Can Man City-owned Girona be the Spanish Leicester City? La Liga's surprise leaders threatening to break up the Barcelona-Real Madrid duopoly

This all starts at the top. Girona are part-owned by Pep Guardiola's brother, Pere, and have kept those in charge largely intact since 2015. President Delfi Geli and sporting director Quique Crcel have been employed for nearly 10 years now, overseeing two promotions and one crushing relegation. And although they tinkered with managers — going through five from 2014-2021 — they have since settled on one.

Michel Sanchez, usually referred to by his first name, shouldn't really fit in here. He was born in Madrid and spent most of his playing career at then-second division Rayo Vallecano. His only other coaching job before Girona came at Huesca, in a city closer to the French border than Catalunya, with whom he won promotion to La Liga in 2020. At the time of his arrival in Girona, he didn't speak a word of Catalan and had been sacked by Huesca just six months previously as they languished at the bottom of the table.

But the board has been patient. Girona were one of the surprises of La Liga last year, finishing an unlikely 10th, and picking up a number of famous results (a 4-1 bashing of Madrid at home will go down in club lore). Give Michel time, the board realised, and he could do something special.

The first iteration of Michel's La Liga side, for the 2022-23 campaign, was carefully assembled using a mixture of City Group finds and La Liga journeymen. However, many of the star players are no longer around

Santi Bueno, the star centre-back who has since joined Wolves, could never crack the Barcelona first team, but penned a five-year deal with Girona as a free agent in 2019, and was a regular by his second season, shepherding the backline in his early 20s. Tricky winger Rodrigo Riquelme and star striker Taty Castellanos shone during their loan spells from Atletico Madrid and New York City FC, respectively, while ex-Southampton star Oriol Romeu became the heartbeat of a team that flirted with European qualification before he left for Barcelona.

Those were the headliners, but a number of other players who helped the team earn promotion in 2022 have since moved on.Only club captain Cristhian Stuani — a 37-year-old striker who has been with Girona since 2017 — and stalwart central midfielder Aleix Garcia remain from the old days.

The summer of 2023, then, was a busy one, as Girona looked to rebuild and produce a team capable of surviving in the top-flight. What they managed to put together, though, has proven capable of so much more.

There is no doubt that the star signing has been teenager winger Savio, who arrived on loan from fellow CFG-owned club Troyes. Having spent last season on the fringes at PSV, the 19-year-old has been one of the best players in La Liga in 2023-24, returning four goals and four assists. Michel has compared Savio to Vinicius Jr, and his hyperbole might not be too far removed from the truth, hence the reports that City could move the Brazilian into Pep Guardiola's squad next summer

But Savio is not alone in having made a big impact following a summer. Veteran Daley Blind, a free transfer after Bayern Munich elected not to renew his contract, has been steady in defence, and Paulo Gazzaniga, frozen out at Fulham, has been reliable in goal after returning for a second loan. Yangel Herrera has pulled the strings in midfield after making his loan move from Man City permanent, while Ukrainian forward Artem Dovbyk has tallied 11 goal contributions through the middle. Michel is getting key contributions from all areas despite his team being pretty much patched together in the space of a few weeks.

Girona made 10 signings over the summer and lost seven players — at least four of which were crucial. This was supposed to be a season of staying afloat, not one for making an improbable title push. As such, what they are doing is nothing short of remarkable.

Last season, Michel tried to balance things when it came to his preferred system. Girona's first aim was survival, so the team didn't always play the expansive, attacking football they have implemented this campaign, but they certainly played an entertaining and open brand.

They scored 58 goals, the most of any team outside La Liga's top six — and more than fourth-placed Real Sociedad. But they also conceded 55, the most of any team outside of the bottom four. It was an output indicative of the manager's style.

This season, he has only further loosened the shackles. After shielding midfielder Romeu left, Garcia was dropped into a deeper role. Hardly a bruising No.6, Garcia has become more of a deep-lying playmaker, encouraged to take touches, survey the field, and build through the thirds. Unlike many modern Spanish managers, Michel asks his players to hold onto the ball, and find the right moment to strike.

“Two touches, minimum. Keep feinting to go one way then the other, hide the ball, play like you’re playing on the streets," he was overheard yelling at his players during Girona's clash with Sevilla. The result is a team that has scored more goals than any other in La Liga, and only one fewer than Man City in the same number of league matches.

It is not just from open play that they can hurt opponens,, either. Girona have scored 12 goals from free-kick crosses, while since 2022, 39.3 percent of their set-pieces have ended in shots, according to The Athletic. Their manager, it seems, has found a winning formula. And so far, no one has been able to counter it.

There is, admittedly, a flip-side to all of this. Girona also concede plenty. They have won games 5-3, 5-2 and 4-2 so far this season, while they allowed Madrid to score three at Montilivi despite having more possession and shots than Carlo Ancelotti's side.

They have been forced to win from losing positions four times in their last eight games, and so while it's admirable to never accept defeat, one can only maintain that never-say-die attitude for so long.

Forget Claudio Ranieri's Leicester, then. This looks more like Ange Postecoglu's Tottenham, a side equally attacking, and certainly more tactically stubborn. Girona have their principles, and they won't divert away from them.

The other knock against Girona is that their fixture list has been relatively kind thus far. Only two of their 11 wins have come against teams that are currently in the top-half of the table. They have lost to second-placed Madrid, and drew with sixth-placed Real Sociedad — an admittedly decent point on the road for a team with few expectations. Before the Christmas break, they will play four top-half teams, including Barcelona, while Atletico Madrid are their first opponent after they return in January.

The advanced stats are also slightly murky. Numbers aficionados will point out that Girona are overperforming their expected goals total, with top scorers Herrera, Garcia and Savio all scoring more than the underlying numbers suggest they should have.

Perhaps on a more basic level, Girona simply have less quality than their title rivals. They may be excellently coached, well-constructed and fearless, but a team assembled mostly of loanees and bargain-bin finds really shouldn't be here. If history is anything to go by, these starts to seasons usually fizzle out eventually. That's what made Leicester's achivevement so special.

Many still expect Barcelona and Madrid to battle it out for Liga supremacy come the end of the season, but Atletico have shown twice in the past decade that the duopoly at the top can be broken up. However, Diego Simeone's teams were still made up of a number of world-class players, whereas this Girona side is anything but.

Centre-back Eric Garcia himself has admitted that no one, not even the team themselves, believes that a league title is an attainable result. "We also have to be aware that in a season there are always ups and downs," the Barcelona loanee remarked in late September. Blind, a veteran of multiple title races across the Bundesliga and Eredivisie, also emphasised composure in an interview with The Independent: "You want to finish as high as possible in the league and that’s what we aim for. We’ll see where that is at the end of the season."

Michel, in typically measured fashion, told reporters in September that his team will "take a screenshot with our cell phone", and try to keep the fans happy.

Perhaps European qualification is a more realistic aim. Early Bundesliga leaders Union Berlin were in a similar position last year, and though they fell away in the title race, they still made it to the Champions League for the first time in club history. That was cause for immense excitement, and very few fans complained about the prospect of European away days.

But Girona's current position isn't a fluke, either, and though they might not win La Liga, they look good enough to stay in the hunt right until the end.