To think, this time last year, Raul de Tomas was on his way to securing a place on La Liga’s Golden Boot podium, a tally of 17 only bettered by Karim Benzema and Iago Aspas. A seat on the plane for the upcoming Qatar World Cup, meanwhile, looked like RDT’s to lose.
By the time the festivities began in mid-November, however, De Tomas was nowhere to be seen. Not only had he been left at home by Spain boss Luis Enrique, he had not featured in a single game at club level during the first four months of the new campaign.
That was the price De Tomas paid for joining Rayo Vallecano outside of the transfer window, departing Espanyol in acrimonious circumstances in September following a high-profile and rather unseemly breakdown of relations at the RCDE Stadium.
“This transformed into a serious problem. I want the fans to understand that. We get rid of a serious problem,” Espanyol’s sporting director Domingo Catoira said in quotes reported by Football Espana.
“There is no player that can be more important than the club.”
Arsenal could have signed La Liga striker Raul de Tomas
There are, as they say, no winners in war. Certainly, no one came out of this whole sorry saga smiling. Espanyol sold De Tomas for a cut-price £7 million. Around ten per cent of the fee Arsenal were quoted when Mikel Arteta’s side came calling during the winter of 2022.
“Arsenal called for Raul de Tomas,” director Jose Maria Duran admitted. “But we didn’t even want to talk. We won’t let him go now, no way. His release clause is 75m euros (£60m).”
De Tomas, meanwhile, was forced to wait until January to make his Rayo debut; Spanish football’s eligibility rules barring the former Real Madrid youngster from featuring until the turn of the year.
And his long-awaited return to La Liga action has been underwhelming to say the least. With no goals in his first eight Rayo appearances, this is the 28-year-old’s longest drought ever in Spanish football (Marca).
“The goal will come,” Rayo’s much-admired head coach Andoni Iraola tells Union Rayo. “In the end it’s a matter of integrating into team dynamics. The goal hasn’t come for Raul but we have to keep going.”
If things had worked out differently 14 months ago, De Tomas could now be leading the line for an Arsenal side closing in on the Premier League title, having shone for Spain at the Qatar World Cup.
No one knows and appreciates the fickle nature of top-level football quite like RDT.
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