“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 The request is on a desk at Granada, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Granada is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Granada have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
David Alaba 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar De Marcos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 87, against Mirandés, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Laureano Marra wants continental football; whether Granada can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Granada heard it as anything else.
David Alaba 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 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Granada told Stoichkov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.21 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Granada have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Granada and Leganés, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.43 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar De Marcos 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Granada can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 24 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at Granada until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
David Alaba 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.
At 23 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Granada have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jefferson Mejia provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Rayo Vallecano spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
“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 Granada, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Granada can pretend not to have heard.
At 23 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 25 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.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Granada have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar De Marcos 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Instituto have kept their man, and Granada go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Granada had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Valencia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gaddi Aguirre is living that version at Granada, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
David Alaba 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Gaddi Aguirre is a Granada player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alejandro Muñoz 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 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.
Granada have gone to Valencia 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Granada go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Granada have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Granada, and it is not being withdrawn.
David Alaba 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Iván Martínez is 15, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Granada, another week without a signature from Tachi.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gonzalo Almenara is living that version at Granada, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Granada heard it as anything else.
The chase for Gonzalo Almenara ended with $480.0K changing hands and Ceuta out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
David Alaba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar De Marcos 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Granada go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
David Alaba 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Alemañ 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.
7 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Granada go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Pedro López has, at Granada, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
David Alaba 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Iván Martínez is 14, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Álvaro Sánchez 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Diego Cortés 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Gonzalo Vera 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Pampín is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
In brief
The dugoutPedro Alemañ asks for a word with the manager
The chase for Jonmi Magunagoitia ended with $4.3M changing hands and Eibar out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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 Granada hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Raúl De Tomás and Granada agree another 3 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Stoichkov 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.
Granada 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 clubs have shaken hands with Eibar; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Granada have gone to Valencia 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.
22 goals in 37 games at Deportivo La Coruña — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Granada updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Getafe did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $3.1M for Jiří Letáček, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The phone has started ringing about Jiří Letáček again, and this time the name on the line is Ceará. Granada are listening politely and promising nothing.
David Alaba was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar De Marcos 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.
Nobody at Granada 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diego Hormigo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Granada and Getafe have settled on $3.1M. 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.
Granada asked and Valencia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Granada can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Granada had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
$2.9M on the table at Rayo Vallecano. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Monterrey keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
David Alaba and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar De Marcos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Granada, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Granada have gone to Zaragoza 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.
Granada offered $390.0K; Zaragoza 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Granada go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1‑6 to Málaga, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
22 goals in 36 games at Deportivo La Coruña — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Granada updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in one match, Jefferson Mejia on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Granada and Málaga.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two goals and a mark of 9.01 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
David Alaba 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 Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar De Marcos is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
David Alaba 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.
Jefferson Mejia scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Ceuta, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Silva 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.
Marked 7.05 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
0‑3 to Leganés, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Granada have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The 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 dugout10 May 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 0‑3 Pol Giménez left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Granada have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
José Arnáiz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.39. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Gabriel Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Raúl Lizoáin is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
1 for Baïla Diallo, marked 6.87, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
David Alaba 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
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Silva 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Deportivo La Coruña had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Raúl Lizoáin
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Granada, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
David Alaba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Silva 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.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout5 Apr 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 1‑2 Pol Giménez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Granada 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.
In brief
The dugoutPedro Alemañ knocks on the manager’s door
“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 Granada, and it is not being withdrawn.
David Alaba 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 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.
15 goals in 27 games at Deportivo La Coruña — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Granada updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Granada had all but put away. Eibar will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
9 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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Granada lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
David Alaba 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mateo del Pino has, at Granada, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Raúl Lizoáin will call it something else in private.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Granada lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Granada can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Three points for Granada, 3‑2 the final word against Burgos in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Silva 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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Granada lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar De Marcos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
13 goals in 24 games at Deportivo La Coruña — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Granada updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Raúl Lizoáin
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Granada lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑4 to Almería, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
1 for Benedikt Gimber, marked 7.28, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
David Alaba 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 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.
9 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 dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Pol Giménez to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Player ratingsGabriel Silva beats them one at a time
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Granada lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Granada can pretend not to have heard.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Diego Blanco is living that version at Granada, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Àlex Herrero 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.
In brief
Player ratingsGabriel Silva was on a different afternoon to everybody else
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Granada lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Granada close the window on a squad of their own making
6 in and 2 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.
David Alaba and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Santander have kept their man, and Granada go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$34.9M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Granada lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
He is going to Barcelona, the club has $34.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Granada asked and Real Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Pampín 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.
David Alaba is 34 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.
3‑1 against Atlético Madrid, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
Paris Saint-Germain wanted more than $88.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
9 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Oihan Sancet is living that version at Real Madrid, and it tends to show in the first month.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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 clubs have shaken hands with Real Madrid; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: NEC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alejandro Marqués. The answer from Granada has not changed — yet.
In brief
SquadGabriel Silva falls out with a teammate over standards
$54.9M was the most the club would pay and Villarreal 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Federico Valverde provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Real Madrid, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
$47.6M settles it between the clubs for Lewis Miley
Newcastle United have accepted the money. What Real Madrid do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
$56.1M 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.
Real Madrid have gone to Villarreal 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.
Real Madrid asked and Juventus 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 offer from VfB Stuttgart for Aurélien Tchouaméni 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.
Kylian Mbappé was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The name of Raúl Asencio has come up in conversations Real Madrid were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marc Cucurella’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Real Madrid needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thibaut Courtois and Real Madrid agree another 3 years.
Kylian Mbappé 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 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Real Madrid are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” David Alaba has his answer from Real Madrid; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Real Madrid would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
In brief
The dugoutRaúl Asencio knocks on the manager’s door