Marked for Alejandro Aranda
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market9 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alavés have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market9 Aug 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Juan Larios is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market9 Aug 2027
Lucas Boyé has his eye on Europe
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Montevideo City Torque keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Alavés
Brahim Díaz 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jul 2027
105 days out for Raúl Fernández after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alavés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market12 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Plateau United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Alavés is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market12 Jul 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 Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brahim Díaz 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 targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
The formation has left Ángel Algobia behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Alavés will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Alejandro Aranda has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Alavés 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market14 Jun 2027
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jon Karrikaburu is a Alavés player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Market14 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alavés have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market14 Jun 2027
Alavés say no — this time
The offer from Universidad Catolica for Carles Aleñá 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.
Market14 Jun 2027
Antonio Sivera has left for Barcelona in a $9.6M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Alavés
Brahim Díaz 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Oscar García is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Miguel Rodríguez and Alavés agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
A row about effort at Alavés
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 May 2027
Ovie Ejaria 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 Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout17 May 2027
Mariano: 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.” Alavés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 May 2027
Jon Pacheco 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 Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Carles Aleñá, and the manager let it.
Squad17 May 2027
Miguel Rodríguez 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.
Market17 May 2027
The name of Antonio Blanco keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Alavés say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout17 May 2027
Juan Larios knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Larios trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market17 May 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Alavés, another week without a signature from Ville Koski.
The dugout17 May 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alejandro Aranda is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match20 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Alavés
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Alavés
Jon Pacheco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Alavés
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Feb 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Alavés are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.10, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolás Valentini, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Manuel Monzeglio has just signed for Alavés, and for once the answer mattered.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Alavés
Jon Pacheco 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
At last: Alavés win one
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Espanyol. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match21 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Carles Aleñá. 1‑0 against Espanyol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Carles Aleñá at his very best
Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Alavés.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Juan Larios
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ovie Ejaria 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Alavés are still strangers to each other
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Nov 2026
A hiding for Alavés
Beaten 0‑7 by Real Madrid, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match4 Nov 2026
The cup run ends for Alavés
1‑2 against Celta, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market9 Nov 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Alavés heard it as anything else.
Match7 Nov 2026
4 matches without a win for Alavés
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Alavés are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Unai Ropero beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad9 Nov 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 Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Nov 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Alavés and Real Madrid in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match7 Nov 2026
Alavés are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
In brief
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Squad
A row about effort at Alavés
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The dugout
Pablo Ibañez gets it from the manager
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Alavés dressing room in a hurry
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2026
Chastening afternoon for Alavés
A 0‑4 beating by Real Sociedad was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Alavés heard it as anything else.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Alavés
Jon Pacheco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Alavés 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ovie Ejaria
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Alavés will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 2 saves does not settle it either way.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alavés have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
An offer of $30.0M for Antony
Alavés have gone to Betis 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Legia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Alavés did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Celta have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Antonio Blanco 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 Alavés hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Alavés go back to the board over Antony
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $32.3M — a club that wants Antony enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lucas Boyé and Alavés agree another 4 years.
Squad10 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 Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Eyes on Abde again
The phone has started ringing about Abde again, and this time the name on the line is Mallorca. Alavés are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Twente come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Alavés did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Ander Guevara has come up in conversations Alavés were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market3 Aug 2026
Antonio Sivera 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 Alavés hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Antonio Sivera and Alavés agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Independiente Rivadavia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Alavés
Antonio Blanco and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Colón have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Home is on Abde's mind
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Alavés are dealing with a man who wants a different country.