The Pride of Vallekas

Imagine a website that focused on sports medicine and Spanish football. If you can't, you don't have to...it's injuriesandmore.com , started by Twitter's @Vam_os - go ahead and follow him! A Cádiz fan, he talks about the various aspects of the club. So many, in fact, that this is a multi-part series! So welcome to The Cádiz Chronicles. Here, in part 1, he talks about Cádiz in general and the performance in the transfer windows... On Cádiz... Cádiz are one of a number of clubs whose fortunes I follow, based on a strong connection to the area. I've worked in Sports Medicine for many years, both in football and in other sports so my viewpoint on injury and fitness matters at club level tends to be a little bit different in terms of writing. As a result I can identify with the way in which players, managers and coaches think - so I can look at the game from another angle. The last couple of seasons have seen some exciting times for Cádiz. From just missin...

Given that now Baena has also signed for Granada - that's three Rayo players to the club in two years - you can excuse the frustration that I feel. And it may not even be the end - Manucho, Ebert, Nacho, Dorado, Dovale and Miku, among others I'm surely forgetting, are all free to sign for other clubs.  Granada have taken legends from Rayo - Juan José Collantes, Piti, Tito, and now Baena too. And what makes it even more painful is that it's so simple. Money talks. TL;DR: I hate Granada. He was just one of three players to stay with the club from 2004 all the way till 2008, when Rayo jumped out of the well and into the Segunda. The name? Juan José Collantes, who joined Rayo midway through the 2004-05 season also at the age of 21 after roaming around in Villareal (Juvenil), CD Onda, Palamos CF, and Racing de Santander B. A right winger, he would score 12 goals in the 2007-08 Segunda B, and along with Sergio Pachón (16 goals), Míchel (10 goals) and Piti (7 goals) g...

The fight isn't on the pitch. Carlos Aranda is known for his work ethic and his sheer determination. But that fight, that desire, that temperamental figure on the pitch is a result of the saddening circumstances off it. Carlos was born in Málaga, Andalusia. His father abandoned him when he was little, and at the age of nine, his mother - a drug addict - died of cancer. Raised by his grandparents, his training at local club El Palo was overshadowed by the training of an early adulthood - he would fish octopuses to sell to restaurants in Málaga. It was Vicente del Bosque who discovered the young forward at El Palo, and took him to Madrid - but he didn't fit in. The glamour didn't suit him, and he even tried fleeing the club - Real Madrid had to assign him a private tutor. "Mischievous", Vicente called him, many years later. Somehow, despite all the odds, he graduated but never played in La Liga; however, he played a small part in two UEFA Champions League-...

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...

A player who we all love at the club. Fran has more maturity than his age says -Paco Jémez, in 2015 I was wrong. Fran Beltrán has been linked with Barcelona many times. His talent is unquestionable and his desire to make it at Rayo undeniable. But his desire to stay at Rayo was always in doubt. Despite signing a new contract that kept him at the club till 2020, a eight million euro release clause seemed like the board were looking to make a quick buck. It's important to know his history - at the tender age of 16, Fran made his Rayo B debut against CD San Fernando in December 2015. A tireless midfielder with excellent technique and ball-winning capabilities, he has also been called up for the U-17 Spanish national football team, and regularly plays for the first team. But in an interview with Marca this week, Fran said this: "I  was clear that if another team came, Madrid or Barça, I wanted to stay here. I can not think of a better place than Rayo" Obvio...

Follow Jonathan Mullin on Twitter here . There is a new Racing UK Supporters club! Follow them on Twitter here . On that note, follow the official club Twitter account here . How long have you been a fan of Racing Santander and what made you support them in the first place? I've followed Racing since I was young, the first game I went to was in 1993 so I'd have been 9 years old and ten years later, by chance, I found myself in Santander for a year as part of my degree so I think it was just meant to be. Given the transfer windows and the squad that was assembled at the start of the season, is Racing Santander where you want it to be? It is important that Racing get promoted this year, given all of the well documented financial and ownership problems the club has had over the last seven years or so it is nice to at least have some stability back but Racing is a club that belongs in Primera. It will be a long road back there but promotion this season would certainly be...

When did you make the decision to pursue football and what motivated you to do so? I never thought I would have been good enough to become a professional player. In fact, from 19 to 20 years old, I played for a team called “Caprabo” (neigbourhood supermarket) 7 divisons below La Liga. Two years later, when I was 22 I played for Barça, I played two "El Clasico” games against Real Madrid in front of 100.000 people in the stadium and 400.000.000 live in TV. We also won La Liga,…. as much as I remember it I still feel it wasn’t real. I mean, I was focused on my Physical trainer Degree, when some Tercera teams (similar to League two) paid attention on me. From there everything went so fast, intense and quite crazy. How did it feel like making your debut with Figueres? That was so nice. I’m from Figueres, I always lived there and it's where I live now. That was a kind of little dream made true, In addition I had a very good season which allowed me to sign for FC Barcelona...

I've been compiling some stats for a long time - so watch out in the coming days for them This season, every team in the Segunda has won at least one game away from home. In light of that, I compiled of teams that never won away in the top three divisions since 1990. There's the team that survived on goals scored, after head-to-head and goal difference were futile (Marino de Luanco). There's the team that is called Andorra, and won no away games in the 1997-98 Segunda B in Group 3, and plays in Andorra la Vella, Andorra, which is different from the team called Andorra, which won no away games two years earlier in the same group, which plays in Andorra, Teruel, Aragon. There's the team that didn't even pick up a single point away from home (Cieza). There's the team that survived relegation by one point and then survived the two-legged relegation playoff by penalties (Cádiz). And then there's Sevilla, who, inexplicably, defied all the odds and won the E...