The Pride of Vallekas

Alcorcón is one of Rayo's most underrated shop windows - and the players who've signed for Rayo aren't highly heralded but quietly significant. So here it is - a run down of players who've signed for Rayo from Alcorcón. Carlos de la Vega is one of them. After emerging through Rayo Vallecano's youth system, the right-back went on to play with amateur sides Alcalá and Alcorcón, also from his hometown of Madrid, until well into his 20's. He did not have his first taste of full professional football until the 2008-09 season (he had only played one match with Rayo's first team in 2002-03's La Liga, two minutes) when, after returning to Rayo in the previous year, he was fairly used as the club easily retained its Segunda status. In late December 2009, de la Vega was loaned to another side in the second level, Huesca, until the end of the season. In July 2012, after more than one year out of football, the 32-year-old signed for two seasons with Leganés ...

Rayo Vallecano vs Albacete. Starting lineups Míchel made one change, and it was in defense - Abdoulaye Ba came in for Baiano, with Emiliano Velázquez shifting over to the right side. Enrique Martín made several rotations in his 3-4-2-1 formation compared to the 0-0 draw against Huesca. At left wing-back, Mariano Bíttolo was replaced by David Morillas. In central midfield César de la Hoz was replaced by Rafa Gálvez. And in attack Fabián Espíndola and Roman Zozulya were replaced by Dani Rodríguez and Jérémie Bela respectively. Albacete ceded possession this game as they have all season, clocking just 29%. Rayo had more chances but Albacete certainly had the better chances. First half setups It was clear that Míchel's change to a back three was an attempt to neutralize Albacete's front three. In practice, however, Velázquez's role also included covering for Abdoulaye Ba who routinely stepped out of the back three to cut out passes or apply pressure on players. In t...

My new series, called the Silly Season Accumulator, lists all the rumors that have ever been mentioned on the internet about Rayo. Yes - all of them. Just to show you how ridiculous this machine is - a machine that creates meaningless content masquerading as journalism. If that's harsh, that's because the irony is that more rumors gives me more material. And that material gets in the way of the stories that matter. Here's all the rumors between now and last time: Néstor Susaeta has been linked with a move to Rayo. His contract expired with Real Oviedo. Edit: Albacete have signed him. Girona are interested in both Johan Mojica and Álex Moreno, and have offered 2 million euros for the latter player. José Carlos has been linked with a move to Rayo from Real Betis. Edit: Lorca FC have signed him on loan for a season Rayo are interested in Eibar right-back Jordi Calavera, who was on loan at Lugo last season. And here's all the rumors since last time (30th July...

John Mothershaw is a Real Oviedo fan. He writes his own blog about the club, called OviedoFans.blogspot.co.uk , He mainly does Real Oviedo match reports on there. His work also goes on the oviedistanorthwest.com  site set up by Andy Huskinson. They have regular meet ups where a few of them get together for beer, food & Oviedo/football chat. Finally, follow him on Twitter here . A bit about yourself and your background I'm a Stoke City season ticket holder & have been following Real Oviedo since November 2012. I've made 7 trips to Oviedo to watch them play now & enjoy writing about them & have done various podcasts on them How long have you been a fan of Real Oviedo and what made you support them in the first place? Since November 2012, the club were in desperate trouble and I spotted a tweet from Sid Lowe asking for people to buy shares to help keep them afloat. The thought of any club going bust is grim. How could I resist? Given the transfer win...

Four. There were four ex-Rayistas in the Oviedo squad. Néstor Susaeta, who oversaw Rayo's return to La Liga after eight years; David Fernández, Vallekas born-and-bred, who became a legend with Real Oviedo by guiding them to the Segunda, and did the same with Guadalajara for the first time in their history; Michu, who was La Liga's highest scoring midfielder and would later on become the bargain of the Premier League, costing Swansea £2 million; and Jonathan Pereira, who scored the goal to secure Villarreal's swift return to La Liga. All four of them played against Rayo yesterday. And none of them turned up. Rayo Vallecano played against a team and won convincingly - a sentence that has not been said for a long, long time. The pairing of Trashorras and Fran Beltrán was a revelation. Fran was hustling and bustling while Trashorras kept the game ticking. Lass terrorized the right flank, while Álex Moreno terrorized the left. Embarba kept popping into space, and Javi G...