Marked for Máximo Perrone
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cádiz can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Jul 2028
The fee is $3.9M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Gimnàstic drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market3 Jul 2028
The paperwork is done: Tincho joins from Castellón in a deal worth $2.8M. Now comes the harder part.
Transfer targets3 Jul 2028
Cádiz asked and Teruel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Jul 2028
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tomás Castro Ponce is living that version at Cádiz, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market3 Jul 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cádiz heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Jul 2028
“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; Cádiz are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Cádiz
Iuri Tabatadze 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.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jerónimo Domina, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2028
Cádiz get their man
The chase for Máximo Perrone ended with $28.4M changing hands and Villarreal out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Real Madrid wanted more than $30.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Cádiz have gone to Almería 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.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Cádiz will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Cádiz may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Jun 2028
The paperwork is done: Emanuel Sittaro joins from Alcorcón in a deal worth $870.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad12 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Cádiz
Iuri Tabatadze and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2028
The chase for Ronald Araujo ended with $55.1M changing hands and Barcelona out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 Villarreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Jun 2028
Cádiz pay $28.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market12 Jun 2028
Albacete come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Villarreal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $12.1M of what Villarreal paid for Máximo Perrone is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Villarreal had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Como, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Ronald Araujo 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.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
$28.4M settles it between the clubs for Máximo Perrone
Villarreal have accepted the money. What Cádiz do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
The offer went to Real Madrid 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.
Match5 Jun 2028
The season ends: position 8 for Cádiz
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 63 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Squad5 Jun 2028
A season average of 7.25 with 22 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Market5 Jun 2028
Mario Maroto 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 Cádiz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Cádiz
Iuri Tabatadze 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Cádiz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Moussa Diakité has his answer from Cádiz; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Match3 Jun 2028
It finished 1‑0, and it was García Pascual’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cádiz.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Villarreal and Barcelona have settled on $55.1M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
The offer went to Atlético Madrid 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.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Villarreal asked and Barcelona 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 Jun 2028
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Villarreal heard it as anything else.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Carlos Romero 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Renato Veiga and Villarreal agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Villarreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santi Comesaña 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
Cádiz are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Villarreal will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Market5 Jun 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Villarreal can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Mar 2028
A European lesson for Villarreal
0‑1 against Partizan. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
25 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Péter Gulácsi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 7.94 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Villarreal had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Santi Comesaña has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Villarreal 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.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“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 dugout20 Mar 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Enzo Pérez after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Market20 Mar 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Villarreal know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Jan 2028
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Maroan Sannadi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market31 Jan 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Villarreal have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market31 Jan 2028
“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 Villarreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Jan 2028
The fee is $5.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Eibar drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Santi Comesaña pops up at the right end — 7.81
7.81, 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villarreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Imanol 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. Imanol has, at Villarreal, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Villarreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santi Comesaña 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 watch31 Jan 2028
22 appearances at Zorya and the goals have stopped going in. Villarreal lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
The offer went to Gijón 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The offer from Real Madrid for Alberto Moleiro 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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 Villarreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
An offer of $10.6M for Adu Ares
Villarreal have gone to Eibar 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.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
Erick Marcus: 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.” Villarreal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market3 Jan 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Maroan Sannadi wants continental football; whether Villarreal can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match1 Jan 2028
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
The offer went to Barcelona 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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. 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
Match30 Sep 2027
3‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
The match ball belongs to Maroan Sannadi, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Age has not caught Gerard Moreno yet — 7.90
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Péter Gulácsi and Villarreal agree another 2 years.
Market4 Oct 2027
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.69, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces4 Oct 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.
Match3 Oct 2027
Villarreal rescue it on 92 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Mallorca had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Market4 Oct 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Erick Marcus wants continental football; whether Villarreal can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market27 Sep 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 Villarreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Willy Kambwala 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
Arnau Tenas is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Villarreal has been clear about where Arnau Tenas stands, which is more than many ever get.
Match25 Sep 2027
0‑1 to Rayo Vallecano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Sep 2027
43 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Too much change too quickly at Villarreal
10 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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Enzo Pérez left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
102 days out for Franco López after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cádiz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Alavés wanted more than $31.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Cádiz
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javi Ontiveros was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Cádiz asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Mario Maroto gets picked when it counts
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 Mario Maroto is on it.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Iza has been promised minutes
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 Iza has written the date down.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Franco López 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 Cádiz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Marcos Denia: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Cádiz will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market9 Aug 2027
Las Palmas spend $4.3M to raise the standard
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.3M has been paid because Ignacio Lago is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad9 Aug 2027
João Cancelo 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Las Palmas have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Las Palmas asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Jefté Betancor
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Nicholas Opoku 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Iñaki González commits to Las Palmas for another 3 years.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Manu Fuster 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 Las Palmas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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.
Market9 Aug 2027
The offer from Barcelona for Sergi Cardona 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Carlos Macià has left for Celta in a $4.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Willy Kambwala and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dani Parejo and Villarreal agree another 2 years.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Carlos Romero has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Villarreal 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Villarreal will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Squad9 Aug 2027
No place for Lautaro Ríos in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Villarreal are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Market9 Aug 2027
Juan Foyth linked with a move away
The name of Juan Foyth keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Villarreal say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jul 2027
Franco López breaks a bone — 136 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 136 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yussi Diarra and Cádiz agree another 4 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Cádiz
Iuri Tabatadze 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.
Transfer targets12 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.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yussi Diarra, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Brian Ocampo 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Jandro Orellana has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Cádiz.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Moussa Diakité 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 Moussa Diakité trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Jul 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Victor Aznar’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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. Cádiz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market14 Jun 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
$3.5M on the table at Athletic Bilbao. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Everything agreed with Athletic Bilbao, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Cádiz
Nicolas Cuadrado 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.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Villarreal have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cádiz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Loan watch14 Jun 2027
40 appearances at Córdoba and the goals keep coming. Cádiz are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jokin Ezkieta, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom31 May 2027
Continental nights are coming to Villarreal
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
The dugout31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gerard Moreno, and the manager let it.
Squad31 May 2027
A row about effort at Villarreal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tajon Buchanan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 May 2027
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.
Market31 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Juan Foyth’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The terraces31 May 2027
The stands have heard the Sergi Cardona talk too
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Villarreal would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
The dugout31 May 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 Máximo Perrone has written the date down.
Loan watch31 May 2027
38 appearances away from home and 4 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout31 May 2027
Santiago Beltrán asks for a word with the manager
“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
Crisis
Market15 Mar 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 Villarreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market15 Mar 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Villarreal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market15 Mar 2027
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Renato Veiga wants continental football; whether Villarreal can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Market15 Mar 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Villarreal heard it as anything else.
Squad15 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tani Oluwaseyi and Villarreal agree another 5 years.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Renato Veiga 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 Villarreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Nicolas Pépé beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout15 Mar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 2027
Villarreal paid $40.0M and Como took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
The goals keep arriving from Álvaro Morata’s exile
25 goals in 23 games at Leganés — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Como updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Nobody could get near Yan Couto
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Window shuts: 7 in, 4 out at Como
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Como heard it as anything else.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vimoj Muntu Wa Mungu has just signed for Como, and for once the answer mattered.
Market1 Feb 2027
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Como will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Samuele Ricci 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
Villarreal pay Como $40.0M for a proper upgrade
Como did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $40.0M for Máximo Perrone, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Match30 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 14 matches without defeat is a foundation Villarreal did not have in the autumn.
Match30 Jan 2027
Villarreal win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 96th minute. Sevilla will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.39, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
No deal for Yusi at that price
Villarreal offered $12.5M; Alavés 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Máximo Perrone gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Máximo Perrone has just signed for Villarreal, and for once the answer mattered.
Market1 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Villarreal close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 9 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Match30 Jan 2027
Villarreal make home a hard place to visit
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market11 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Como have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
$3.8M settles it between the clubs for Konan N'Dri
Lecce have accepted the money. What Como do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Squad11 Jan 2027
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.
Loan watch11 Jan 2027
20 appearances at Leganés and the goals keep coming. Como are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad11 Jan 2027
The step up is real for Nico Paz
At 22 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Villarreal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Máximo Perrone. The answer from Como has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Como have done the hard part with FC Annecy, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match9 Jan 2027
Nobody wants to play Como right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Villarreal have gone to Como 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market11 Jan 2027
Real Madrid pay $21.9M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market11 Jan 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 Villarreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Jan 2027
Atlético Madrid pay $18.4M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market11 Jan 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Villarreal people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
$9.1M on the table at Athletic Bilbao. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
$7.2M was the most the club would pay and Racing Santander were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Match9 Jan 2027
Whatever happens, Villarreal do not lose
10 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Nov 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Loan watch30 Nov 2026
The goals keep arriving from Álvaro Morata’s exile
14 goals in 13 games at Leganés — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Como updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Como
Kaiki 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Marked 7.57. 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Half-satisfied: Mariano Villa 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.
Market30 Nov 2026
The Luis Milla story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Luis Milla signs something — a contract at Como or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Match28 Nov 2026
No goals between Como and Lecce
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Lecce will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Both of them Moise Kean's — 9.32
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.32, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
Market28 Sep 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Como can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match26 Sep 2026
Three points for Como, 2‑1 the final word against Fiorentina in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
One of their own: Nico Paz
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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Como
Kaiki and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.” Mariano Villa, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.