the better. The other two rivals, Alavés and Granadaare in the relegation zone and are rivals who will risk their lives and who want to dream of staying at the expense of Espanyol.