“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 The request is on a desk at Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Algeciras will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The deal with Real Madrid 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.
Jony Álamo 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Algeciras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javier Avilés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Juanma 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 Iván Ramos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Algeciras lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 55 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Algeciras have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javier Avilés was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lluís Llácer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout17 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 1‑2 Izei Lorenzo left the room before anybody could ask which.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Algeciras lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Algeciras have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Algeciras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Ramos 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.
Lluís Llácer 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Izei Lorenzo after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Villarreal B in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Algeciras lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Minute 87, against CE Europa, 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 never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Aleix Coch 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Isaac Obeng
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Algeciras have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Everybody at Algeciras saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Iván Ramos 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 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Algeciras can tell you which week it ends in.
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 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Algeciras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Izei Lorenzo after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Santino Ayala will call it something else in private.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Algeciras 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 Álvaro Mayorga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
Nobody left the Algeciras dressing room in a hurry
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
9 new faces, and Algeciras 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 dugout22 Feb 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 0‑4 Izei Lorenzo left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Player ratingsAn own goal to forget for Iván Ramos
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Algeciras lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.84 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
“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 Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Algeciras asked and Rayo Vallecano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Iván Ramos from Teruel for $1.0M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Algeciras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Ramos 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Teruel can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Teruel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 7 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Teruel 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.
Teruel had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Las Palmas, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Dani González 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and CE Europa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Teruel is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Teruel can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Andorra for Abraham Del Moral 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Teruel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Matías Belloso 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Teruel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Vigaray 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 dugoutThe manager makes an example of Fer Pina
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Teruel 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 Carlos Vigaray was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 6, 34 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Teruel had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Teruel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Teruel has been clear about where Iván Ramos stands, which is more than many ever get.
Position 3, 30 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.
Dani González 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A performance of 8.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Rubén Gálvez 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.
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Teruel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Teruel 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 Rubén Gálvez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
107 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Teruel lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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 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.
Nico van Rijn 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.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gonzalo Santana was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Teruel dressing room was either.
Atlético Madrileño next, and one man in the Teruel dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Dani González 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.
14 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 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Gonzalo Santana to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abraham Del Moral was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
$1.8M settles it between the clubs for Álex Balboa
Lugo have accepted the money. What Teruel do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Teruel close the window on a squad of their own making
23 in and 0 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Teruel have done the hard part with Ceuta, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Teruel offered $370.0K; Albacete 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.
Matías Belloso 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.
Teruel asked and Deportivo La Coruña 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 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.2M — a club that wants Dani González enough to be asked twice.
$390.0K was the most the club would pay and Gijón 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Teruel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Dani González from Osasuna for $3.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Teruel have made the call to Gimnasia y Esgrima. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Gimnasia La Plata: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abraham Del Moral was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.