LaLiga 2 (La Liga Smartbank)

Messi983

Senior Member
Segunda should again be interesting this season with many teams having good chances for promotion.

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Girona: They've sold Pedro Porro and Portu but have renewed Stuani's contract, signed Jonathan Soriano and brought Pablo Maffeo who has already played well for them in the past on loan. On paper they have the best team in the league and are favourites for a fast return back to La Liga.

Rayo Vallecano: Paco Jemez will try to promote Rayo back to La Liga. Alex Moreno was sold to Betis but Antonio Luna should replace him well. 19 yo forward Andres Martin is one of the names to keep an eye on this season.

Huesca: They haven't spend much money even after cashing on Enric Gallego who left for Getafe after only being signed midseason from Segunda Division. Veteran midfielder Mikel Rico has signed on a free transfer and Huesca also brought some interesting players on loan, including former La Masia product Sergio Gomez from Dortmund and Cristo Gonzalez who has scored 20 goals in Segunda B last season for RM Castilla.

Deportivo La Coruna: Very active on the last day of the transfer window when they've bought two promising youngsters (CB Francisco Montero, LW Victor Mollejo) from Atletico on loan. Other new signings who should have an important role this season are Gaku Shibasaki and Ager Aketxe.

Real Zaragoza: There were not many changes in the team so this should work in their favour. Pep Biel who had a good second half of the last season after Victor Fernandez took over as a manager was sold but will be replaced by Shinji Kagawa who is probably the most interesting signing any Segunda team made this summer. Zaragoza will also be happy to get back on loan Alberto Soro who was bought by Real Madrid.

Las Palmas:: Jonathan Viera is returning on loan from his Chinese club until December. Mauricio Lemos is returning after unsuccessful loan at Sassuolo to improve defense. Even with Sergio Araujo and Tomas Pekhart around they will probably still be mostly depending on goals from 38 yo Ruben Castro. Many Barça fans will also follow 16 year old Pedri who Barça bought on the last day of transfer window and loaned him back to Las Palmas.

Almeria: Probably the most talked about Segunda team over the last month and for a good reason. Since Turki Al-Sheikh bought the club last month they've spend almost as much money on signing talented young players as the rest of the league together. 18 yo winger Arvin Appiah (9M) and 20 yo striker Darwin Nunez (4M) were the most expensive signings but they also got Ante Coric on loan from Roma. Time will tell if/how their project will work but it's an interesting one for sure.

Sporting Gijon: They've sold backup GK Dani Martin to Betis for 5M and used this money very well to bring back former Sporting academy player Manu Garcia from Man City. 21 yo attacking midfielder should be a key player and a good replacement for Moi Gomez who has returned to Villarreal. Veteran midfielder Javi Fuego is also back at El Molinon after more than a decade.

Malaga: Not a very good transfer window for Malaga after non-promotion which pushed them to sell important players like Federico Ricca and Javi Ontiveros. They've signed Shinji Okazaki but had to release him before he played his first official game because they couldn't register him. A name to follow could be Lorenzo Gonzalez, a young forward brought on loan from Man City in last hours of transfer window.

Cadiz: One of the most consistent Segunda division teams since Alvaro Cervera took over in April 2016 and got them promoted from Segunda B. They were already in La Liga promotion play-offs a year later and finished 9th and 7th in last two seasons. This year could be tougher with both of the top scorers (Manu Vallejo, Darwin Machis) from last season gone but Cadiz have started the season well as they are (alongside a surprising Fuenlabrada who are playing in Segunda for the first time in their history) the only team with 9 points from 3 games.


Surprises are always possible (like Mallorca last year) but I think we'll most likely find three promoted clubs among these 10 teams.
 

El Gato

Villarato!
Real Zaragoza: There were not many changes in the team so this should work in their favour. Pep Biel who had a good second half of the last season after Victor Fernandez took over as a manager was sold but will be replaced by Shinji Kagawa who is probably the most interesting signing any Segunda team made this summer. Zaragoza will also be happy to get back on loan Alberto Soro who was bought by Real Madrid.

Kagawa is the most bizarre signing of any team in Europe.

It'd be nice if Oviedo pulled their finger out and finally made it back along with Zaragoza. They bottled it so late in the season last time with a random draw against Cadiz(?).
 

Messi983

Senior Member
Kagawa is the most bizarre signing of any team in Europe.

Yeah, probably.

BTW, Quique Setien and Aitor Karanka spend a few days with a new Almeria owner Turki Al-Sheikh and gave him some football lessons.

[tw]1170396706602663938[/tw]
 

Leo_Messi

New member
Great to see Real Zaragoza having a great start to the league campaign for once. Great club with a great passionate fanbase and a great city as well. Would prefer (100 times over) to have Real Zaragoza representing Aragón rather than Huesca with all due respect to the latter.

Now with another of my favorites (RCD Mallorca) back in the first league, I want Real Zaragoza to follow suit. A club of their size and fanbase simply belong in La Liga. Similar to when Betis was wasting time in the Segunda División not too long ago.

Dépor should follow suit with either Real Oviedo or Racing de Santander taking the third sport.

Hell, even the new project (Almería) could be very interesting to see in La Liga now that the Málaga project failed. The league could do with another "Málaga" like team that could challenge the status quo and create some buzz transfer wise for the league as well as add to the financial strength of it. Almost unfair for the likes of RCD Mallorca to compete with their English counterparts economically. For the time being at least.
 
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Messi983

Senior Member
Very interesting start of the season in Segunda. Cadiz already 8 points clear at the top with a former Barça B forward Choco Lozano on fire lately with 3 goals in the last 4 games. Fuenlabrada surprising 2nd followed closely by Almeria, Zaragoza, Huesca and Las Palmas who are all expected to be in a promotion race. What probably nobody expected was to see Malaga and Deportivo at the bottom but a lot will change with 31 rounds still to play.

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Tonight Cadiz is playing at home against Las Palmas. Will try to catch a game even though Pedri won't play because he's preparing for the U17 WC.

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khaled_a_d

Senior Member
Turki (Almeria's owner) has done some good job marketing them.
He offers a prize of luxurious car for accurate prediction of the game, but only in case Almeria won. Those with accurate prediction will go for a lottery and he will pick one.
He is doing such thing in every region, and not just world wide or Arab world. This has gained them a huge followers and propaganda.
That being said, many found that the winners here always had some ties with his organisations in Egypt :lol:
 

Messi983

Senior Member
[MENTION=20930]Messi983[/MENTION] Your knowledge of Spanish football is outstanding.

Tnx. I try to keep up the best I can with La Liga (it's the only league I follow closely) and watch most games when I have time or at least highlights.

Don't watch Segunda as much when Barça B is not playing there but still follow results and news (especially regarding transfers) about teams in the division regularly.
 

Messi983

Senior Member
Almeria fired their coach and hired Guti.
They are 2nd in Liga 2. :lol:

True, but that was mostly due to their great start (16 points from the first 6 games). Then they've only got 8 points from the last 8 games with just one win and 5 draws. It's also possible that Turki didn't like limited playing time his most expensive signings (Appiah, Nunez) had under former coach Pedro Emanuel. Don't know if Guti is the right choice but will be interesting to see how he'll do.

Cadiz still 9 points clear at the top of the table after 15 Rounds.

At the bottom we still have Deportivo. Not even a coaching change doesn't seem to help them much. They've won their opening game of the season and are winless since then in last 14 games.

Las Palmas is having a "Pedridependencia" with 3 losses and a draw since he was away at the U17 WC. Luckily for them Pedri is returning and is expected to play on Sunday against Mirandes.
 

Messi983

Senior Member
Christian Bragarnik and his investment group Score Club 2019 have bought 70% shares of Elche for 22M€. Bragarnik is the most known Argentinian football agent who represents over 100 players (the most famous of them is Dario Benedetto) and 20 coaches including Maradona. There were already rumours a few days ago that Maradona might become the next coach of Elche.

Don't know how RFEF/LFP and UEFA/FIFA can allow this kind of takeovers. They are all corrupt but I wonder what could go wrong with a football agent owning a club.
 

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