It was, despite official denials, the letter to which Espanyol clung to renew in depth and improve your workforce. And also the fiery wish of the protagonist of this soap opera that, after an insane summer, he has experienced an outcome to match of the events that have been happening in the previous three months, with the Vallecano Ray as a star actor in the final episode. Raúl de Tomás stays at Espanyol, against his will and that of the club. And with a most grotesque ending. And with Joselu Mato, the recently signed Martin Braithwaite and Dani Gómez, even Javi Puado, ahead on the list of ‘nine’.
The transfer, which was negotiated with various offers and counteroffers throughout the final day, it was formally agreed a few minutes to midnight, but the documentation did not reach LaLiga in time to register it. The franjirrojos first tried the formula of a transfer and when this option did not bear fruit, they raised their offer —improving the initial ten million to €13M— for 50% of the player’s rights. The figures that Espanyol had demanded from the start. There was an agreement, no signing. The Vallecanos, for their part, are left without a ‘nine’ that they still need and are forced to play the free agent card. Diego Costa is unemployed…
At least until the winter market, Diego Martínez will have to deal with his fit in the locker room and in the teamwhile RdT will have to reconsider if it still has any option to go to the World Cup. Not in vain, and as a consolation, if the Madrilenian has achieved absolute internationality, it has been during his career at Espanyol in the last two and a half years, in which he has scored 45 goals in 89 matches and it has been determining factor in achieving a brilliant return to Primera and a subsequent calm permanence. And in which she has starred, as in her entire career, episodes of various kinds.
His final stretch of the 2021-22 season was a harbinger of the turmoil to come. First, a bite on social networks with some fans. Afterward, your public confrontation with Vicente Morenohis great defender in front of the locker roomat the Bernabeu. And, finally, a yellow card on the penultimate day, against Valencia, which by accumulation left him out of the League final in Granada and which, in the end, meant his last game to date at Espanyol.
Already then the divorce it was palpable. Espanyol had decided that his sale had to be the big key to face a market of deep renovation, and thus he transferred it to Diego Martínez, while his environment began to seek his destiny. A separation that worsened the first meeting between the striker and the new coachon July 14, which, far from smoothing things over or accepting the respective positions, ended up generating a unbridgeable distance.
Hereafter, De Tomás would never train with the bulk of the squad again, except for 20 minutes in the session on August 9, when he was supposed to have acquired enough rhythm to keep up with his teammates but new discomfort arose. And so, until the last market day.
Meanwhile, player and Espanyol defoliated the daisy of offers that never came, and that his environment was sliding at convenience. From the Bayern Munichwho had just transferred Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona and immediately signed Mathys Tel as a substitute, at a real Madrid which De Tomás really wanted to wait for but did not get to apply. Going by Fulham, Chelsea, Aston Villa, a Sevilla that this Thursday denied him and endless rumors related to the Premier League, the championship that best dominates the striker’s representation agency, which never prospered.
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And at the same time, the speech of a Espanyol that at the beginning of the summer, in the words of Mao Ye and Domingo CatoiraCEO and sports director respectively, he limited himself time and time again to referring to his termination clause of 70 million of euros. That from inside doors it was changing to intermediaries or clubs that simply asked without going further.
By 40 million would have come out at the beginning of July, for around 30 A sale would have been accepted as his preseason situation unraveled. And by just over 25 It would have been studied in these last weeks. But An offer never came, neither for one of those amounts nor for any other. Until the appearance of a Vallecano Ray that did nothing but stage in a few hours the chaos of an entire summer. The soccer autumn will bring a greater fire or, as it would be convenient, a reconciliation that ultimately interests all parties.
