The Pride of Vallekas

Imanol Etxeberria, in 2002, moved to Rayo Vallecano, replacing the departed Kasey Keller. In his first season he became the regular goalkeeper over veteran Julen Lopetegui (also from Gipuzkoa) who retired at the end of that campaign. In 2002-03 he was the starter for most games but was challenged by Sergio Segura, and the club was relegated after four years in La Liga. Rayo suffered a second successive relegation in 2004 - in a chaotic campaign, Etxeberria played in eight matches at the beginning of the season under Lopetegui (in his first appointment as head coach) but was largely overlooked in favour of Segura by his successor Jorge D'Alessandro, who then brought in another goalkeeper, his compatriot Sebastián Saja, on loan. D'Alessandro was then replaced by Txetxu Rojo, who again had no place in his plans for Etxeberria - he was sent away from Rayo altogether and trained with Bilbao Athletic until the season's end. There would be four managerial spells. Julen Lo...

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...