Marked for Dion Lopy
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Aug 2026
Almería say no — this time
The offer from Valladolid for Léo Baptistão was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market31 Aug 2026
So close: Nico Melamed’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Espanyol moved on, Nico Melamed reports back to Almería, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Market31 Aug 2026
Business is business: Nélson Monte goes
Granada paid $3.1M and Almería took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Market31 Aug 2026
The name of Lucas Cuffia has come up in conversations Almería were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Marezi dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Almería training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arvin Appiah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
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Squad
The plan did not have a place for Chumi
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Player ratings
Dion Lopy spends the afternoon fouling
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market24 Aug 2026
Alavés come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Almería did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Almería have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Dion Lopy in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Marcos Luna
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑0 win over Huesca, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Almería training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Baptistão is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The medical room confirms 24 days on the sidelines for Alberto Alonso, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market24 Aug 2026
Rodrigo Ely told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Rodrigo Ely has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Almería.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Dion Lopy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Almería
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alberto Alonso is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Almería training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Horta is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market17 Aug 2026
A conversation is coming this week. Almería will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Mikel Vesga has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Almería that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sergio Arribas commits to Almería for another 5 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Dion Lopy was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
14 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Chumi gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market10 Aug 2026
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Market10 Aug 2026
Granada expected to open talks for Thalys
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Almería will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.