Truce between Tamudo and Espanyol

Since September 12th, when Espanyol took on Real Madrid during the second weekend of the season, Raúl Tamudo has been an unused squad player. An injury in that match prevented him from playing in the next four league fixtures, but since then a falling out with the club has lead to him being sidelined for 'technical' reasons. This caused him to miss games against Tenerife, Sevilla, Valladolid, Sporting and Getafe.

It seems it was a misunderstanding engineered by Tamudo's agent looking for a final flush of euros, or even Tamudos refusal to take over captaincy duties following the tragic death of Dani Jarque. Whatever the cause, Tamudo and the club directors had a serious falling out. What followed was a teary press conference from the player and some verbal ping-pong between both parties in the press. It appeared Tamudos days in Espanyol were numbered. But an olive branch has finally been offered today in Tamudos naming in the Espanyol squad for tommorrows cup tie against Getafe.

A club icon and former captain, Tamudo has scored 129 top-flight goals for Espanyol since he broke through into the first team in 1996, and ignoring brief flirtatations with Rangers and Newcastle, it has never looked likely that Tamudo would or even could play anywhere else. A supremely gifted footballer, who has scored some sublime goals in his time (one a superb chip over Casillas in 2007, below), Tamudo is exactly what Espanyol have been missing during a poor run of 3 wins and 8 goals in 11 league and cup matches. Both player and club will hope an end has been put to this unfortunate saga.