While waiting for the decisions after Diego Martínez’s first week at Espanyol, there are impenetrable realities. One of them affects the midfield, which will have to undergo a practically total regeneration due to the fact that most of the players in this course were on loan or were ending their contract. An opportunity also for the coach to have profiles that best suit his way of playing.
Up to five players have left the entity. Manu Morlanes has returned to Villarreal after his loan expired. The same path, but bound for Manchester (City), has been undertaken by Yangel Herrera. Fran Mérida’s contract ends on June 30 and will not continue, while the renewal of Óscar Melendo continues, at least, stopped and without advances. must be added to David Lopezwhose contract also expires and who could be offered another year but this option is still under study.
With these casualties in hand, there are only two midfielders left who have been in Vicente Moreno’s squad this season. One of them is Keidi Bare, who was down in recent days due to a knee injury and who hopes to be in top condition when preseason starts. The second is Sergi Darder, whose contract ends in 2023 and who has started talks to renew his contract and be “the leader” that the technician needs, as he himself pronounced in a recent interview.
To both we must add Pol Lozano, who is immersed with Girona in the playoff for promotion to First Division (0-1 against Eibar in Montilivi this Thursday). A footballer who has grown this campaign, in which he has played 27 games and has achieved the continuity that he did not enjoy the previous year with Espanyol, also in LaLiga SmartBank. Pending his coupling in the preseason, the sports management will have duties this summer in this position.
In Diego Martínez’s precedents in other teams, he has always acted with three players in midfield, so he could at least need six specific players for those positions, which causes Espanyol to go on the market for two or three players. Diego Martínez, who has already recognized that he wants a brave team, attaches great importance to the pressure in the rival field, and in Granada he opted for players with a high physical level and with the ability to arriveso that may be the necessary profile to complement Bare, Darder and Lozano, Diego’s three musketeers today.