Three-quarters of an hour from Manchester, on a train journey through rolling pastures and picture-postcard villages, lies Burnley, the smallest municipality in the Premier League. With fewer than 80,000 inhabitants and no specialty coffee shops, it often goes unnoticed by tourists visiting northwest England. In fact, it doesn't even have city status because it lacks a cathedral: it's a townWhat it does have are pubs. The most famous of all is The Royal Dyche, halfway between the station and the football ground. On match days it's packed.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you understand me. I'm sorry, but that's all I can say to you today in Catalan. I only know a little." Thus, with an apology for not mastering the language of Catalonia, he began his first public address as a speaker. new owner of Espanyol American Alan Pace, who voluntarily answered the press's questions in Spanish and not in English, his native language. "I hope that in 10 or 20 years my Catalan will be better than my Spanish, which is horrible," added the majority shareholder of the Blue and Whites, laughing, worried about making himself understood and surprised by the expectation generated by his first appearance, with more than 50 accredited journalists.

At 7:30 on Saturday, May 24th, with half an hour left in the 2024-2025 La Liga season, Espanyol was in the Second Division. Finally, Puado and Pere Milla avoided a relegation that would have been traumatic for a club that, stripped of its star player, 115 days after that agonizing salvation has established itself in the Champions League zone and is the third classified in First with the same number of points as FC Barcelona. And this Saturday they visit Real Madrid (4:15 p.m., Movistar+) with the possibility of taking the lead if they attack the Bernabéu, where they haven't won in thirty years.

On Friday afternoon, former American football player Justin James Watt posted a photo on social media showing a Burnley cap and an Espanyol cap, with the message "ready for the weekend." A rumor spread among the Espanyol fans, fueled by the stories From Instagram and JJ Watt's own tweets, the former athlete would watch Espanyol-Atlético de Madrid live. On Saturday, he sat in the box at Tottenham's stadium for Burnley's Premier League debut, and on Sunday, after flying to Barcelona in the morning on a private plane, he was seen at the Sagrada Família, on Wellington Street, next to Ciutadella Park, and at the blue and white training ground. where he met Alan Pace.

On July 14, Espanyol announced that Rastar had reached an agreement with Velocity Sport Limited (VSL) to sell the club to him for €130 million. Two weeks later, the shareholders of the Chinese conglomerate accepted the change of hands at a shareholders' meeting, which includes a 16.45% stake in VSL, which controls the Espanyol club and English club Burnley, both teams under the umbrella of the business holding company led by Alan Pace.

Espanyol has a new owner. Alan Pace, a partner at the ALK Capital fund and director of its sports subsidiary, Velocity Sport Limited (VSL), will take over from Chen Yansheng at the helm of the blue and white club. With an English parent company but partly owned by American shareholders, VSL also owns Burnley. With this transaction, Rastar, which currently holds 99.66% of the shares, will become part of the English holding company.