The club's president gathered the players at the team hotel hours before the victory in Getafe to share a personal experience with the squad.
“We’re going to win today, I’m absolutely certain of it. So, stay calm.” This was the message that kicked off a speech by the president of Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, Miguel Ángel Ramírez (MAR), in the purest Al Pacino style from Any Given Sunday . A pep talk that, should they avoid relegation, the Yellows can consider the starting point of their “Operation Stay.”
Ramírez went down to the hotel room where the players were gathered, put them in a huddle, and the self-proclaimed "legionary captain" addressed his players with a speech in which he recounted a personal experience he had last weekend, after the match against Real Sociedad that ended in defeat for the yellows.
Ramírez shared with his legionaries that his father, Francisco Ramírez, had suffered a near-heart attack during the team's last defeat and had received three stents just a few days earlier. The family decided not to inform him immediately so as not to aggravate his emotional state. "Fortunately, everything will be fine," MAR added, seeking to transform his concern into motivation.
However, the climax of the president's speech came when he took his cell phone out of his pocket to share a message from his grandson with the players: "Abu Migue, are you sad? Next time we win."
After playing the audio, an emotional Ramírez addressed the players to show them how the team's results directly affect the Yellow Family, even "the most unaware."
"What would we do if they came to harm our family? We would kill. They're killing our family; all the people who love us are suffering too much. We have to die on the field; you're the only ones who can fix this... if we win this game, which we will, we're saved," Ramírez concluded to applause from the players.
The team's response was emphatic; a 1-3 victory at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez, a ground where Bordalás's men, known for the solidity of their low block, had not conceded more than two goals all season and where the league leader, FC Barcelona, could not manage more than a draw.
Las Palmas thus broke a negative streak without adding 3 points that had lasted since December in a kind of epiphany that not only resulted in victory, but also in the restoration of confidence on the part of players who could emerge as protagonists of "Operation Permanence."
Las Palmas, who started off losing, managed to come back with a double from Fabio Silva and a goal from McBurnie, who for much of the season seemed to be a loser in front of goal and who many considered to be on the way out in the last winter transfer window.
The Yellows now have seven finals left, four of them at home, to secure their survival, which, after defeats to Alavés and Leganés, is just one point away.
