Iraola puts his team among the best in the history of Rayo

The numbers are not deceiving. The league start of Rayo de Iraola is being promising and that has placed him in European positions, more specifically in sixth place, with thirteen points. The defeat of Sadar cut the good franjirroja streak, woven with three consecutive victories and thirteen points out of fifteen possible, but does not cloud the sensations it transmits. His game falls in love and he has become one of the fashionable teams in Primera.

The Basque coach flees the euphoria and defends that this has not gotten into a locker room aware that difficult times will come throughout the season. The 'EuroRayo' thing sounds distant, although the figures for Iraola's team invite you to dream. At this point, only those of Juande surpassed him in the 99-00: they were leaders of the maximum category and added 19 points.

That Rayo had won six games and drawn and lost one. Numbers so brilliant that nowadays they would also allow them to top the classification of First, ahead of Real Madrid, Atlético and Real Sociedad, tied with 17 points. Not even two of the contenders for the league title would have hunted Juande's men.

That leadership was not an isolated event, given that they had already achieved it on the fourth day and repeated it on the eighth, tenth and eleventh. Of course, years later it has been unrepeatable for Rayo. So that time has proved the members of that squad right, who made T-shirts with the table. That course was unforgettable because the team finished with a creditable ninth place and was the prelude to their historic participation in UEFA (00-01).

Precisely, this Rayo de Iraola surpasses the one that premiered in Europe at one point and was in seventh position. Too He surpasses other historical figures such as Paco Jémez's eighth place (12-13), who had ten points and was placed twelfth or the 'Matagigantes' (77-78), with eight — he would currently have eleven points, assuming that triumphs are now worth three and not two like then — he was ninth.