Football Season Guide

Espanyol achieved a bounce back promotion in 2020/21, winning Spain’s second division with one of the best squads ever assembled for that level. They did so with a new coach, with Vicente Moreno doing a good job in managing the team. Having achieved promotion with a squad that was already first-division calibre, Espanyol’s priority this summer has been to keep that squad together. They have worked to renew players and to sign those they had on loan to permanent deals. That’s why there have been hardly any ins or outs in the transfer market so far, with the only real arrival being experienced centre-back Sergi Gomez, who joins from Sevilla. They are a well-balanced team and they have an excellent striker in Raúl de Tomas, who scored 23 goals last season to finish as the second division’s top scorer. With him leading the line, Espanyol have a player who will terrify opposition defences. In relative terms, compared to other promoted teams of the past few years, this is a really solid squad and they don’t have many weaknesses. The one concern they’ll have might be with the coaching, as Vicente Moreno has only had one season coaching at this level and he was relegated in that season, back when he was coach of RCD Mallorca. He’ll hope he now has more experience and that he can keep Espanyol up.