Marked for Thiago Fernández
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match20 Feb 2027
The run at home goes on for Villarreal
17 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Georges Mikautadze 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match20 Feb 2027
A 3‑2 win over Getafe, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Pape Guèye
“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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Santi Comesaña was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A season average of 7.21 with 8 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“I did not go to Las Palmas to sit and watch. I want to come back to Villarreal and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Oviedo
Santi Cazorla 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Román Sequeira gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Román Sequeira has just signed for Oviedo, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Oviedo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Carmo 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 terraces15 Feb 2027
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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Oviedo get the job done against Betis
A 1‑0 win over Betis, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.89 on the card, and the Oviedo support went home talking about one name.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to José Perales, and the manager let it.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market15 Feb 2027
No fee and no drama: Román Sequeira has signed at Oviedo, and the wage bill is the only line that moved.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 51. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Oviedo
David Carmo 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Dec 2026
Oviedo make home a hard place to visit
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Oviedo
Santi Cazorla 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Carlos Fernández’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Oviedo.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Thiago Fernández 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Marco Sportiello dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Oviedo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match28 Nov 2026
Oviedo make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 Oct 2026
Still nobody has beaten Oviedo
The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Oviedo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Oviedo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi López 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Carlos Fernández’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Oviedo.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 8.35 — 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 9 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Sep 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ovie Ejaria reports back to Oviedo with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Oviedo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santi Cazorla 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 terraces14 Sep 2026
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.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for Oviedo, 1‑0 the final word against Villarreal in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Oviedo
Lucas 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
5 new faces, and Oviedo 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Marco Sportiello 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.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.