Marked for Facundo Melivilo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Aug 2027
Facundo Melivilo damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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 dugout2 Aug 2027
Pablo Insua: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zaragoza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Dion Beljo 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 Zaragoza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market2 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zaragoza have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Dean Huijsen has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Zaragoza will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Too much change too quickly at Zaragoza
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.
Loan watch2 Aug 2027
“I watch every Zaragoza game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Brentford runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zaragoza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Álex Domínguez has written the date down.
In brief
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Market
The shop window has Alex Teves in it
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The dugout
The manager comes out for Toni Moya
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Boardroom
The Zaragoza academy earns its keep
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Melivilo
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zaragoza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
Sinan Bakış: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zaragoza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Jul 2027
A falling-out at Zaragoza
Dion Beljo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Zaragoza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebas Moyano 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad26 Jul 2027
27 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zaragoza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market19 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Zaragoza
Dion Beljo 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tommaso Macchioni arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tommaso Macchioni has, at Zaragoza, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad19 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Zaragoza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebas Moyano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Cremonese: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Tachi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market19 Jul 2027
The name of Sem Westerveld keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Zaragoza say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
Facundo Melivilo damages knee ligaments — 47 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 47 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adrián Liso and Zaragoza agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Dion Beljo 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Late improvement for Dion Beljo
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Adrián Liso knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zaragoza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market12 Jul 2027
Zaragoza bring in an old head
Brandon Rosas is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2027
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zaragoza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
$280.0K settles it between the clubs for Brandon Rosas
Eibar have accepted the money. What Zaragoza do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market5 Jul 2027
Dion Beljo wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Zaragoza hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Dion Beljo 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 Zaragoza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Sebas Moyano 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Zaragoza asked and Corinthians said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market5 Jul 2027
Pau Sans comes back from a loan that worked
26 appearances and 12 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Melivilo
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zaragoza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zaragoza can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zaragoza have done the hard part with Gijón, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Zaragoza
Nestor Ochoa 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Alex Teves is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Late improvement for Toni Moya
At 29 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
Pablo Insua 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
A loan move for Pedro Raul is in the works
Zaragoza have made the call to Corinthians. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zaragoza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market21 Jun 2027
Dinamo Zagreb did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $13.9M for Dion Beljo, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Market21 Jun 2027
Zaragoza pay Veracruz $13.3M for a proper upgrade
Veracruz did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $13.3M for Nestor Ochoa, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market21 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: Brentford have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yussif Saidu. The answer from Zaragoza has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Standard Liege keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Zaragoza
Dean Huijsen 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Thiago Szkaluba is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Melivilo
77 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zaragoza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$13.3M settles it between the clubs for Nestor Ochoa
Veracruz have accepted the money. What Zaragoza do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The paperwork begins on Dion Beljo
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zaragoza have done the hard part with Dinamo Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market14 Jun 2027
“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 Zaragoza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Zaragoza
Pablo Insua 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Camilo Salamanca is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Zaragoza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebas Moyano 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.
Loan watch14 Jun 2027
12 goals on loan for Pau Sans
26 appearances at Cracovia and the goals keep coming. Zaragoza are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Melivilo
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zaragoza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
An offer of $13.9M for Dion Beljo
Zaragoza have gone to Dinamo Zagreb with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Match7 Jun 2027
Zaragoza finish in position 19
28 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market7 Jun 2027
“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 Zaragoza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Transfer targets7 Jun 2027
The deal with Benfica is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A falling-out at Zaragoza
Pablo Insua and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Zaragoza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebas Moyano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 May 2027
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zaragoza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market31 May 2027
Yussif Saidu hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zaragoza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout31 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zaragoza may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match29 May 2027
The wait goes on for Zaragoza
4 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Pablo Insua 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 Zaragoza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 May 2027
The goals have deserted Zaragoza
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zaragoza can tell you which week it ends in.
Match29 May 2027
0‑1 to Valladolid, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout31 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Yussif Saidu
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad31 May 2027
A row about effort at Zaragoza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleksandar Radovanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Melivilo
101 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zaragoza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 May 2027
Chastening afternoon for Zaragoza
A 0‑3 beating by Eibar was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad24 May 2027
Pablo Insua 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Zaragoza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebas Moyano 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.
Boardroom24 May 2027
Nobody left the Zaragoza 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.
Loan watch24 May 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Zaragoza, and 8 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad24 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francisco López and Zaragoza agree another 3 years.
The dugout24 May 2027
The plan did not have a place for Pablo Insua
Nobody at Zaragoza is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 May 2027
Facundo Melivilo damages knee ligaments — 111 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
Squad17 May 2027
Toni Moya 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 Zaragoza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
A move Braulio Gennaro would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Braulio Gennaro is living that version at Zaragoza, and it tends to show in the first month.
Match15 May 2027
Whatever happens, Zaragoza do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Zaragoza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebas Moyano 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.
The terraces17 May 2027
At 22 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.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Marked 7.59. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout17 May 2027
Rubén Díez left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Rubén Díez will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Melivilo
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zaragoza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
Squad10 May 2027
A falling-out at Zaragoza
Sebas Moyano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces10 May 2027
He is 22 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.
Squad10 May 2027
62 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings10 May 2027
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Zaragoza.
Match8 May 2027
No time for Burgos to settle
The goal that put Burgos ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Zaragoza equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Loan watch10 May 2027
12 goals on loan for Pau Sans
26 appearances at Cracovia and the goals keep coming. Zaragoza are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout10 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jaouad El Yamiq, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Match
Honours even between Zaragoza and Burgos
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Squad
Words at Zaragoza training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 May 2027
Facundo Melivilo damages knee ligaments — 129 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 129 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.
Match1 May 2027
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Marcos Cuenca scored in the 87th minute, Huesca had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Zaragoza took the lot.
Market3 May 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad3 May 2027
Words exchanged at Zaragoza
Toni Moya 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Zaragoza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebas Moyano 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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Raúl Guti runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match1 May 2027
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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Marked 7.85. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Tachi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Sem Westerveld moves up the pecking order
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The dugout
Sinan Bakış dropped after a run of poor form
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
Facundo Melivilo damages knee ligaments — 138 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 138 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Nil Hernández out for 15 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zaragoza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match24 Apr 2027
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Paul Akouokou decided nobody was going anywhere. Almería had no time left to answer.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Paul Akouokou goes up and wins it — 7.83
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 7.83 for the rest of it.
Match24 Apr 2027
It had gone 8 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Pablo Insua 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Sebas Moyano 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
Almería made Zaragoza work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Looking ahead26 Apr 2027
Zaragoza face Huesca in the game that matters most
Two sides from the bottom of the table, three points, and an afternoon that will be described afterwards as a relegation decider by whoever loses it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Facundo Melivilo
146 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zaragoza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Nil Hernández breaks a bone — 23 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match17 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Zaragoza
8 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
The goals have deserted Zaragoza
7 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zaragoza can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Pablo Insua 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A mark of 7.48, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Zaragoza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Molina 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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Half-satisfied: Pedro Rey on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
A fracture rules Nil Hernández out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zaragoza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match10 Apr 2027
No end in sight to Zaragoza's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zaragoza has to find a result from somewhere.
Match10 Apr 2027
The goals have deserted Zaragoza
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zaragoza can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Pablo Insua 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 Zaragoza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Zaragoza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebas Moyano 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.
The terraces12 Apr 2027
At 22 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.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Raúl Guti runs at them all day
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.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
26 appearances away from home and 12 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Zaragoza
16 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Dec 2026
Dani Gómez hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zaragoza can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Federico Freire: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Zaragoza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Toni Moya 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 Zaragoza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Zaragoza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebas Moyano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tachi and Zaragoza agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match5 Dec 2026
Zaragoza rescue it on 93 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Huesca had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Andorra come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zaragoza did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dani Gómez and Zaragoza agree another 3 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Pablo Insua 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 Zaragoza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gabriel Alonso is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Oihan Aguilar has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Markel Alonso has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Tachi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.