The offer from Vaduz for Jon Eceizabarrena 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.
Iván Villar 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Fernández 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Real Sociedad B know it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Real Sociedad B have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Sociedad B they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B can pretend not to have heard.
Iván Villar 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.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Carles Soria 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Real Sociedad B told Jon Garro something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ekain Orobengoa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Sociedad B the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7.24, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Iván Villar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Fernández 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Sociedad B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Fernández 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.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Real Sociedad B now know that too.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Ekain Orobengoa has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Las Palmas in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Sociedad B they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Iván Villar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gorka Gorosabel signs something — a contract at Real Sociedad B or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Córdoba were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unax Agote 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Real Sociedad B can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Sociedad B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B 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.” Real Sociedad B have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Iván Villar 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Sociedad B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Iván Villar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pol Lirola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Real Sociedad B will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Real Sociedad B told Ronald Hernández something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Sociedad B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Iván Villar
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Sociedad B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Sociedad B 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 Leonardo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Sociedad B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B 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.” Real Sociedad B have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Iván Villar 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.
A 1‑0 win over Cultural Leonesa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
In brief
SquadWords at Real Sociedad B training over how hard people work
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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 offer from Nashville SC for Fernando Bravo 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.98 beside his name.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vaduz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Real Sociedad B is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dani Díaz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Sociedad B the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Iván Villar 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Real Sociedad B can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending 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 Real Sociedad B can pretend not to have heard.
6 goals in one match, Pedro Méndez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Real Sociedad B and Getafe.
“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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Unax Agote 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.42, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Sociedad B they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Iván Villar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unax Agote 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.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Sociedad B lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Iñaki Rupérez 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Real Sociedad B and Alavés in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco Romero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Sociedad B the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Iván Villar 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Real Sociedad B can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Fernández 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.
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Sociedad B lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
0‑1 to Albacete, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Unax Agote 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.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
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 Jaime Solís to a room that had heard them before.
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Sociedad B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jaime Solís after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 words a physio says slowly. 84 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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matías Nicosia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Sociedad B the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Iván Villar 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 had been thinking. Unax Agote 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.
A point taken on 87 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.
7.75, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Sociedad B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gorka Gorosabel. 2‑1 against Cultural Leonesa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unax Agote 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Real Sociedad B know it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leonardo Fernández provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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 Real Sociedad B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The medical room confirms 24 days on the sidelines for Job Ochieng, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Job Ochieng has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unax Agote 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.
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Sociedad B lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matías Nicosia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Sociedad B the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gorka Gorosabel, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Unax Agote 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.
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.
Iván Villar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomy Carbonell 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.
Marked 6.66 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Sociedad B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Real Sociedad B 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 Real Sociedad B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unax Agote 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Sociedad B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Iván Villar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Joan Sastre has improved at 31, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Gorka Gorosabel 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.
25 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Darío Ramírez is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
8 goals in one match, Ekain Orobengoa on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Real Sociedad B and Gijón.
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.
Ronald Hernández 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.
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Iván Villar 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.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Unax Agote 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.
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Real Sociedad B have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
“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 Real Sociedad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Isaac Romero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
Liam Delap 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.
19 appearances and 2 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Nobody at Real Sociedad will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Sociedad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Yangel Herrera 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 May 2028
Words at Real Sociedad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Kiwior 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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Real Sociedad can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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.
20 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Real Sociedad B has to find a result from somewhere.
Iván Villar 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Darío Ramírez 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.
In brief
SquadUnax Agote falls out with a teammate over standards
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Real Sociedad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Real Sociedad, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Real Sociedad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Isaac Romero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 May 2028
Jakub Kiwior 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Real Sociedad can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Igor Zubeldia is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Yangel Herrera 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 Liam Delap was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Facundo Jáuregui has, at Real Sociedad, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Liam Delap was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Gonçalo Guedes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. 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.
“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 Real Sociedad, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 7.90 for the rest of it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Isaac Romero wants continental football; whether Real Sociedad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Real Sociedad heard it as anything else.
Isaac Romero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Jakub Kiwior 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.
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B 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 Real Sociedad B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑2 to Cultural Leonesa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Unax Agote 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 player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Iván Villar will call it something else in private.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Job Ochieng
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
Isaac Romero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Jakub Kiwior 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Sociedad B they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Sociedad B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Real Sociedad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Real Sociedad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match19 Feb 2028
After 10 games, Real Sociedad finally taste it again
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Celta; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marco Bleve has just signed for Real Sociedad, and for once the answer mattered.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Orri Óskarsson wants continental football; whether Real Sociedad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Isaac Romero 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 Jakub Kiwior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Alessandro Micai has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Real Sociedad have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Sociedad B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Real Sociedad B can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomy Carbonell was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Darío Ramírez has his answer from Real Sociedad B; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B can pretend not to have heard.
Iñaki Rupérez 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Real Sociedad B can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unax Agote was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
VfB Stuttgart paid $110.0M and Real Sociedad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Atlético Madrid paid $19.0M and Real Sociedad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Takefusa Kubo has gone, the accounts have $110.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Yangel Herrera 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.
Real Sociedad asked and Granada said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces3 Jan 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gabriel Mesquita is living that version at Real Sociedad B, and it tends to show in the first month.
Iván Villar 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 had been thinking. Jon Pacheco 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Real Sociedad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Elche will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Real Sociedad were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Aitor Fraga: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Héctor Fort did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Sociedad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Sociedad B can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gorka Gorosabel did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Tomy Carbonell, marked 7.73, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Mirandés were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unax Agote was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jon Pacheco 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 23 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.
Yangel Herrera 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Jakub Kiwior 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Real Sociedad will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
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 7.63 for the rest of 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 Real Sociedad 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 Jakub Kiwior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Yangel Herrera scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Real Madrid, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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 Tomás Gallardo to a room that had heard them before.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Real Sociedad told Beñat Turrientes something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Yangel Herrera 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Real Sociedad will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unax Agote 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jaime Solís after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lander Astiazarán has come out of that comparison in the side, and Real Sociedad B have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Sociedad B, and both men came out saying it was fine.