Football Season Guide

Real Valladolid were the only club to achieve a bounce-back promotion last season. So, compared to the other promoted sides Almeria and Girona, they have the advantage of having been in Spain’s top tier much more recently. What was interesting about Real Valladolid’s transfer strategy last year was that they loaned a lot of their top players to first-division clubs, since they couldn’t afford the wages. But, now that they’ve won promotion, they still own the rights to all these first-division level players, such as Lucas Olaza, Fede San Emeterio or Sergi Guardiola. Plus, they’ve spent a lot of their summer budget on keeping the players who they themselves loaned in last year and who impressed, like Gonzalo Plata, Monchu or Ivan Sanchez. So, this is a strong squad and it’s also a group of players who have mostly played for Real Valladolid in the recent past, so they already know the club. Pacheta is the coach and has only coached 35 games in Spain’s top tier in his career, across two different stints. So, the lack of experience at that level is a slight concern. But, this is a good squad and it is led by Shon Weissman, whose 20 goals last term helped Real Valladolid lead the second tier’s scoring charts, with 71 goals from 42 games.