Newly promoted clubs generally approach the transfer market with survival in mind. Deportivo La Coruña have done something rather different.
After returning to LaLiga following an eight-year absence, Deportivo completed ten signings and spent roughly €26 million before accounting for the full cost of their loan deals. Only a handful of Spanish clubs invested more this summer.
What makes the window interesting, however, is not simply the money involved. Deportivo have built the squad in layers.
Leo Román arrived from Mallorca in the club’s biggest individual investment of the summer, while Lorenzo Amatucci, Jonathan Asp Jensen and Bright Ede brought younger profiles with development potential. Then came the experience: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Angeliño and Adama Traoré. Deadline day added another level altogether, with Barcelona midfielder Marc Casadó and Atlético Madrid defender José María Giménez joining on loan.
It is an unusually complete window for a promoted club. Deportivo have added more than numbers. They have added players accustomed to the highest level of football alongside younger assets who could increase in value.
Aubameyang is understandably the signing receiving most of the attention. At 37, there were reasonable questions about how much he could still contribute at LaLiga level. His opening weeks have provided a fairly emphatic answer.
The Gabon international has scored in each of Deportivo’s first three league matches, leaving him with three goals from three appearances. Deportivo have consequently begun their return to the top flight unbeaten, with one win and two draws.
Yet focusing solely on Aubameyang misses what Deportivo have constructed around him.
Casadó gives Antonio Hidalgo a technically secure midfielder capable of operating under pressure. Giménez provides leadership to what had been a relatively young defensive unit and arrives with 270 LaLiga appearances and 69 Champions League games behind him. Angeliño offers attacking quality from left-back, while Adama gives the side an absolute “speed demon” in transition.
There are risks. Several of the experienced additions have questions surrounding age, fitness or recent playing time, while such an ambitious window creates financial commitments beyond one season.
But viewed purely from a squad-building perspective, Deportivo appear significantly better equipped than the typical promoted side.
Calling Deportivo European contenders after three matches would be premature. Survival remains the sensible first objective, particularly after such a long absence from Spain’s top division.
Still, there is a difference between predicting something and identifying an interesting outsider.
Deportivo now possess legitimate LaLiga quality through almost every line of the team. Román offers stability in goal; Giménez and Angeliño add pedigree in defence; Casadó and Amatucci strengthen the midfield; and Aubameyang and Adama provide two very different attacking threats.
Their recruitment also suggests Deportivo are thinking beyond merely finishing 17th. Sporting director Fernando Soriano deliberately combined younger players with established veterans rather than constructing a short-term survival squad, while reports in Spain have described the longer-term ambition as taking Deportivo back towards European competition.
That does not make Europe the expectation. A finish somewhere around the top half would already represent an exceptional first season back.
But among LaLiga’s outsiders, Deportivo may be one of the more compelling underdog shouts. The famous names will attract attention, yet the real reason for optimism is that the recruitment behind them appears coherent.
For a newly promoted club, that might prove far more important than any single headline signing.
