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JOAN VERDÚ FERNÁNDEZ
Date of Birth: 5 May 1983
City of Birth: Barcelona, Catalunya
Nationality: Spain
Contract: 2006 - 2009
Transfer: Free transfer (2006)
Previous Clubs: Barcelona B (2002-2006), Barcelona C (2001-2002), Barcelona Cadete A (1998-2001)
Buy-out Clause: ?
Height: 176 cm
Weight: 82 kg
Position: Attacking Midfielder (Left/Centre)
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 When legendary midfielder Valerón sustained another important injury during the preparations for the season 2006/2007, Barcelona B talent Verdú was chosen by coach Caparrós to strengthen the Galician squad. Both Caparrós and, later, coach Lotina (and several colleagues on the pitch) openly recognized his talents, but in two seasons his impact remains limited. He received the confidence of both these coaches at the start of each season, but at the end neither one of them counted on him anymore. The return of Valerón for the season 2008/2009 only makes it more unlikely that Verdú will claim an important role, and it’s up to the player to make a lasting impression as his contract runs out in 2009.
Verdú was one of the latest additions in the summer of 2006 on a total of seventeen new players. Deportivo have good experiences with Catalan players (Capdevila, Sergio, Lopo) and players like Rodri and Cristián (both from Barcelona B) already were in the team when Verdú became Deportivo’s sixth Catalan player at that moment. For the player himself all had started on 1 July 1998 when he, aged 15, joined Barcelona’s youth system. In 2001 he was promoted to Barcelona C and just one year later made the step towards the Barcelona B squad, playing in the Segunda B. Barcelona-born Verdú, a gifted player with excellent passing skills and an exceptional shot, played four years in the Barcelona B team and mainly occupied the positions of left winger and central playmaker. In the season 2005/2006 he even was captain and top scorer of the team with 15 goals (and 14 assists); an impressive amount because his main job on the pitch is to create chances and not to finish them. But this total is easily explained: because of his shooting skills, Verdú scored a couple of goals out of free-kicks and six from the penalty spot.
 In 2006, aged twenty-three, it was about time Verdú would make a step towards the highest level. But at Barcelona he never would enjoy the privilege of debuting in the Primera División. Curiously, coach Frank Rijkaard gave him and opportunity to play in the Champions League. It was on 7 December 2005 as he entered the pitch as a substitute in the first round confrontation with Shakthar Donetsk. The youngster also had the opportunity to play with Catalunya in a couple of matches, among which a World Cup preparation match of Costa Rica. In the summer months of 2006 Verdú was picked by Rijkaard to make the pre-season stage with the first squad, but in the end he was discarded. Barcelona had just won both the Liga and Champions League and had playmakers like Deco, Giuly, Iniesta, Messi, Ronaldinho and Xavi available. Also, the Barcelona youth system delivers a lot of talented players and Rijkaard preferred to have Mexican youngster Giovanni Dos Santos available. Verdú had it clear that the door to the first squad would remain closed. It was rumoured back then that AC Milan were after him. Both Espanyol and Celta started to push for his services. He was near to sign at Depor’s neighbours, but the attitude of Celta coach Fernando Vázquez changed his plans. A fact that he explained as follows: "Félix Carnero (Celta's sporting secretary) wanted me, but the coach didn't share that idea. I only wanted to sign at a club that's really interested in me".
That club became Deportivo. On 28 July 2006 playmaker Valerón suffered a new injury in his left knee. One that would leave him out of action for another five months after he already had been out since his knee injury sustained six months earlier (on 22 January 2006). A phone call (in early August) was decisive to close the deal as Verdú explained during his presentation: "To talk with Caparrós on the phone was fundamental for me". Besides acquiring a talented player, the financial aspect of the deal also was attractive to Deportivo as Verdú was obtained at zero cost. In exchange Barcelona had the chance to buy him back for €700,000 in 2007 (which they didn’t do). If Deportivo decide to sell Verdú in 2008 and 2009, Barcelona will receive 30% of this operation (similar to the case of Cristián). Beforehand, Verdú knew that being considered as Valerón’s successor would put a lot of pressure upon him. That summer he confessed that it would become a tough job for him. "It will be difficult to replace Valerón. But I just have arrived to become another squad player and I would like to avoid to be compared”. That’s easy to wish for, and more difficult to achieve. All eyes were set on Verdú and comparisons with Valerón were inevitable. With Verdú’s signing, the interest in Madrid’s Jurado faded away.
 Despite the rivalry in the squad of players like Arizmendi, Riki, Cristián, Juán Rodríguez, Sergio, De Guzmán and others, Verdú did reasonably well in the first part of the season 2006/2007. During the 2006 Teresa Herrera tournament he was brought as a substitute in the matches against Nacional de Montevideo and AC Milan. Caparrós asked him to focus on the position as playmaker and, together with Iago and Riki, he worked on Deportivo’s set pieces. Verdú added that “I think that I can play at any position in midfield, especially on the left. With my shooting skills I can take advantage of shooting from long-distance. And if I don’t shoot I have to give a decisive pass, because that’s why Deportivo signed me”. His colleague Duscher mentioned that he was impressed with Verdú’s skills: “I am really surprised about him and I enjoy playing friendlies on his side. He’s a promising kid. And Iago has made much progression too”. Verdú finally made his Primera debut on 1 October 2006 as he was brought near the end of the 1-0 win against Real Sociedad. Caparrós had no many reasons to chance his plans, and Verdú wasn’t really in them yet, because the (young) team was sixth in the table and surprised many. Caparrós hinted at the way Verdú could claim a spot in the team: “Verdú is a very good player, but still a boy who must become tougher and gain experience quickly because the difference between Segunda B and Primera is huge. He must adapt himself to the new category and to a club that’s different than FC Barcelona”. Verdú responded by saying that “if the coach says that, it must be true. But I already made the most difficult step and that was to have the first minutes in Primera. Now I need to play more and, in the end, I want to become a starting player”. Verdú also responded to a question about the differences between FC Barcelona and Deportivo: “At Barcelona we played an offensive match and only on rare occasions were we all defending. Here, at Deportivo, things are different. The wingers play more retracted. It’s a question of mentality, but I don’t think that differences are huge”. It’s a nice anecdote that Verdú didn’t take stardom to La Coruña, as he took a five-year old Volkswagen Golf with him.
Verdú earned his starting place after his entry in the match against Atlético (a 1-0 win) in Riazor. He replaced Sergio at half-time and gave an assist to Arizmendi who scored the winning goal. He also scored a beautiful goal himself, but unfortunately this was ruled out because of offside (which was questionable). He was immediately praised by Caparrós: “Verdú is close to a starting place because of the job he did today. He came on during a complicated moment for us as we needed possession”. Verdú revealed that Caparrós had asked him to start as defensive midfielder and later that he needed to move forward. “And when I came on he told me to remain calm and to play my own game, and he encouraged me to shoot at goal. He transmitted confidence to me and when I entered the pitch I trusted upon myself”. Verdú claimed his first starting place in the Copa match against Racing de Santander (a 1-0 win) with Iago and Estoyanoff in the creative part of the pitch and striker Adrián in front of them. The moment of Verdú had finally arrived. Caparrós was going to trust upon him in the next six Liga matches of which the first one was at Getafe (a 2-0 loss). That was a match to forget quickly, but the next one wasn’t: on 4 November 2006 it was FC Barcelona who played in Riazor and a play between ex-Barcelona players Verdú and Cristián earned Deportivo a penalty-kick after which the equalizer was scored. The offensive line with Arizmendi, Verdú, Cristián and Riki functioned reasonably well against the current Champions League holders. Both Verdú and Cristián were praised by the media for their performance and also Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard emphasized their good job: “I would like to congratulate them because they are doing a fine job. In the play which led to Deportivo’s goal they were really smart”. Verdú called the result “not the best one thinkable, but we have to admit that it was fair”. Verdú came on in Deportivo’s Copa match at Racing de Santander, but played anonymously. He had gained credit though because of two vital actions against Atlético and FC Barcelona, which had earned the team four points in Riazor, and together with Arizmendi (22), Cristián (barely 23) and striker Adrián (18), play maker Verdú (23) formed one of the youngest attacking lines of Deportivo in Primera ever seen at Gimnástic (a 0-0 draw).
 Now more critics came up. The attack of Deportivo in Tarragona was called ‘almost non-existent’, and slowly the Galicians were falling back onto mid-table spots. But a great opportunity arrived to make up for the mistakes against Celta in Riazor. Verdú said that he would celebrate a goal in a special way “because it’s my first Galician derby match”. Of course, he was asked about his negotiations that summer with the Galician rivals and he said: “They never made a decision, and in the end I did it. There had been a lot of talks between my agent and Celta, but nothing was materialized and in the end I started training at Barcelona. I didn’t accept an offer of Celta to prove myself first. Then Deportivo arrived and within 24 hours all was done. I don’t have any feelings of revenge towards them, but I do feel a special motivation to score a goal in this match”. It wasn’t to be though. The 0-1 defeat in Riazor was the first of five defeats in the next six matches when Deportivo scored just one goal. The 4-1 defeat at Osasuna was the fifth consecutive match in which Verdú started, and neither this one was won. Verdú admitted that the squad was facing troubles: "The results aren’t coming in we’re in stormy weather. These situations are always difficult, but the squad is calm and we know that if we do things right the results will return. We must keep our confidence and we’re a united group of players who don’t look at ages of players. This is football and we have to keep going”. But Verdú also shared Manuel Pablo’s critics that Deportivo don’t need to play direct football. “One can see that this team is generating troubles to opponents with proper football. But rivals are forcing us to play direct football. What we have to do is to play our own game without looking at our rivals. They need to be worried about us”.
However, nobody was worried about playing against Deportivo those days and neither did Verdú frighten opponents. His starting place against Racing de Santander in Riazor (a 0-0 draw) was his sixth in a row, but not even against nine-man Racing could Deportivo win. Verdú had been brought in two Liga matches and both of them were won, but his six starting places had coincided with just three points and two goals. Caparrós sacrificed Verdú for the match at Valencia, but the team was hopeless and lost 4-0 with the Catalan play maker appearing after half time. Verdú returned to the match against Bilbao in Riazor and started his seventh Liga match in eight matches of Deportivo, but the result was as before: a 0-2 loss. Now, seven starting places of Verdú had brought the team three points and two goals and one couldn’t deny the role of the little play maker anymore. He had done very well as a substitute and as a starter against his ex-club Barcelona, but in the other matches he wasn’t the player who could give offensive direction to the team. But the misery of 2006 still hadn’t ended. Deportivo lost 4-0 at Sevilla, and Verdú entered the match with thirty minutes remaining and the score only being 1-0. Within fourteen minutes all was sentenced as Sevilla scored three more goals.
 Verdú had lost his place in the starting team and didn’t have it back for the remainder of the season. He was used by Caparrós as a substitute on many occasions, but only started matches against Betis Sevilla (a 0-1 loss), FC Barcelona (a 2-1 loss) and Osasuna (a, late, 1-0 win). This means that Verdú started ten matches in the season 2006/2007 out of which Deportivo took six points and scored four goals. Of course it’s not fair to solely blame Verdú for those numbers, as the team only did well in September and October and lifted its head in January and February. All other months saw a miserable game and poor results. Verdú’s role as a substitute seemed more comfortable to him. He did very well during thirty minutes as right winger at Recreativo (a 1-1 draw), entered the Copa match at Mallorca and started the home match when Deportivo progressed and was vital in Deportivo’s home match against Valladolid in the Copa. During this 4-1 win, Verdú entered the pitch, scored one goal himself and gave two assists. On 11 February 2007 he scored his first Liga goal in his career: a stunning long-distance shot at Villarreal when Deportivo won 0-2. Verdú hoped that “my parents were taping this! I had enjoyed opportunities in other matches and Caparrós told me to shoot instead of passing. That’s why I tried my luck and it was the right decision. these goals happen only a few times in one’s career”.
It was early February 2007 and Verdú’s chances seemed to have changed. He had gained new confidence and even took responsibility for scoring goals at Deportivo. “I was always the one who scored goals in my teams. But lately I haven’t been trying”. Verdú dedicated the goal to his girlfriend and his family “because they always call me or attend the match. I usually give them my shirt, but this one is for my girlfriend and me. The first goal is something to be remembered. Besides, my girlfriend lives in La Coruña with me and she’s close to me with anything that happens. We go through the good and bad moments together”. But Verdú had to settle with the role as a substitute, not bad though for a player from Segunda B. His entries caused the number of twenty-seven Primera matches in the season 2006/2007 and he played twenty-four of them in the space of twenty-seven match days. Caparrós was counting on him, but not (anymore) as a starting player. Lotina noticed Verdú as the play maker was brought during a 0-1 win of Deportivo at Real Sociedad, but after Verdú’s entry the Basques were all over the place. A good series of results of Deportivo ended when Betis won 0-1 in Riazor, a match with Verdú as a starter but with balls flying over him toward the striking zone. A news paper called Verdú as “being on a party without friends”. By this time, Caparrós already had been questioned for months, although Verdú defended him: “I joined this project when he was in charge, and when this project will get its dividend he should be part of it”.
 When Deportivo played in Barcelona, coach Frank Rijkaard called Verdú “a player full of qualities. He possess something special, he has skills which can decide a match”. It was one of the few matches in the second part of the season 2006/2007 when Verdú started, and he did reasonable. In his third, and final, match as a starter those months he was vital when Deportivo achieved an injury-time win against Osasuna. His free-kick was touched by Taborda and ended at Lopo who scored the winner. But again, the creative football at the start of this match quickly was converted into a long-ball game and for this one doesn’t need Verdú. Maybe that was precisely the reason why Verdú, and Cristián, were missing between match days thirty-two and thirty-five. They never were given a reason for that, and Verdú admitted that he felt bad about it. “There are rumours that Caparrós has a problem with me and one should ask him about that”. But Verdú was given a substitute role during the final three matches of the season. It made him become Deportivo’s fourteenth player in Liga minutes, something which perfectly indicated his status. He wasn’t considered a starting player although he had been this at the end of 2006. Verdú had to live on entries and did some precious things during those opportunities, like the Copa match against Valladolid or his stunning goal at Villarreal. It was fair to give Verdú the benefit of the doubt as creative players were scarce at Deportivo and the playing style didn’t favour him. Being among the smallest players of the squad, he himself might have wondered sometimes why he was used with such a physical approach to matches. Anyway, at the end of the season Barcelona didn’t consider him to be worth €700.000 to buy him back. It was never the idea for them to retake him for their own squad, but they also didn’t consider it likely that he could be sold with profit to another Spanish club (as would happen with Arizmendi who was sold by Atlético to Valencia).
New coach Lotina quickly admitted that he liked Verdú a lot and considered him for the play maker position which assured his place in the squad. “He’s a quality player, and that’s something normal these days coming from Barcelona. He performs well close to the opponent’s goal but also in midfield. He’s talented and good with short passes, and also capable of making a decisive pass. He can relieve a team which is losing a match”. During the 2007 Teresa Herrera tournament, Lotina used Verdú as a substitute in the match against Atalanta Bergamo and the Catalan player converted one of the needed penalty kicks. His glorious moment of the summer arrived in the final when he, as a starter, scored the winner against Real Madrid (2-1) although some counted it as an own-goal of Madrid player Baptista. Together with Pablo Álvarez and Riki he was the best player of Deportivo. Verdú played in midfield, and not as play maker, but he admitted that he felt better in this role than the year before with Caparrós. “My natural position is the one of play maker. But if the coach says that I should play here, it’s fine to me”. Lotina counted on Verdú and Sergio for more offensive tasks in midfield and on De Guzmán and Juan Rodríguez for more defensive tasks. The game approach, a passing game, seemed to benefit Verdú. “It’s good for all players because we try to play pretty. That suites us. Also our wingers, and we have good additions with Guardado and Lafita. With quality players like them, it’s easier to distribute a good pass. For us it’s important to have the ball in our possession in order to create chances”.
 De Guzmán and Sergio started Deportivo’s first match of the season against Almería, which ended in horror: 0-3. Verdú played the final twenty minutes, when the dame was already done, but it gave some new life to the team. It might have been the reason why Lotina tried a five-man midfield at Valladolid with Verdú in the team as play maker and he sometimes looked to be Deportivo’s second striker. But Verdú started to count for Lotina. “He gives us something extra and he can perform everywhere. To me, Verdú is more a play maker than a midfield and for sure he’s more talented than Sergio, for example. But Sergio is a big player, and both of them must play. We simply should learn how to deal with these situations”. Verdú was delighted with these remarks: “I’m glad to hear the coach saying things like that. I felt very comfortable during the pre-season and I can give more to the squad. And if the coach counts on me, that’s great. And we as a team know that we have a margin to improve. And if we start to play good football, good results will follow”. Verdú become Lotina’s preferred play maker in the next four months. Accompanied by Guardado and Lafita at the wings and with Riki in front of him, Verdú played a great match against Betis Sevilla (a 1-0 win). One of Verdú’s efforts hit the post, and he received a compliment of Guardado: “Any player would feel comfortable alongside a player like Verdú. He will give us a lot of surprises”. He was also praised by Valerón, who still was recovering from an injury: “Verdú gets better everyday. A first year is always difficult. But he’s an important player to us and let’s hope he continues to grow as a player”.
 At Getafe (a 0-0 draw), Verdú was Deportivo’s best player in the offensive part and only a miraculous save of goalkeeper Abbondanzieri prevented that he scored with a header. Against Recreativo, Lotina tried it with Juan Rodríguez at Verdú’s spot with strikers Riki and Taborda up front. But that 0-2 defeat in Riazor caused a lot of chances in the team and started a series of eleven(!) Liga matches in which Verdú started. It all began at Espanyol (a 1-0 loss), where the team (with Verdú in front of De Guzmán and Sergio) dominated from finish to start but only forgot to use one of its many chances. At Sevilla (a 0-1 win) it did use one of those opportunities and an effort of Verdú hit the post. La Voz de Galicia wrote that Verdú did a ‘marvellous job’ in that match, especially when not having possession. Verdú was ‘hot’ again, almost one year after Caparrós had used him in a string of matches. The Galician newspaper even asked coach Lotina and three colleagues if Verdú had become the successor of Valerón. Lotina replied: “He possesses qualities and he is a type of player that each day is liked more in Spain. Iniesta, Cesc, Xavi… Verdú has the same characteristics. He can direct the team and knows how to play between the lines. What he should improve is his shooting capacity because I think he needs more power”. Juan Rodríguez called him “impressive. He creates a lot of depth with his passes and always tries to create space. Smart players are usual quite small as they need to use their talent and intelligence to steal a ball”. Lafita said that Verdú “has two feet on the ground and he transmits this to the squad. He’s very important to us and knows how to give a deep pass to the wingers. Without him it’s difficult to get those”. Finally, striker Xisco mentioned that “he plays good football and doesn’t hide himself. He always gives good passes and sees spaces that others don’t”.
Lotina was giving Verdú opportunities and of the first twenty-four matches that season he only missed the away matches at Levante and Almería. The problem of Deportivo was though that it always offered good football, but converted too few chances and earned an insufficient amount of points. Examples were the matches against experienced Valencia and Real Madrid when Deportivo leaked seven goals and scored three, which easily could have been the other way round looking at the matches itself. Verdú played two full matches and provided Xisco with his goal at the Bernabéu. Against Mallorca at home, a loss of possession by Verdú led to the visitors scoring a goal while Deportivo wasted numerous opportunities only to take a point against ten-men Mallorca (1-1). Finally, there was another match with Verdú starting and Deportivo winning. A clever pass of Verdú saw Xisco scoring at Murcia, Verdú was also involved when Deportivo scored the second goal during the 0-2 win and later De Guzmán hit the post after a pass by Verdú. If only the team had continued this efficiency, because the home match against Racing de Santander was lost (0-1) with the home side missing chance after chance. ABC called it “a lot of noise from this BabyDepor (pointing to Guardado, Filipe, Xisco, Cristián and Verdú) but without gunpowder upfront”. But La Opinión tried it in a more positive way by pointing to ‘the inspiration of Verdú with passes to Xisco in the purest style of Valerón”. Statistics revealed that Verdú had become target number one of opponents as he received most fouls.
 Only the goal difference now kept Deportivo away from a relegation spot, but coach Lotina once more praised Deportivo’s midfield: “"De Guzmán, Sergio and Verdú are giving us a lot of football and balance. They form the heart and lungs of Deportivo, of our football and of our philosophy”. But Verdú himself was now more relaxed. He had found a place in the team of Caparrós, but bad football of that team was accompanied by bad results. Now only time seemed to prevent positive results. When asked about the compliments of Lotina, he pointed to the team being more comfortable and balanced with the passing of time. He also tried to avoid being compared to Iniesta, Cesc and Xavi, but admitted that they all come from Barcelona. “I only try to learn from them”, he said. But it wasn’t all sunshine, of course, after the 0-1 defeat against Racing. “I have to admit that I had troubles sleeping last night. I felt guilty for our defeat too. I had two opportunities to score, but their goalkeeper did really well. It’s also a matter of luck”. But the time had come to even talk about a contract renewal and Verdú said that he would love to stay for more years to come. “We can talk about a renewal anytime they want. I still have to demonstrate a lot but am thankful to this club for betting on me and Deportivo is my first option”. The team saved a heroic point at Bilbao (2-2) because of having been down 2-0 and playing with a handful of sick players. Verdú was one of them and couldn’t train for several days.
Now Osasuna, a team below Deportivo in the table, visited Riazor. Deportivo started with Riki, Verdú, Guardado and Bodipo in the creative line, but most were ‘missing’ including Verdú. The match was lost 1-2 in injury-time and Verdú pointed to Deportivo “missing a little but of attitude”. Another young striking line (Cristián/Verdú/Guardado/Xisco) faced Barcelona in the Nou Camp, but again the points remained to the opponent after a decent match. Now the situation became more critical. The year before the game had been poor, but even after the disastrous results at the end of the year the team was quite safe. Now, the team was at two points of safety and rivals were escaping. It became very much questioned if it was worth to try with all these youngsters if the club was going to be relegated. Experienced defender Coloccini affirmed that it was worth the effort and took Verdú as an example. “He’s such a player who becomes better because of playing. There have been matches already in which he took the weight of the team on his shoulders. This will only give him more experience for next year, and the same applies to Cristián, Xisco and Guardado”. A turning point for Verdú, however, was the match against Zaragoza (a 1-1 draw). The team seemed to be heading towards a third consecutive defeat when, during half-time, Lotina replaced Verdú with Rubén Castro and the team should have won it in the end. In the next two months, Verdú experienced a similar situation as the year before when he lost his starting position but remained an important squad player. Verdú didn’t even start during both Copa match against Espanyol, and an important reason was that Lafita was started to perform. Lotina was looking for more physical presence up front, and the difference between Verdú and Lafita is a lot of centimetres.
 Verdú didn’t play in the crucial matches at Levante and Almería and only was a substitute during the loss against Atlético de Madrid (0-3) and Villarreal (4-3). Against Valladolid (a 3-1 win), the decisive match for Lotina, the coach found the winning 5-3-2 formula for the remaining part of the season. Verdú entered the match when the team already were three goals up, and replaced Guardado during the early phase of the Betis match (a 0-1 win). However, the Catalan play maker was invisible on the left wing although the received compliments of coach Lotina. It was a time when Wilhelmsson hadn’t debuted yet and Lafita had been going in and out of the team. With Guardado out injured for some weeks, Lotina picked Verdú for the left wing against Getafe and positioned Juan Rodríguez at the right side. Verdú returned to the position where he had been so successful at Barcelona B, but none of that against Getafe (a 1-1 draw). The crowd expects velocity of a winger, but Verdú is less vertical than Guardado and Riazor didn’t appreciate the pauses of Verdú in his game. But Lotina repeated the system at Recreativo, and Verdú became a highlighted player. First, he earned a penalty kick by shooting at Sinama’s hand and he converted it himself. But later, the roles were reversed and a loss of possession of Verdú led to Sinama giving Recreativo the lead. In a crazy match, Deportivo bounced back against ten-men Recreativo but lost it in injury-time.
This defeat in Huelva had major consequences to Verdú. In Lotina’s new 5-3-2 system there wasn’t really room for a central play maker anymore, and now the names of players who would lift Deportivo in the table became clear. In the attacking zone that were Lafita, Wilhelmsson and Xisco. It became such a successful team that Verdú only was given two more entries, twenty minutes in total, in matches where Deportivo were already two goals up (Racing de Santander and Barcelona). It was like a signal to Verdú as ‘we haven’t forgotten about you yet but for now we can do without you’. Verdú was even out of Deportivo’s list for the squads travelling to Valencia and Mallorca and facing Villarreal at home. Every time Verdú was considered as an option to start, he lost the opportunity against a colleague. When the season was over, for many it seemed that it had been just another year for Verdú. And looking at statistics, it had been. During the winter months of the season 2007/2008, Verdú already had improved on his playing minutes and starting positions compared to the full season 2006/2007. But because of his almost complete absence during the months when Deportivo conquered Spain, at the end of the season his numbers still were comparable to the year before. His participation was down from twenty-seven to twenty-four matches, and he played nine full matches in both seasons. The difference was that in 2007/2008 he started sixteen matches compared to the ten matches under Caparrós. But the Andalucian coach still used him, even if he wasn’t starting player and he reached 17 entries. Under Lotina, the entries were limited to eight. As a result, Verdú only played 148 more minutes more under Lotina which isn’t even two full matches. He reached 1364 minutes (the equivalent of slightly more than 15 full matches) under Caparrós and 1512 (the equivalent of almost 17 full matches) under Lotina. In both seasons he scored one goal. While the one under Caparrós was a long-distance shot from his play maker position, the one of the season 2007/2008 was from the penalty spot.
 Verdú is now facing a similar situation as his buddy Cristián. Both players have been at the club for two seasons now, and while Verdú’s seemed to have found a stable position he didn’t fit into the plans of Lotina anymore while Cristián already had troubles entering the team before he was out injured for many months. Verdú is twenty-five when the season 2008/2009 kicks-off, and Cristián will turn twenty-five at the start of the season. Both players haven’t had too many opportunities during the pre-season and face tough competition in the creative zone: Guardado, Lafita, Juan Rodríguez and Valerón. It never was a doubt that Verdú, and Cristián too, was going to stay at Deportivo for another year. Both of them won’t expect a starting place, and their low-cost transfers make them perfect players to be used on an irregular basis. The question remains whether one of the, or maybe both, can get their final breakthrough. Verdú already has fifty-one Liga matches behind his name, but his statistics could indicate that he misses something. He has started twenty-six of those matches, and only four of them were won (that’s fifteen percent). It doesn’t seems to be coincidental that if Verdú starts the team simply lacks something to finish winning, because in two years Deportivo have won twenty-seven out of seventy-six matches (that’s thirty-six percent). Because Verdú’s contract is going to run out in June 2009, it might be now or never for the little Catalan at Deportivo.
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