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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dani Barcia 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Deportivo La Coruña told Dani Barcia something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Mella did not need any: 8.02, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Deportivo La Coruña hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Leo Román 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.
Luismi Cruz scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Eibar, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Dani Barcia 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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Mohammed Bouldini's mistake
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mario Soriano. 3‑2 against Burgos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yeremay has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Yeremay was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.56. 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Dani Barcia 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.
At 26 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dani Barcia 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.
Jonathan Farías 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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dani Barcia 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.
Adrià Altimira 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yeremay has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Dani Barcia 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.
“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.
0‑1 to Racing Santander, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Dani Barcia 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.
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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ximo Navarro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Deportivo La Coruña spent the window trying to move Charlie Patiño on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Noubi signs something — a contract at Deportivo La Coruña or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The offer from Levante for Miguel Loureiro 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dani Barcia 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.
Jonathan Farías 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.
5 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 words a physio says slowly. 21 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 offer from Betis for Mario Soriano 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo La Coruña 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 Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. David Mella has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dani Barcia 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 offer from Ferencvaros for Teun Gijselhart 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Deportivo La Coruña heard it as anything 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 Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dani Barcia 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Charlie Patiño has his answer from Deportivo La Coruña; what he does with it is the next window’s story.