Arenas Club will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Ponferradina were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jan Rodríguez to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
SquadA place in the month's best eleven for Roko Baturina
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oswaldo Alanís was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jan Rodríguez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Ponferradina dressing room was either.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Ponferradina was different afterwards.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ponferradina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oswaldo Alanís was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jan Rodríguez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Oswaldo Alanís
Slavy 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
13 new faces, and Ponferradina 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Ponferradina man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Roko Baturina was the best thing in any of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ponferradina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Roko Baturina. 2‑0 against Bilbao Athletic, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.49 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oswaldo Alanís was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ponferradina will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jan Rodríguez kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Nahuel da Silva 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jan Rodríguez on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fede San Emeterio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andoni López’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ponferradina needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ponferradina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.42 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Jan Rodríguez could afford to be generous.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Talavera.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Ponferradina will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Slavy 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.
0‑1 to Tenerife, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Ponferradina training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Pablo Vaschetto 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Jan Rodríguez to a room that had heard them before.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ponferradina, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Mariano Bareiro keeps the shirt for now, at Ponferradina's convenience rather than his own.
Ponferradina close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 1 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.
Ponferradina 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.
Add another name to the list: Arouca have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Pau Ferrer. The answer from Ponferradina has not changed — yet.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Ponferradina will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
11 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Boris Moltenis is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Slavy trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tenerife in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The deal with Montevideo City Torque is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antequera have kept their man, and Ponferradina go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Lusitânia Lourosa for Pau Ferrer 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ponferradina this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Montevideo City Torque 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Ponferradina will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Athletic Bilbao keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ponferradina 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ricardo López 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. Nil Moreno 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. Rubén Garrido 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mario Pérez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.