Espanyol calls Planes

“Rufete is not renewed“, slipped Jose Maria Duran on January 31, at the premiere of the program ’21’ (Esport3). The general director of Espanyol advanced that they had agreed with the president, Chen Yansheng, to postpone any negotiation with the sports director, who ends his contract this coming June, for “the end of the season.” And the truth is that Francisco Joaquín Pérez Rufete continues to be fully committed to his workwhich is not synonymous with planning, while the club moves in the market at the same time.

was advancing Diari Ara this Wednesday an information that authorized sources have corroborated AS: the survey by Espanyol to Ramon Planes. It’s been weeks since in the gossip clubs of the parakeet club they had been speculating on the excellent harmony between the one who was already sports director parakeet between 2009 and 2012 and Durán, who coincided five years ago at Getafe, but has now been confirmed as true. as it is that that contact for the moment has been limited to an interest in the situation of Planeswho on November 16 separated from Barcelona. “There has been no offer“, voices familiar with this survey insist to this newspaper.

Those same sources indicate that two other LaLiga clubs They have followed the same protocol as Espanyol in recent weeks, with mere contacts without reaching any formal proposal. It’s about Valencia –Trained by José Bordalás, with whom he also worked at Getafe– and the Celticwho in recent days seems to have found his new sports director in Luis Campos. Also from abroad has received calls.

If the interest prospers, Plans could return to Espanyol just a decade after his departurewhich occurred together with that of Mauricio Pochettino, in a complex situation for a parakeet team that was bottom and a club that had just changed its president, with the appointment days before Joan Collet. An institutional situation that, saving the distances, it may be repeated in the coming months if the purchase offer of an American group materializes.

As sports director of Espanyol, where he always had the illusion of returning one day, he signed Planes to players like Dani Osvaldo or Philippe Coutinhothen loaned by Inter Milan, participated in the creation of the Futbol Draft from which it arose Thievy Bifoumahad a stranger on his agenda James Rodriguez who did not arrive at the RCDE Stadium due to a matter of guarantees and, likewise, he incorporated other players who did less well, such as Ivan Pillud or Jesus Datolo. He has also served in Tottenham HotspurElche, Rayo Vallecano, Racing de Santander, Alavés or L’Hospitalet.