The Pride of Vallekas

Juan Vicente Peinado, the Rayo B coach, announced that he would not continue with the club. Hours later, fellow Madrid and Tercera club CD Móstoles URJC announced him as their new head coach. This season, Rayo B were three points away. Three points away from the relegation zone. Three points away from demotion to the fifth tier - the regional leagues - which they haven't played in since the 1987-88 season. Three points away from playing the B teams of some fourth tier clubs - the clubs Rayo B was playing this season. At one point, it wasn't even a contest. There was a time when Rayo were releasing "inspirational" videos for their B team. Even on the final day, Rayo B were far from safe. 18th place Alcobendas were on 44 points, 17th place Trival Valderas were on 46 points, joint with 16th place and Rayo B. Thankfully, Rayo B's dismal 1-1 draw against Atlético Pinto didn't matter - Atlético Madrid's B team easily saw off Alcobendas 3-0. And b...

While Rayo has a strong youth academy that produces some top quality, La Liga-caliber players, it is also a club where many managers start, and in most cases boost, their careers. Here's a list of those managers and how their careers have progressed since then: Míchel (José Miguel González Martín del Campo) After a long and successful career at Real Madrid, being part of the legendary Quinta del Buitre and a season at Celaya in Mexico, he retired in 1997 and took charge of Rayo for the 2005-06 Segunda B season - it was the only season out of the four spent in the Segunda B that Rayo didn't even qualify for the playoffs. He would go on to take charge of Real Madrid B as a coach while also being director of Real Madrid's sports city, the entire youth system. He would coach his son, Adrián, but get relegated to the Segunda B in 2007 and left. His career went upwards from there - in 2009 he took over at Getafe for two seasons, beating the drop both times (he would coa...

Going from having one manager for four seasons to having three just this season, I thought, to feel good amidst the institutional chaos to detail the times Rayo have had more than three managers at the helm. The first was in the 1995-96 season, when Rayo Vallecano were promoted to the top flight in 1995. This was the season they were jokingly called "Rayo gaditano", as four of Rayo's players (and starters) were from Cádiz: Jose González, Calderón, Barla and Cortijo. Additionally, the interim coach between Zabalza and Marcos Alonso on matchday 8, Francisco Baena, was from there too. Zabalza had taken over at the start of the season, but was sacked after just seven games - having picked up just one win (3-2 at home against Valencia), and with Rayo at the foot of the table. Baena's game in charge was a 2-2 draw at Tenerife. But it was Marcos Alonso (aka Marcos), the father of current Chelsea left-back Marcos Alonso, who steered the ship. In his first ever manageri...

And yet again, this is one of those days. I wrote a history article - on a blog whose name is We Ain't Got No History. The blog post was about Marcos Alonso and his family of footballers. You may recall, Marcos Alonso's father was a manager of Rayo, and coached them to a historic 1-2 victory at the Santiago Bernabéu. Read it here .