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.

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.

The City Football Group, Pere Guardiola, and Marcelo Claure, who rule Girona, have changed the club's history. And they've changed it for the better. They've made football a topic of conversation and have demonstrated their seriousness because, in bad times, they not only didn't abandon ship like rats do, but they actually doubled their bets, making capital increases that kept the ball rolling. When you take the full picture, this is an important chapter that can't be ignored, because if Girona returned to the First Division after relegation and won the lottery with the Champions League year, it's thanks to events like those.