The argument to demonstrate the indisputable Catalanness of Espanyol

2023-10-13 17:50:46

Barcelona I never get tired of reminding myself: out of obligation and out of conviction, Espanyol must be a youth club. By obligation, because, beyond the surpluses of a Chinese businessman, he has no economic or financial support that allows him to compete with the clubs with which – in a normalized situation – he should compete. Out of conviction, because this is the only story shared by all parakeets and the only one that can make us grow. The best way to make the club’s indisputable Catalanness tangible is for the bulk of its players to be from the youth team. Faced with rhetorical Catalanism, de facto Catalanism. To help, take care and pamper the clubs of the country as a whole and the grassroots football players without putting big numbers on the table or with the arrogance of the one who thinks he is the master of everything.

And when I talk about youth players, I mean those who have spent a minimum of seasons there, not footballers signed as professionals who play a few games in the subsidiary to finish off the heat. The solitaire traps are already made by others.

However, for this model to work, all aspects of the club – including the fans – must improve. Something is going wrong when players with many years in Espanyol’s grassroots football leave because there is no agreement on contract renewal. Melendo (I’m still sorry), Pedrosa (never reached our hearts) and, soon, Nico Melamed (the second player who has the honor of wearing 21 since this number is a symbol). The club doesn’t value them enough, I guess. But during his formative years he has not sufficiently transmitted the desire to reach and consolidate himself in the first team. If they don’t want to stay in the club of their life, it means that someone has failed. But if they don’t value the club of their life enough, fair wind and new boat.

It is also not consistent for a youth club to sell Simo or Víctor Gómez. The size of capital gains cannot be the main criterion. And the fans also need to be consistent: we have to be more patient with the youth players. Both those of us who tend to idolize them (I’m kind of in love with them: Omar is starting to compete with Nico in my heart), and those who treat them as if they were millionaire signings (I must admit, however, that with Pol Lozano ‘is having an exemplary behavior that has not been had with Joan Garcia).

We want to win. Always. And now, we want to win to go up to Primera. But don’t let the (very important) emergencies make us forget the important thing (who we are and who we want to be): since it’s from the seed, let’s look at it with better eyes.