Rayo Vallecano’s top-flight return was a miracle and now they have signed Radamel Falcao. But all is not well with the clubThis was the kind of moment you didn’t want to miss and on the corner of Avenida Albufera and Payaso Fofó street, down in the People’s Republic of Vallecas, the opening bars of the Final Countdown boomed out. Inside, in the front row of seats on the eastern side of the ground where Colombian flags joined tricolours and the smoke smells sickly sweet, the fan in the tiger onesie roared and sang along. Around him, they did the same. Or just laughed. There were 3,280 people, plus a dozen or so gathered in the tower blocks overlooking the wall...
A frantic Russian roulette-style finale created madcap drama but the worst possible result for the relegation rivalsWith time and hope slipping away, the game changed. “There was nothing else for it,” said the Rayo Vallecano coach Paco Jémez, “so you go: ‘come on then, let’s play Russian roulette. See if we get lucky.’” A few metres to his right, standing by the bench beneath a blackening sky, Huesca manager Francisco Rodríguez had pretty much the same idea and so did the twenty-two desperate men before them, plus the 10,542 people watching from the stands, chests tightening. “The league was leaving us,” the Huesca manager admitted and they weren’t alone: the league was leaving them both, which is why they ran...
Barcelona finally shrugged off the ghost of Butarque but Atlético and Real had their own battles as La Liga’s threads all came together in Madrid“The Ghost of Butarque: that’s a good name for a novel,” Ernesto Valverde said. It was coming up to midnight three days after Halloween and, Barcelona’s manager admitted, “everywhere we turned the Ghost of Butarque appeared.” His team were back in Madrid for the first time since September, the final leg of a Grand Day Out in the capital – Leganés v Atlético at 1pm, Real Madrid v Valladolid at 4.15pm, Rayo v Barcelona at 8.45pm – and it was happening again: the same feelings, the same fears. Back then, Barcelona lost at bottom-placed Leganés, their...
Anelka’s arrival as a consultant at the Dutch club Roda has sparked controversy at a time when players in Spain and Germany have left clubs because of perceived political beliefsThe ears of the club official sharpened when, unusually, the talk near the back of the plane turned to politics. A Premier League team were flying to the south coast and a senior midfielder had begun discussing Britain’s vexed relationship with Europe when a young player behind him inquired: “What’s the EU?”Cue considerable hilarity, along with a vague sense of relief on the official’s part that football remained a largely current affairs-free zone, somehow sealed off from the wider geo-political issues of the day. Related: Dejan Lovren: ‘I know what refugees...