26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Castellón 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 Castellón can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Castellón they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Ponferradina have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Franchu. The answer from Castellón has not changed — yet.
$540.0K on the table at Gimnàstic. 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 deal that would have taken Ousmane Ba to Burgos has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Castellón with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Castellón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Castellón can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Rubén López, marked 7.77, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ander Zoilo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Castellón the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Antonio Gala has agreed terms with Valladolid for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Agustín Sienra 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Castellón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Castellón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jérémy Mellot is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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; Castellón are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 FC Metz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jessy Deminguet was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Metz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Metz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at FC Metz has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at FC Metz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sion had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. FC Metz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arthur Avom Ebong is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Metz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at FC Metz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boubacar Traoré 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.
FC Metz asked and LOSC Lille said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.