Time for the Vadillo bet

The last day of the market arrived, when Espanyol had launched the previous afternoon for the Levante winger Hernani Santos, but finally Álvaro Vadillo's option won whole. “It was a market opportunity,” commented after the sports director, Francisco Rufete. The fans for social networks demanded a striker, a plan B to replace RdT or to have minutes in close matches, but the technical direction believed that a winger was the most appropriate.

More than three months after his arrival, the Andalusian winger has barely played 96 minutes. First, a victim of his attachment to a group that started the season like a cyclone. And then due to an injury that kept him two months without entering the call. Now, once those usual setbacks in his career have been overcome (he had two serious injuries at 16 and 19 years old), he has all the numbers to be a player with more prominence in the second round, with this Sunday's match against Osasuna marked in red.

Vicente Moreno, who keeps the whole team plugged in, has not yet lined up the 27-year-old winger as a starter, but after the last game against Castellón and in order to give rest to some starters, players like Adrián Embarba, Javi Puado or even Nico Melamed they could be left off the list or be, at least, substitutes. That opens the door for Vadillo, along with Álex López, the only players who have not started either in LaLiga or in the Cup.

Vadillo is also a player of the future for Espanyol. In an unusual maneuver by Celta, who signed him in August and two months later wanted to get rid of him, Vadillo signed for one season but with a mandatory purchase option in case of promotion. The numbers did not transcend, but this could be around two million according to some sources. For this reason, and taking into account the great performance of Espanyol that places him with serious options to go up, in Vadillo there is a bet for the future, so Vicente Moreno also has in mind to give him the same opportunities as the rest of the players of attack.

The precocious Vadillo, who made his debut in the First Division before he was 17 years old, and went through Huesca and Granada, accumulates a great curriculum despite his 26 years. He has 184 matches in professional football, apart from having been international in lower categories. A player who, in these five months, will have a window to show his talent.