‘We’re a family.’ That was the message relayed on multiple occasions by Marc Bartra and Isco 24 hours ahead of their Conference League final against Chelsea in Poland. It was used as an attempted rebuttal against their underdogs tag. Of course, it was shorthand for describing a unity in the dressing room, strong team spirit and a group of people that looks after each other. But as anyone with family knows, the shorthand understanding is somewhat flawed, even if the metaphor holds its own.

Arguments, irritations, heavy silences, and a special skill for getting under your skin like few possess – those are all part of forced coexistence, and over-familiarity. The hope is that you get on, if you like them all the better, and with any luck that at the end of year, you hope the farewell is fond rather than furiously awaiting an exit route. Families are quite like dressing rooms, you suppose, only most of us don’t have millions on the line during those interactions. Sometimes you need an outsider to show you just what you have though.

When Antony arrived at Real Betis, they were nearly as downtrodden as he was. Los Verdiblancos had just lost to relegation contenders Real Valladolid and Alaves, one of just four wins La Pucela would scrape all season, and were slumped in 12^th place. Manuel Pellegrini, La Liga’s oldest manager and into his seventies, was grumpy, and increasingly grouchy. After a fourth straight season qualifying Betis for European football on a budget, his squad had been asset stripped again. Three of his starting back four were gone, so were Nabil Fekir, Guido Rodriguez and this year’s top Spanish scorer Ayoze Perez.

Betis spent €28m of the €58m they had brought in, and that’s taking into account the fact the above trio were lost for just €9m, well below their true value. Patience was a scarce commodity by midseason. Pellegrini had admitted earlier in the season that his side were playing more direct, in reality a tacit admission they didn’t have the quality to play how he wanted. The new signings weren’t working, the air was stale and finally, it looked like Betis had finally been caught by the football police for their neat little acquisitions and auctions trick. ‘I don’t want to say it,’ said many, ‘but it might be the end of the Pellegrini era.’

The plan had gone wrong. If a football side fails, at the very least let it be seen that they took logical steps to get there – erratic movement is less forgivable. Even if they took that maxim to questionable levels this season, there is a reason Real Madrid, the most successful club in Spain, no longer use the January transfer window. Hence what Betis did next, improvising in midseason with European qualification and financial stability on the line, is just as brilliant as it is confounding.

💚🤍💚

Hay una leyenda que recorre el mundo entero.#EuroBetis

— Real Betis Balompié 🌴💚 (@RealBetis) May 28, 2025

Between those Valladolid and Alaves defeats, Barcelona annihilated Betis 5-1 in the Copa del Rey, adding to the sense the entire project was on life support. To the island they went with two youth players in their back four and one on the wing to face in-form RCD Mallorca, in sixth-place. For the entire first half, they hung on for dear life as Mallorca peppered their goal, blocking, scrambling, stumbling into the dressing room at 0-0. With 15 minutes to go, Mallorca went down to ten.

So often the recipe for success is found in the carnage of defeat, and what those losses to Alaves and Valladolid had hidden was the impressive early performances of fearless 19-year-old Jesus Rodriguez, who didn’t know better than to head straight for goal. Isco, out injured for the opening four months of the season, had played his first two full matches. It was the ex-Real Madrid man, who in the 96^th minute, got 20-year-old right-back Angel Ortiz to the by-line with his calipered weight of pass. His cross in turn was thundered into the back of the net by Cedric Bakambu’s head.

The following week, Antony, more meme than footballer by this point, stepped onto the pitch at the Benito Villamarin, with nobody, himself included, having any idea what to expect. After 15 minutes, he stretched his legs, released (into space). Doubling back, his shot, was halted by Unai Simon in the Athletic Club goal – right at the feet of Isco. Then the noise rushed back into the void it had left while the ball lingered in the six-yard box.

In that sense, the fault was ours. If there is an adroitness that Pellegrini has proven beyond doubt, in his home for the under-appreciated and under-loved geniuses, it is ability to ensure talent flourishes. Isco himself has been through a similar rehabilitation the previous season, having played less than 19 games of football in two years. Fekir, Sergio Canales, Ayoze and Giovani Lo Celso are all graduates, but it is a track record that goes back to Juan Roman Riquelme, Diego Forlan and Giuseppe Rossi two decades ago.

Ojalá que Antony se quede en el Betis, es más bético que la bandera.

— Dani (@Dani21166789) March 31, 2025

The Mallorca win began a run of just one defeat in their next 10 Liga games, including a stalemate against Barcelona and a dominant win over Real Madrid. Between the Alaves loss and the their defeat to Atletico Madrid, four months later in May, Betis lost just three times in total. After blowing away Gent in the first leg of play-off round of the knockout stages – Betis hadn’t qualified in the top eight – the route to the final opened up, presenting only Fiorentina of similar status in their path.

By the time they got to the semi-final, Isco was in full flow, playing the best football of any midfielder in Spain save Pedri. In June, he’ll play alongside him in a Spain shirt for the first time in six years. There was no suggestion of Pellegrini making stylistic compromises. Out went Juanmi, Assane Diao and Vitor Roque, in came Cucho Hernandez, Antony and Rodriguez. Pellegrini reverted to the hallmarks that have adorned his successful career; playmakers with licence to play, wingers with space stretch into, and football with without fear.

The Chilean had ended Sevilla’s 12-game unbeaten derby run in La Liga, a game which ended with Antony, Brazilian superstar on loan for six months from Manchester United, brandishing a giant Betis flag on the shoulders of Adrian, 38-year-old Betis academy talent born in the city.

Se besa el escudo, se pone una gorra…

ANTONY ES MÁS SEVILLANO QUE LA FERIA 💃🏻#LALIGAenDAZN ⚽️

— DAZN España (@DAZN_ES) May 23, 2025

Those were the first of many Antony tears, completely lost in love with his new club, or better put, new home. The fans were just as smitten. ‘Sevilla has a special colour’ they say, a saying with its own shorthand, describing the intense and vivid nature of life in Seville, of Sevillanos themselves. In his last game at the Benito Villamarin, Antonio de Triana, Antony from our neighbourhood as the Beticos have dubbed him, was again overcome with emotion as 51,000 people yelled ‘Antonio, stay.’

That, in essence, is the magic of it all. Had things gone to plan, Betis would not be in the Conference League final. Their credit is an historic midseason pivot. A pass from Ortiz, a chance on Rodriguez and a little love for a man without a home was no designed recipe for success. It took an adopted son for Betis to remind them what family means. Isco, Bartra, Adrian, Lo Celso, Rodriguez Antonio de Triana; just some of family together in Wroclaw.