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Supporting a smaller club. And the unusual relationship with transfer fees (27th July, 2017)

I didn't write anything for today. Unfortunately, that's what happens when life gets in the way.

I'm linking a Twitter TL that I wrote yesterday, talking about supporting a smaller club. You can read the original thread by clicking on the tweet below - it's more pertinent to fans of big clubs.



Otherwise, I've edited it below to remove the "come at me" style of writing - Twitter, essentially :D...

Supporting a smaller team helps you appreciate every player who stays for more than a year, every signing made, every youth player who aspires to be in the first team, every contract renewal, every goal, every point, every new manager - everything.

Even one season players are revered years after they have left. And the players feel that - for example one-season striker Larrivey has scored goal after goal against Rayo for Celta and never celebrated even once. The likes of Saúl Ñíguez, Yoel, Bebé and national team coach Julen Lopetegui have sat in the stands among other fans and supported the team too during this difficult season.

Think about that. An Atlético Madrid star, two Eibar players - all three of whom only played on loan at Rayo for a season - and a national football coach, all came down to a humble stadium to support the fans that once cheered for them.

This season, the only signings that have been made are Trejo and Cerro, and Alberto García on loan. Ebert, who for us is more that what Neymar has and will ever be for Barcelona, has finished his contract and is free to join any club he wants. So is Miku. And Manucho. It's an option that many have already taken; Baena and Quini and Dovale and Nacho and Jordi Gómez have already left.

But even in that, I do not despair. Because it's rinse and repeat. It's every single summer we've ever had. In that environment, Dorado renewing his contract is more than a signing - it's a small sigh of relief mixed with appreciation.

I find it absurd when people make transfer predictions. "This club would do well to sign this player because my zero technical experience and knowledge is important". Like players are vegetables in a supermarket and somehow one can choose whatever one fancies. Or maybe I'm envious that these people have that choice - we don't. We appreciate whatever little we get, whichever unappreciated journeyman or unproven, inexperienced, loaned out youngster arrives.

And if we get relegated then so be it. That's the reality. Every point and every goal is a step further from relegation.

So here's what I say if you support a club big enough that it can dole out transfer fees*: complain a little less, and try and look at the positives a little more.

*Yes - transfer fees. Haven't seen those for a long time.

Since 2015, actually, when we bought Juan Carlos by activating his 100,000 euro release clause. In January 2016, Aras Özbiliz cost us a 300,000 euro loan fee. A season before that, Johan Mojica's 500,000 euro move three seasons ago, in 2014, was thought of as unusual - so used to free transfers we were! (Then in January 2015 Lass was loaned out for 350,000 euros to Granada, and everything was normal again).

Before that, the only deal that involved a transfer fee was Pedro Botelho's 340,000 euros loan fee in 2011. And before that? Our record signing, Elvir Bolić, costing 2 million euros. In 2000.

We signed just five players in the last 17 years who have commanded transfer fees. And two of those were loan fees. In fact, Rayo have only bought two other players in their history. Horacio Andrés Ameli in the summer of 1996 for 400,000 euros. And Guilherme, in January 1996, for 1.2 million euros. 

And I've just realized that I wrote something...




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