For the second match in a row, Carlos Espi was left out of the Spain squad that beat Croatia in the UEFA Nations League on Tuesday night. Luis De La Fuente confirmed in his press conference, as well as in the squad sheet, that Espi was not going to be a part of it. He did the same in their previous match, and it just begs the question as to why he brought Espi in the first place.
Espi was scoring goals left, right, and centre for Spain's under-21 team. He was playing so well that De La Fuente wanted him to replace the injured Ferran Torres in the senior team for his country. Since the manager made that decision, there have been two games for the Spanish side, and Espi has not been called up for either of them.
What was the point of getting him to leave the under-21s team, only to then not have him play a single minute for the rest of the international break? De la Fuente has a history of not selecting quite a few Spanish Real Madrid players, and even though Espi was technically called up towards the midway point of the break, he was not used in either of those two games. This is making fans question why the player had to leave the camp for the under-21s team in the first place.
Carlos Espi was playing regular minutes for the Spain U21 team
If he was still with the youth team, Espi would have been playing valuable minutes that could positively affect his overall season too. He would have had more continuity playing for the under-21s if he was never going to play for the first team of his country.
Was the entire point of this just to humiliate Espi by picking him and then not bringing him into the squad for either of the two games? It is not like Spain are struggling – they have been winning all of their matches so far, and it just does not seem like they will be losing anytime soon.
If that is the case, why not bring Espi on for a few minutes in the second half and see if he's able to provide for Spain what he is consistently providing for his clubs? Why would you take the extra effort of not having him in the squad, despite initially calling him up from another team to play with your team?
This is a situation where no one wins, and everyone loses. Espi wastes his time at the end of this international break by not playing a single minute after being called up. De La Fuente calls up someone who he never intends to use, and no one wins.
Real Madrid technically would like that because that would mean there is no risk for Espi to be injured before the end of the international break, but even then, it is just not how you do things.
Real Madrid fans have noticed a pattern with De la Fuente, and after this entire fiasco around Espi, it is only going to get stronger.
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