“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Barakaldo, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barakaldo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Konstantinos Karagiannis commits to Barakaldo for another 4 years.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Barakaldo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alberto Vaquero 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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Julián Velázquez's mistake
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Barakaldo can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Barakaldo can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dani Ángel has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Konstantinos Karagiannis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.97 for the rest of it.
Nathan-Dylan Saliba 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Valentín Viola
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The name of Dani Ángel has come up in conversations Barakaldo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nathan-Dylan Saliba 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Barakaldo is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Urtzi Albizua falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad6 Mar 2028
9 new faces, and Barakaldo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.61 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barakaldo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 6.85, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
A 1‑0 win over Real Madrid Castilla, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 7.68 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Barakaldo had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ricardo Rey, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Barakaldo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Genaro Giordani has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Ricardo Rey kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Borja García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 54 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Barakaldo is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Julián Velázquez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ricardo Rey after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Barakaldo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Álvaro Peña
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Barakaldo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Barakaldo, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Nathan-Dylan Saliba and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It needed Nathan-Dylan Saliba to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Arenteiro, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Borja García falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutJuan Da Rosa knocks on the manager's door
The dugoutGaizka Campos dropped after a run of poor form
The words a physio says slowly. 84 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
At 21 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Barakaldo know it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Barakaldo offered $10.0K; Arenas Club said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
He is 18, and nobody at Barakaldo signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ricardo Rey chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
Looking aheadBarakaldo take on the side everybody is chasing
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Barakaldo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bautista Merlini 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ponferradina have kept their man, and Barakaldo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
8 new faces, and Barakaldo are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Barakaldo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valentín Viola trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Barakaldo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Barakaldo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Add another name to the list: Zamora have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ibón Ispizua. The answer from Barakaldo has not changed — yet.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
A loan enquiry to Newell's Old Boys: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
The words a physio says slowly. 120 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Sabin Merino and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Barakaldo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Barakaldo is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valentín Viola trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 128 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The fee is $190.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Algeciras drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leganés have kept their man, and Barakaldo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The words a physio says slowly. 150 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Barakaldo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Sabin Merino and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rubén Pulido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dani Ángel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Barakaldo would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Marc Torrá are not good
Position 7 on 63 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Federico Redondo 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.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It needed Omar Janneh to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Bilbao Athletic, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Barakaldo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unai Dufur 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Giorgi Guliashvili 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 May 2027
Words at Barakaldo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rubén Pulido 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Barakaldo pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ricardo Rey on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Barakaldo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
7.71, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Sabin Merino 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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Barakaldo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Federico Redondo 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Rubén Pulido falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Rubén Pulido's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ourense CF in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Barakaldo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Barakaldo. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Sabin Merino and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rubén Pulido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Barakaldo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Urtzi Albizua's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Valentín Viola
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Barakaldo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mees Eppink 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Rubén Pulido falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonathan Monsalve provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Rubén Pulido 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.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Real Avilés; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Barakaldo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barakaldo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 51 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Real Sociedad go through and Barakaldo go home, 0‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
It finished 0-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barakaldo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Cacereño scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Barakaldo dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Valentín Viola
The words a physio says slowly. 87 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ricardo Rey after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Barakaldo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barakaldo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
A loan enquiry to Atlético Tucumán: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Barakaldo have made the call to US Boulogne. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.