The Pride of Vallekas

He warned us. In the summer of 1999, Nicolas Anelka transferred to Real Madrid for a £22.3 million transfer fee from Arsenal. He became the most expensive player in the history of Spanish football, signing a monstrous £35,000 a week contract. He called it "an insult to society". Javier Clemente, the former Spain national team manager, blasted the move. "To throw seven billion pesetas out of the window when you could do so many other things... With that much money I could feed all the hungry people in Madrid." Anelka failed to score for Real Madrid in his first five months at the club, was suspended by the club president in March 2000, and was promptly sold to PSG for the eerily similar fee of £22 million. That's the same PSG who sold Anelka to Arsenal for half a million pounds. The transfer market was blown open. There is something sad about the transfer fees being brandied about today - simply because people don't realize who is really paying, an...

Jordi Agusti, 34, is the Chief Operations Officer of a shop displays company. You can follow him on Twitter: @Totocompos He also recommends the Twitter account of Penya Jandrista - @losjandristas - as a great place to follow the club's day to day workings. How long have you been a fan of Girona and what made you support them in the first place? I've been a Girona fan since I was about 10 years ago, I started to support Girona because it is the team of our province and at that moment the team was playing in the Segunda B with the possibility to go to the 2nd division. Also in that moment it was one of my friends playing in the team (Albert Dorca, now playing at Alcorcón) Describe your first experience of watching Girona play? I don't remember the first experience but I remember the first season Girona played in the 2nd division because they played against some first division teams I used to watch on TV (Zaragoza, Rayo, Tenerife, Real Sociedad, Celta) and at that ...

It was the 31st of July, 2015, and Elche fans were outside the stadium. The season was long over but not for these fans. They had fireworks in their hand, but with every passing minute it looked like they would be unused. Elche had come 13th but for the first time in their 92-year history - in fact for the first time for any club in La Liga history - had been relegated for non-sporting reasons. The team was relegated for not paying their debts on time. So what were the fans waiting for? Elche had until midnight to pay €4 million, otherwise they would be relegated to the Segunda B - Spain’s amateur, third tier where automatic promotion doesn’t exist, money is scarce and newly-relegated clubs can go out of business. If Elche were to be gone, they would be gone forever. Many players tore their contracts and left the club, in effect waiving the unpaid wages Elche owed them. Some players delayed their payments. Fans were urged to buy season tickets and shirts and sponsors were desp...

Darren Smith appears on The Week In Football show every 3 weeks reporting on the 2nd division and Girona in particular. Been doing that for 3 seasons and after reporting on 2 play-off failures is hoping for better news this time! You can check it out here . You can also follow him on Twitter here . How long have you been a fan of Girona and what made you support them in the first place? I'm Darren Smith, 49, and a lifelong season ticket holder at Sheffield United, visiting 70+ grounds. 8 years ago I moved to Girona and started watching them as I was missing my fix on a weekend. This coincided with Girona having the best team in their history. Have made the play-offs in 3 of the last 4 seasons despite, until this season, having a bottom 4 budget. New owners came in last season and use Pere Guardiola as a consultant. This has opened up a very useful link with Man City where we loan players from them and used their facilities in the summer. Given the transfer windows and the ...

Paco Polit has been a sports journalist for 10+ years, and has worked for a number of media outlets (written press, online media, radio and TV) both in Spanish and English. He mainly writes about Valencia and Levante. You can read his work here . You can follow him on Twitter here , or on his English handle here .  How long have you been a fan of Valencia and what made you support them in the first place? I've been a season-pass holder since I was twelve, so that's almost two decades of attending Mestalla regularly. I must also say that the same can be said about Levante. I consider myself a proud supporter of both teams: double the excitement, no bad blood between them. Given the transfer windows and the squad that was assembled at the start of the season, is Valencia where you want it to be? Obviously not. Valencia CF should be much higher up the standings, fighting for a spot in Europe. The season is a disappointment, no matter how it ends for the club. Of the ...

Joseph Sexton is a Spanish football writer and is a staff writer for Marca. You can follow him on Twitter here . Also, I would highly recommend his piece on Iago Aspas, you can read it here . How long have you been a fan of Celta Vigo and what made you support them in the first place? About six years now I guess, back when they were stuck in the second division. I didn't have a strong tie to any particular club at the time, and I started going out with a girl from my Vigo. On my first visit there, I went to a game at Balaídos, and the rest - as they say - is history! Given the transfer windows and the squad that was assembled at the start of the season, is Celta Vigo where you want it to be? I think so. It was always going to be challenge being in Europe, we had a short squad before the summer and Celta fans can remember all too well about 2004 when they reached the last 16 of the Champions League but also got relegated (Berizzo was playing for the team then). So mid-tab...