Time to sign players, managers! Last shopping list.

Last but not least. Let’s not neglect this final football challenge where the most still have something to play for and the fewest glance sideways with false disdain. And we will say goodbye to the season by bidding farewell to some of the notable protagonists of our sleepless nights over the years, who have helped shape a sort of constellation of hardships and triumphs that now form the common imagination.

Today it’s not so much about recommendations as it is about farewells. And also, as well known by the experienced reader, farewells are often loaded with a good sack of points for their protagonists as a kind of severance paid by chroniclers who prove for once they have some heart.

Here we go with the chosen ones, grab paper, pen, and handkerchiefs if you are easily moved to tears.

10

Adrián San Miguel
320.000€    -

J1

PT

00

A grinder of football who reached a certain level of notoriety crossing the English Channel, but who returns home to quietly retire from the craft, with professionalism and from the solitude of the almost always ungrateful goalkeeper position. From Seville, they say this will be his last appearance and we don’t want him to be forgotten. All the best Adrián.

75

Azpilicueta
610.000€    5

J1

DF

10

Don’t say class, say Azpi. We lose a professional of the kind that are increasingly rare. When you had to put in the leg, he was always there, whether at top-tier clubs like Chelsea or fighting relegation with Sevilla. An example for everyone and more like him, please.

111

Alfonso Pedraza
1.120.000€    -

J1

DF

31

What a scoring machine leaves Villarreal. A pure total fantasy player. Raise your hand if you haven’t had a matchday blessed with a flood of points from his gallops that ended in goals and/or assists. Thank you Alfonso, we will follow you closely.

180

Griezmann
13.280.000€    6

J1

DL

47

One who crosses the pond and goes to make it in the Americas leaving an indelible mark. He tried to sit at a table that wasn’t his and Barcelona was too big for him, but he knew how to correct course in time and enter Olympus of the gods through the heaven’s door of the Metropolitano, where we greatly fear he will be missed. Best of luck, Yank.

164

Lewandowski
13.720.000€    17

J1

DL

214

Good heavens, the mess you caused, Robert. When everyone had buried Barcelona sportingly, socially, and legally, you showed up in Barcelona and turned everything around like a sock. An unforgettable legacy of pride, goals, and jerseys with your name in the stands of Montjuïc, Johan, and of course the Camp Nou. Eternal. Moltes gràcies nen.

And that’s it. That’s all, what can we do... A pleasure to steal your time and attention for a while every matchday and let’s see what the coming year holds. Thank you for being here and I leave you with the Lizard King, it couldn’t be anyone else to say goodbye to this.