When Girona was winning, its president, Delfí Geli, took the opportunity to recall that the greatest virtue of the current owners' arrival at the club was not the victories themselves, but the fact that people in the city only talked about football. The current president, and former footballer, knows what he's talking about, because he experienced embarrassing situations firsthand. Times when players locked themselves in the dressing room because they weren't being paid. Geli, then a 17-year-old kid, saw how grown men couldn't feed their children or pay their mortgage.

Two years ago, Girona was awaiting the Champions League draw. It looked in the mirror and saw itself as attractive. Everyone was showering it with compliments. Now, none of that exists. The team is in the Second Division and is doing what it can, mistreated as it is by a sporting management that conditions everything. Departures remain stuck and, just as happened last year, August, in terms of points, is heading for the trash. In Cordoba, they suffered their first defeat of the season (2-1), and they still haven't won. If before they were whistled at as a sign of admiration, now they are whistled at as a sign of disagreement.

Girona has a mess in the locker room. “Tsygankov was fine and called up, but he refused to change. That's all I can say,” admitted Quique Álvarez minutes after the draw against Leganés. To the already known situation of the winger, who made it very clear at the beginning of the summer that he did not want to play in the Second Division and went directly to the stands, the rumors of Vladyslav Vanat's refusal to participate in the second half were added, who was indeed on the bench. Information that the footballer himself has denied to the Ukrainian media Tribuna.com. The club, when consulted by ARA, denies that the striker rejected it, while it has already made official the opening of a disciplinary proceeding against Tsygankov for actions that "may constitute a breach of his contractual obligations and do not conform to the standards of conduct required by the entity". The mess is a big one.

Traumas are not overcome from one day to the next, but Montilivi and Girona took the first step to begin forgetting the enormous disappointment that the relegation a few months ago represented. Far from reproaches, discomforts, or notable scoldings, both the fans and the team put on a good face. Everyone knows this will be a long haul, and it's better to be comfortable with it. The reward for the energy was Abel Ruiz's last-minute goal, which salvaged a hard-fought point against an effective Leganés (1-1).

One of the summer sagas at Montilivi is picking up speed. Arnau Martínez, one of Girona's figureheads, is negotiating his arrival at Valencia, who have been after him for days. This Tuesday, a meeting took place between the Valencian club and the Maresme footballer, during which they ironed out some of the small differences that separated them, contractually speaking. It will be more complicated to reach an agreement between clubs: Girona is asking for the full amount of the release clause, which amounts to eight million euros. For now, however, in the initial drafts of the operation, Valencia is not even close, not even including a percentage of a future sale. To reach a total agreement, someone will have to give in.

A month has passed since Iván Morante's announcement as a new Girona player. He is the only signing finalized by the white-and-red sporting management during the summer. It has been about eighty days since the relegation to Second Division. And in this period of time, those in charge have been unable to break a deadlock that is starting to cause unease in the locker room. The situation is even more surreal than last summer, when August was a grotesque month, with the team half-formed, forced to compete while points were already being gained and lost. Things did not end well, and no one has reason to think that it will be any different now.

Evoking the name of Miguel Ángel González (Terrassa, 1980) at Montilivi still causes a tear or two. The former Catalan center-back was the author of the goal with which Girona returned to the Second Division almost fifty years later, on a very special matchday against Ceuta in 2008. His seven years and 249 matches at the club are summarized in that shot, which elevates him to the altar of the chosen ones. That Girona was the embryo of the Girona that would reach the Champions League. The goal turned eighteen a few days ago. So it is now of legal age.

In Girona, the name Minsu Kim (Gwangju, 2006) is on everyone's lips these days. The great performances of the pearl of the white-and-red academy during preseason, including a brace in Olot, are advocating for him to secure a place in the first team squad managed by Quique Álvarez, who already coached him in the reserves before he went on loan to Andorra last season, where he exploded in the Second Division, with 6 goals and 4 assists in 40 games. The Korean, however, is out of contract next year and has the interest of several teams on the table. If Girona, which has already started talks, doesn't act quickly, they will lose him.

The history they have built together is so strong that it is now impossible to understand Girona and Cristhian Stuani separately. Neither the relegation to the Second Division nor the economic differences, in a negotiation that has dragged on longer than expected, have managed to break a relationship that will live its tenth chapter after the Uruguayan's renewal until June 2027. The agreement is a positive shock for the enthusiasm of a team that faced the summer with desperation, because until now, at Montilivi, optimism has been conspicuous by its absence: the squad is not being cleared out and this means that new faces are taking their time.

In the summer of 2023, l’Escala's sporting director was insistently looking for a midfielder for his new project. “When they told me his name, I didn't hesitate for a second. I had lost track of him a bit, but when we were kids, those of us who moved around the football fields, we already heard him being talked about. We had him under control,” says Toni Sánchez, the current coach of Figueres. He is referring to Izan González, one of the signings in Quique Álvarez's bid for Girona to return to First Division.

As if starting the season late had not served as a warning last year, Girona returns to work with everything to resolve. Quique Álvarez's first project on the bench maintains the squad that threw the First Division into the bin: only Izan and Pyshchur, signed before the end of the season, when no one imagined that the Second Division was a real possibility; Iván Morante (Burgos) and the return of the loaned players, with the addition of the new technical staff, bring a different joy within a club that no longer spreads optimism but rather discouragement and frustration.

Girona 2026-27 still does not have a coach, but it has already outlined a first picture of what it wants to be. There will be profound changes within a squad that will most certainly change more than 50% of its components. Consequently, new faces will arrive: the average number of signings in the Quique Cárcel era is ten to twelve per summer, and this one will be no different. The sporting director, however, must move the most important piece of all as soon as possible. This is the figure of the new coach, for the moment a question mark after some alternatives have fallen.

Twelve days after relegation to the Second Division, Girona has broken the cold and distant silence in which it had settled. It has done so without subterfuge, with most of the top officials facing the music. Such an act is not remembered at Montilivi. The president, Delfí Geli; the chairman of the board of directors and owner of 16% of the club's shareholding, Pere Guardiola; the general director, Ignasi Mas-Bagà; and the sporting director, Quique Cárcel, have conveyed an image of unity and defense of a project that will remain strong and stable despite the setback.

Míchel Sánchez is no longer the coach of Girona, after the Girona club and the coach from Vallecas have parted ways with the relegation to the Second Division. Míchel ends a beautiful spell on the bench sadly. This is the first official move by the entity, which has decided that the sporting director, Quique Cárcel, will continue to lead the project from the offices. Who will replace the man from Madrid is currently unknown. His assistants, Salva Fúnez, David Porcel, and Juan Carlos Balaguer, also leave Montilivi.

Montilivi experienced the funeral of a Girona that next season will play in the Second Division. The Gironans had to beat Elche, but they could only draw (1-1), in what could be Míchel's last game on the bench. The Vallecas native's tenure has been amazing, but it will end where it began and with a sadness that does not do justice to what has been experienced. Things will happen in the coming hours, and none of them will be good.

At dawn, with the sword of relegation to the Second Division deeply embedded in the souls of the Girona fans, a hundred white-and-red supporters still had the strength to await the protagonists' departure at the Montilivi esplanade. The mood of the majority wavered between rage and pain, but it had a common denominator: they wanted to see heads roll. We are not talking about the footballers, who, in general terms, are excused. We refer to those in charge. To the leaders who sit in the box. The shouts of "Board, resign" just after the match ended were significant. The Girona fans point to them as culprits of a disastrous outcome that could definitively change the history of the club.

The definitive moment has arrived for Girona. No more half measures or nuances: Míchel's team is obliged to beat Elche this Saturday (9 p.m., Teledeporte). It is the only result that will allow them to remain in La Liga. They don't need to look at other matches, they just need a victory. A draw or a defeat will condemn them to the Second Division and save Sarabia's team, who are also playing for it. In the event of a Catalan victory, Elche will have to wait for what happens in other games to know if they stay in the elite or go down.

A critical situation for Girona, who will play for their future next Saturday against Elche at Montilivi in the final of the season. Despite extending their seventh match without a win at the Metropolitano, where they lost 1-0 despite enjoying a lot of chances, and falling into the relegation zone, being eighteenth, two points behind Elche, if Míchel's team break their poor run and earn three points on the final matchday, they will remain in the First Division. Only victory counts. It's that clear and there's no excuse, because a draw and, of course, a defeat, will condemn them to the Second Division.

The most dramatic League in memory is approaching its conclusion, especially at the bottom. With only two matchdays left and Oviedo out of the running, up to nine teams are involved in the fight for the most expensive survival in history. Two of them are Catalan: Espanyol and Girona. At the moment, Llevant and Mallorca would be relegated, both having 39 points and facing each other this Sunday. They have the same points as Elx, the first team to be safe; one less than Girona and three less than Espanyol, who have 42. Sevilla and Valencia are not yet out of danger because, in a League as crazy as this year's, no one can be sure that with 43 points you won't fall to the Second Division.

With all he has done for Girona and still had things to do. If the Gerundenses achieve permanence, it is necessary to move forward with the project of the statue of Cristhian Stuani that has been requested for years. The Uruguayan, as in Vallecas, and as so many times in nine years, appeared to draw against Real Sociedad a match that smelled of defeat (1-1). Infiltrated and without training, he has scored two goals and has avoided two defeats four days apart. With this result, the white and red team escapes relegation and is placed fifteenth, with a point's margin. And, most relevantly, it continues to depend on itself.