The volatility of sports directors at Espanyol

Francisco Rufete contract ends on June 30 and from the club there has been no official position on whether it will be renewed or not. “At the end of the season we will see the wounds,” said Josep Maria Durán, CEO, on Monday.. In fact, and as he has been warning at some press conferences, such as the one for Tonny Vilhena’s presentation, the man from Alicante has spoken openly about the future squad. But, throughout perica history, It is not usual for sports directors to finish the season if they are not going to continue the next one.

In the last 20 years there has been no sports director (formerly technical secretary) of Espanyol who has finished the season when it was decided to change course. All of them fell due to the bad sporting situation or stepped aside when they understood that they would not be part of the project. There was only the exception of Óscar Perarnau with the arrival of Chen Yansheng, when he decided, alleging personal matters, to leave the position after the end of the winter market of the 2015-16 academic year.

In November 2003, Sergio Morgado also fell with Javier Clemente. Both were fired after a horrific start to the season and the construction of a poor squad. He was replaced by Miquel Corominas, who took on the winter market and left office in February. Cristóbal Parralo assumed the leadership of the sports area and was able to prepare the next course in time. His work served to sign Miguel Ángel Lotina and form the squad that won the Copa del Rey and qualified for Europe two years in a row.

But Cristóbal did not finish his second campaign either. In March he resigned for “meddling” when the club wanted to turn the sporting situation around. Then Lotina left and in May 2006 Paco Herrera was announced as Cristóbal’s replacement, who brought in Ernesto Valverde and started a project that kept him at the club for two and a half years. In February 2009, with another guerrilla Espanyol with the arrival of Mauricio Pochettino, Ramon Planes became the boss of the sports area.

From Plans, a possible replacement, to the two stages of Perarnau

Planes, who is now positioned as one of the possible substitutes (has three offers from LaLiga)was with Pochettino until November 2012. Almost four years of sports lights and shadows in a club that was beginning to be suffocated by the economy. Óscar Perarnau dealt with that stage until January 2016after Sergio González was fired in December and against his opinion and Constantin Galca was hired. Ángel Gómez created the following squad together with Quique Sánchez Flores, but was fired in November 2016.

For a year and a half, Jordi Lardín held that position until his dismissal in April 2018 along with the coach from Madrid. It was there that Perarnau, who was already at the club and was able to work on the next project with signings such as Joan Francesc Ferrer Rubi and Borja Iglesias, took over and later led to Rufete, who from that July took charge of the Directorate of Professional Football. Later, in January 2020 and not in June, it was when the man from Alicante unofficially assumed control of the sports area.

In those bad moments of the first team is when the figure of Rufete, the sports director in the year of relegation and promotion, is explicitly questioned in public opinion. The chronology details that the changes, if they occur, do not arrive in June.