Manucho - the lion returns. With some Baltasar Gracián thrown in (8th September, 2017)

As the rest of the supporters do, I appreciate his effort and how he tries to fight every single ball, but he is really really bad.

-Daniel Kobe, on Manucho

The club has not announced it (edit: the club announced it at 9:23 am today), but Manucho certainly has - on his Instagram. The Angolan striker is almost certainly back at Rayo, for a fourth season.

Manucho: The lion "comes back home"

This is not necessarily a bad "signing" - Javi Guerra's start to the season hasn't been great, and Raúl de Tomás, for all his qualities, doesn't seem to last 90 minutes week in week out.

It's easy to be harsh on him, but he actually played quite well last season. He scored goals to kill off games, he kept defenders busy, and he gave Rayo an option in the air. And all that as a "super-sub".

For me, there was something quite symbolic about Manucho "leaving" Rayo this summer. He left everything behind for a trail in Manchester, and he faught - quite admirably - for so long to stay in Europe...if he really did have offers from Asian countries it would have marked the end of an era had he taken them - in the worst possible way.

I thought he still had a season left in him.

His name first emerged when Sir Alex Ferguson signed him in January 2008, after a three week trial.

For less than a million euros, Alex was getting, in his words, a "tall, agile, quick forward". However, the striker who should've competed with Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tévez, and Louis Saha, ended up not even getting a work permit.

After six months on loan at Panathinaikos, getting a work permit, getting just three games in the red shirt, and a loan stint at Hull City, it was clear that Manucho didn't belong.

Real Valladolid spent 3 million euros on the player in 2009. In an unforgettable press conference, Manucho promised 40 goals that season. And while he gave a 100% of promised effort, he scored a measly 10% of promised goals - the 2010-11 season was spent on loan at Turkish top flight clubs Bucaspor and Manisaspor, and the 2011-12 season was spent largely on the sidelines watching Valladolid go back up to La Liga.

The picture above reminds me of Baltasar Gracián: “At 20 a man is a peacock, at 30 a lion, at 40 a camel, at 50 a serpent, at 60 a dog, at 70 an ape, and at 80 nothing”. And, quite eerily, Manucho's breakout season was when he was 30 years old too. It was the 2012-13 season that showed what Manucho was capable of - he scored eight goals in just 1653 minutes of game time, and was Valladolid's second top-scorer.

Ever since then, the stats haven't shown something significant. He only scored three goals when Valladolid got relegated again in 2014, and has only scored 14 goals for Rayo in three seasons. He isn't quick by any means anymore, but he brings direct play, a powerful header and a central focal point to the attack.

He fights for every ball, he leads by example, he attacks the defense at their weakest.

The lion may have aged, but he has definitely come back home.

Non-league Incider: St Helens Town 3-0 Atherton Laburnum Rovers

Last game: 8th August: Dulwich Hamlet 2-1 East Thurrock United The previous day, I was blown away by my first ever football match experience. Dulwich Hamlet impressed me, but what impressed me more was the journey. The travel to the stadium was just as enjoyable as the football itself. I had caught the groundhopping bug. There were no games scheduled for the 9th of August. There was one, near Wigan, and all I had booked earlier was a refundable bus ticket from Manchester Airport leaving at quarter past midnight. I should have refunded it. This was a mistake. This whole day was a mistake. I was only slightly hungover from the previous night, but that was nothing compared to this feeling of loss - I couldn't handle the fact that there was a game happening. And I wasn't too far away. Just three hours and a bit. They'll fly by , I thought. I was in autopilot. Something within me made me get up, grab a bag, and get out the door. This wasn't me. I wasn't trave

Non-league Incider: Cray Valley Paper Mills 4-4 Punjab United Gravesend

Last game: 9th August: St Helens Town 3-0 Atherton Laburnum Rovers After ripping up my groundhopping calendar, mostly because I was determined to avoid overnight travel, and partly due to other commitments, there was a period of time where non-league football took a backseat. But that period did not last long. Because of course it didn't. Secretly, I'd loved travelling over ten hours back-and-forth to watch some 10th division football. And this was 9th division football in London. When I had gone to East Dulwich exactly a week back , I had commented on how the amount of graffiti struck me as I watched from on board a southeastern train. I was going the exact same way, but much further this time - then I had stopped at Denmark Hill, now I would have to go six stations further. The graffiti I had thought was so emblematic of south London quickly disappeared, as did the tall buildings desperately cluttered together. We, and by we I mean me, were going to the suburb

Who is Raúl Martín Presa, the Mickey Mouse? Part 1. (20th August, 2017)

José María Ruiz-Mateos was the head and main shareholder of Nueva Rumasa - the company that owned Rayo and other companies - mainly specializing in dairy products. (He wasn't the president of Rayo though - his wife, Teresa Rivero, was Rayo's president). In early 2011, the directors announced a debt of over 700 million euros, that it was on the verge of bankruptcy and that staff wouldn't be paid. And the players were visibly angry about it - captain Míchel assured the press that the club would continue fighting on the pitch, but the day after the announcement was made, six key players didn’t attend training. Veteran midfielder José María Movilla spoke on radio station SER about the situation, about the fact that he had only received seven of the last eighteen months of pay, about the fact that there were a few players who couldn't even afford car repairs. When Rayo Vallecano were about to earn promotion to La Liga despite all the odds - the players not being paid,

The Pride of Vallekas

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