Marked for Valentín Silva
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Jul 2029
142 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Getafe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad23 Jul 2029
52 days out for David Soria after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Getafe will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market23 Jul 2029
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
The deal with Cádiz died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
The paperwork begins on Selu Diallo
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Getafe have done the hard part with Alavés, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market23 Jul 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Genoa keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Getafe
David Soria 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.
Squad23 Jul 2029
The step up is real for Edgar Mota
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Getafe
David Soria 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.
Transfer targets22 Jan 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad22 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Getafe
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Coba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Jan 2029
13 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Marked 8.15 — 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 dugout22 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Nemanja Gudelj
“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.
Market22 Jan 2029
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Aitor Buñuel has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Getafe.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Valentín Silva: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Albacete have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market17 Apr 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Albacete can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad17 Apr 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 Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Albacete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Neva 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Marked 7.44 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Albacete had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hugo Kissanga, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andrés Vera after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match15 Apr 2028
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Espanyol will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Antonio Puertas, 35, rolls back the years — 8.40
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.40 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market10 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 Albacete, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Andorra is saying, and nobody at Albacete is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Albacete have gone to Córdoba with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Albacete
Antonio Puertas 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
It had gone 7 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Kevin Cata gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kevin Cata has just signed for Albacete, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Albacete
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Neva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match8 Jan 2028
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.