The Rayo Vallecano Chronicle
Squad23 Aug 2027
The knee: Alemão out for 72 days
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rayo Vallecano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market23 Aug 2027
Terms done: Agustín Chávez is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kifisia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rayo Vallecano is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Mauro Fernández: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rayo Vallecano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market23 Aug 2027
FC Annecy come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Rayo Vallecano did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Nobody could get near Nazareno Kihm
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Rayo Vallecano
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Door shut on Marc Casadó
Rayo Vallecano asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market23 Aug 2027
Rayo Vallecano promote Roberto López from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Roberto López has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market23 Aug 2027
Francisco Santana steps up from the Rayo Vallecano academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Francisco Santana has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
- Match Elche take the points off Rayo Vallecano
- Boardroom A promise the Rayo Vallecano board did not keep
- Squad Too much change too quickly at Rayo Vallecano