A headline in El Mundo this mornings reads "What are we going to do with Emaná?", to which the most obvious answer today has to be, "Stick him in the side for tonight's Copa del Rey game with Salamanca." It's almost certainly best to get his first appearance over with, in front of a relatively small crowd for a game that is anything but do or die. I actually get the impression that most Béticos quite admire the decision not to sell him cheap, and although there's mild annoyance at his being so keen to play elsewhere, this whole soap opera has been much less melodramatic than it was last year. If he plays like he cares, he'll be fine.
And there's no reason for him not to. As Pepe Mel has pointed out, this time last year David Villa was disappointed not to have been allowed to leave Valencia. But he had another fantastic season, bumped his value up to €40 million, was signed by Barcelona and celebrated by winning the World Cup. That's the way to make a career, not sulking.
I don't actually think there's any reason for Emaná not to start tonight as he's been training with the team lately and the closest to his position, Salva Sevilla, is out of the squad with a minor knock. But who'll join him on the pitch is anyone's guess. In an interview yesterday, Pepe Mel went through the motions of claiming he was interested in a cup run, but I suspect his real feelings came through when he talked about last year: "With Rayo Vallecano we got through lots of rounds, but it ended up costing us as we eventually were beaten by Mallorca, we lost two players [through injury] and the coach finished up on the street." Ouch.
So expect a different line-up tonight from Sunday, with one or two more home-grown players getting a start (although competition rules limit the number of youngsters you can use, so as to encourage the big clubs to put out their stars). Razak may start in goal, Fran No will probably play in central defence and Beñat might get a chance to build on his promising showing in the centre of midfield. But all eyes will definitely be on a certain sturdy Cameroonian international.
Kick-off is at 9pm, and it's worth pointing out that at this stage of the competition it's one-off games. In other words, it's win or bust. Not having lost my job last year because of the Copa del Rey, I'm hoping for the victory.
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