Nené, Milosevic, Domoraud, Juanfran Torres, Coutinho, Ben Sahar, Lucas Vázquez, Asensio, Osvaldo, Kumbulla or Carlos Romero. The list of loaned players who have left their mark on Espanyol is very long. Also, the list of players on loan who have passed through the Catalan team with more pain than glory. This is the case of Finnan, Arlauskis, Alfa Semedo, Lecomte, or, more recently, Ramon Ramos, Ünüvar or Cheddira. Also, that of Samuel Eto'o, loaned by Real Madrid in January 1999; he was 17 years old and only played 33 minutes in white and blue in the Copa del Rey and a little while in the Copa Catalunya.

With less than two weeks to go before the start of the League, Espanyol still has a lot of work to do in the transfer market. Manolo González's squad is incomplete and everything suggests that the Galician coach will start competing officially with a team under construction. Although Monchi warned that he wanted to carry out an aggressive plan, a small revolution with the arrival of many new faces, the fact is that at the beginning of August the white-and-blue team has only signed three footballers.

When, by chance, Monchi became the sporting director of Sevilla in his office there were no reports on footballers or drawers to store them; only a handful of tapes with recorded matches. It was May 2000 and the former goalkeeper from San Fernando, without structure, resources – the club was technically bankrupt – or experience, had to assemble a team to compete in the Second Division. In a notebook, he jotted down the phone numbers of some agents and scouted fields to see players he could sign for free. With one boot and one espadrille, that's how he began to build the success of a Sevilla that, after a while, lifted seven Europa Leagues and made a fortune in player capital gains.

Ramon Rodríguez Verdejo (San Fernando, 1968) is known by everyone as Monchi and is identified as the architect of the greatest Sevilla in history and one of the best sporting directors in the world. He is backed by more than a dozen titles, including seven Europa Leagues, and many millions in capital gains. With this resume, it is not surprising that his signing for Espanyol has unleashed euphoria among many 'periquitos'. Seduced by Alan Pace, with whom he began to meet more than two months ago, he will try to replicate his successful formula as the entity's general sporting director, which presented him to society on Tuesday.