Marked for Retu
From our football correspondent
Steady
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 The request is on a desk at Deportivo La Coruña, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market3 Jan 2028
The offer from Atlético Madrid for Yeremay 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Deportivo La Coruña had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eric García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Deportivo La Coruña asked and Tenerife 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 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 Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Jan 2028
Pío Bonacci returns a better player
34 games and 13 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Ulises Delgado slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ulises Delgado is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Dec 2027
Alberto Rojas damages knee ligaments — 18 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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 dugout20 Dec 2027
Retu says Hércules went back on their word
“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.
Match18 Dec 2027
The run at home goes on for Hércules
11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Hércules
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taisei Miyashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Aliou Dieng 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 terraces20 Dec 2027
He is 23 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
A 2‑0 win over Villarreal B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hércules may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market13 Sep 2027
So close: Retu’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Oviedo moved on, Retu reports back to Hércules, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Match11 Sep 2027
Still nobody has beaten Hércules
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oriol Soldevila and Hércules agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Hércules
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Aranda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Hércules
Aliou Dieng and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match11 Sep 2027
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.96 on the card, and the Hércules support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Sep 2027
Andy Escudero 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 Hércules can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Sep 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hércules have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Window shuts: 16 in, 11 out at Hércules
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 11 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market6 Sep 2027
The deal that would have taken Juan Paulo Figueroa to Unionistas has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Hércules with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Hércules
Iván Alvariño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Hércules
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Taisei Miyashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Andy Escudero
“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.
Loan watch6 Sep 2027
“I did not go to Racing Ferrol to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hércules and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Hércules than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Aug 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 Hércules can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Aug 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; Hércules are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Taisei Miyashiro 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Hércules
Javi Jiménez 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 dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Iván Valenzuela
“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.
Boardroom30 Aug 2027
Hércules counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Hércules now.
Market30 Aug 2027
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lizandro Echeverría may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Gaizka Campos 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 Gaizka Campos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hércules. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Aug 2027
Hércules up to position 3
68 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Market23 Aug 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 Hércules, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Hércules
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market23 Aug 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alberto Torres is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market23 Aug 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Carlos Cabrera 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Andrés Giménez 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Hércules
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Aranda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
No hiding place for Betão
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Betão, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Hércules are still strangers to each other
10 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
No investment in the facilities at Hércules
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The dugout
Nacho Monsalve has been promised minutes
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The dugout
Retu knocks on the manager's door
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market16 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.
Squad16 Aug 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 Hércules this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Taisei Miyashiro 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.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Antonio Aranda has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Hércules 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Hércules would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market16 Aug 2027
The name of Iván Alvariño keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Hércules say nothing, which says plenty.
In brief
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The dugout
Ben Hamed has been promised minutes
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The dugout
Retu knocks on the manager’s door
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Squad
Nacho Monsalve wants to know why he earns less
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Hércules
Arouna Sanganté 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
Words at Hércules training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taisei Miyashiro 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alejandro Sotillos and Hércules agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Hércules know it.
Loan watch9 Aug 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Hércules, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Market9 Aug 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hércules has been clear about where Juan Paulo Figueroa stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Betão 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.
Market9 Aug 2027
Hércules and Retu are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Iván Valenzuela has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match26 Jul 2027
Hércules refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 68 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Hércules
Aliou Dieng 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Taisei Miyashiro 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Hércules are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at Hércules
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 dugout26 Jul 2027
Alberto Toril 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 Alberto Toril trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Retu
“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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Experience through the door at Hércules
Franco Caballero arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
The dugout26 Jul 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 Javier Rentero has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Samuel Vázquez out for 107 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hércules will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Jun 2027
Hércules refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 68 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market28 Jun 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Hércules, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Iván Alvariño 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 targets28 Jun 2027
Hércules asked and Mérida said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Antonio Aranda falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Vizela have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Hércules 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 dugout28 Jun 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
In brief
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Market
Bolo placed on the list
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The dugout
Retu knocks on the manager’s door
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Market
Rafa De Palmas linked with a move away