Marked for Simon Simoni
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Feb 2030
Ricardo Rodríguez damages knee ligaments — 46 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Market11 Feb 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Luzern can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Feb 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sai Van Wermeskerken will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Luzern the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom11 Feb 2030
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Sai Van Wermeskerken has agreed terms with Zurich for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Luzern
Matteo di Giusto 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 Feb 2030
Leonardo Bertone 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Feb 2030
Ricardo Rodríguez damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
Market4 Feb 2030
Luzern say no — this time
The offer from Union Berlin for Simon Simoni 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.
Market4 Feb 2030
“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.
Market4 Feb 2030
Luzern may not be able to give Lars Villiger what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lars Villiger wants continental football; whether Luzern can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad4 Feb 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ricardo Rodríguez commits to Luzern for another 2 years.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Tyron Owusu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Luzern this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jan 2030
Ricardo Rodríguez damages knee ligaments — 64 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Market28 Jan 2030
“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 Luzern, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Jan 2030
Silvan Mvogo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Luzern they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Tempers go at Luzern
Tyron Owusu 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at Luzern training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo di Giusto 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sinan Karweina, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jun 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Luzern can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Jun 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Luzern heard it as anything else.
Market4 Jun 2029
Loris Zakaria has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Luzern they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Tempers go at Luzern
Matteo di Giusto 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.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Leonardo Bertone 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.
Market4 Jun 2029
Simon Simoni comes back from a loan that worked
39 appearances and 0 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 May 2029
The run at home goes on for Málaga
18 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad21 May 2029
A one-man rearguard from Simon Simoni
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad21 May 2029
A season average of 7.34 with 24 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad21 May 2029
Bryan Gil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Málaga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Málaga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Larrubia 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.
Match19 May 2029
A 2‑0 win over Valladolid, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 May 2029
Ninety minutes of Chupete at his very best
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Málaga.
Player ratings21 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 May 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Málaga know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 May 2029
Tempers go at Luzern
Matteo di Giusto 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 May 2029
Leonardo Bertone 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.
Boardroom14 May 2029
Still no name above the door at Luzern
Day 13 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Loan watch14 May 2029
37 starts and a season average of 7.00. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
Market14 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pascal Loretz’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad14 May 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Luzern, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Apr 2029
Pius Dorn in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Luzern this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Luzern training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo di Giusto 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
Pressure builds in the Luzern boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
Crisis meeting at Luzern
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Tempers go at Luzern
Matteo di Giusto 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Leonardo Bertone 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Ricardo Rodríguez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Luzern 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Mar 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 Luzern, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Pius Dorn in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Luzern this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Luzern training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo di Giusto 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Feb 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad26 Feb 2029
“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.
Market26 Feb 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Málaga can pretend not to have heard.
Match24 Feb 2029
Nobody wants to play Málaga right now
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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Bryan Gil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Málaga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Feb 2029
15 goals and a season average of 7.27. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match24 Feb 2029
Three points for Málaga, 3‑1 the final word against Valencia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.86, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Chupete at his very best
-
Market
Izan Merino linked with a move away
-
The terraces
The spotlight tightens on Aarón Ochoa
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Feb 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 Luzern, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Tempers go at Luzern
Matteo di Giusto 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Leonardo Bertone 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Luzern are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Pascal Loretz has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Luzern 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.
Market19 Feb 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Pascal Loretz’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Jan 2029
“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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Pius Dorn in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Luzern this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Words at Luzern training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo di Giusto 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Jan 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 Málaga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Víctor García: 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.” Málaga have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Jan 2029
A one-man rearguard from Simon Simoni
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Bryan Gil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Málaga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words at Málaga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alfonso Herrero 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.
Match13 Jan 2029
The run at home goes on for Málaga
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match13 Jan 2029
A 1‑1 draw with Andorra leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings15 Jan 2029
Chupete keeps on missing
Shots: 7, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Jan 2029
Stephan Seiler: 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.” Luzern have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market1 Jan 2029
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Luzern heard it as anything else.
Squad1 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Luzern this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Sinan Karweina 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
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.
Market1 Jan 2029
Gonzalo Senn is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Luzern has been clear about where Gonzalo Senn stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match16 Dec 2028
13 unbeaten for Málaga
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 13 matches without defeat is a foundation Málaga did not have in the autumn.
Market18 Dec 2028
Menno Koch hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Málaga can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market18 Dec 2028
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.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Bryan Gil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Málaga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Dec 2028
Words at Málaga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Larrubia 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 ratings18 Dec 2028
Izan Merino was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.74. 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.
Match16 Dec 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Izan Merino. 1‑0 against Las Palmas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad18 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Aarón Ochoa
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Dec 2028
“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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ricardo Rodríguez commits to Luzern for another 2 years.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Tempers go at Luzern
Pius Dorn 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Matteo di Giusto 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
“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.
Market4 Dec 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bung Meng Freimann’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match8 Nov 2028
Málaga march on in the cup
Las Palmas are out and Málaga go through, 2‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Match11 Nov 2028
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Cádiz, and it could have been more.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Two goals and a mark of 9.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match13 Nov 2028
Málaga are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 24 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad13 Nov 2028
A one-man rearguard from Simon Simoni
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match11 Nov 2028
Nobody wants to play Málaga right now
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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Tempers go at Málaga
Bryan Gil 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Alfonso Herrero 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Defences have started doubling up on Dani Lorenzo
10 goals and a season average of 7.39 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Nov 2028
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“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.
Squad6 Nov 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 Luzern this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sam Kane is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match4 Nov 2028
Young Boys made Luzern work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market6 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Bung Meng Freimann’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch6 Nov 2028
10 appearances at Le Havre AC and the goals keep coming. Luzern are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match28 Oct 2028
Málaga throw away a 2-goal lead
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Espanyol the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Málaga will enjoy reviewing.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A one-man rearguard from Simon Simoni
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market30 Oct 2028
Málaga may not be able to give Bryan Gil what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Bryan Gil wants continental football; whether Málaga can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Málaga
Bryan Gil 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Alfonso Herrero 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 ratings30 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Izan Merino
“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 ratings30 Oct 2028
Dani Lorenzo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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 ratings30 Oct 2028
One of those days for Bryan Gil
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match23 Sep 2028
A hiding for Málaga
Beaten 0‑4 by Albacete, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Bryan Gil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Málaga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Málaga training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Larrubia 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 ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Izan Merino gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad25 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Chupete's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The terraces25 Sep 2028
The spotlight tightens on Simon Simoni
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.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Chupete leaves them behind him
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
In brief
-
Market
Chupete linked with a move away
-
Player ratings
Garri could not find anything
-
Player ratings
A day to forget for Julen Lobete
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“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 Sep 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Málaga
Bryan Gil 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Alfonso Herrero 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
Still nobody has beaten Málaga
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Ninety minutes of Dani Lorenzo at his very best
Marked 8.61. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Málaga.
Match16 Sep 2028
Honours even between Málaga and Burgos
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market18 Sep 2028
The name of Alfonso Herrero keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Málaga say nothing, which says plenty.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Joaquín could not find anything
-
The terraces
The spotlight tightens on Joaquín
-
Market
Ítalo Melo placed on the list
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad4 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Málaga may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A one-man rearguard from Simon Simoni
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad4 Sep 2028
A move Víctor García would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Víctor García is living that version at Málaga, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market4 Sep 2028
Izan Merino wants to know where this is going
“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 Málaga hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Bryan Gil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Málaga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market4 Sep 2028
The shirt still fits. Víctor García is back at Málaga, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Match2 Sep 2028
Almería made Málaga work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces4 Sep 2028
The crowd has taken to Izan Merino
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.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Dani Lorenzo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.71. 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.
In brief
-
Player ratings
Ninety minutes of Izan Merino at his very best
-
Player ratings
David Larrubia runs at them all day
-
Boardroom
Málaga release $17.3M for the manager
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Aug 2028
Adrián Niño takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad21 Aug 2028
A one-man rearguard from Simon Simoni
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
No sign of nerves from Aarón Ochoa at 21 — 7.83
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aarón Ochoa did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Menno Koch gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Menno Koch has just signed for Málaga, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Bryan Gil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Málaga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market21 Aug 2028
As if he never left: Ítalo Melo returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ítalo Melo is a Málaga player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A performance of 9.97 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
Veton Berisha damages knee ligaments — 58 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sai Van Wermeskerken is living that version at Luzern, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mio Zimmermann is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Luzern
Pius Dorn 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
Experience through the door at Luzern
Sai Van Wermeskerken arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Market10 Jul 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Luzern know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Jul 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 Málaga, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Rafita keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Málaga may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Bryan Gil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Málaga this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Jun 2028
The bid was some way short and Luzern did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market19 Jun 2028
Sam Kane hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Luzern can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Luzern
Matteo di Giusto 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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tyron Owusu and Luzern agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Leonardo Bertone 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
Le Havre AC are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Luzern will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jun 2028
Luzern say no — this time
The offer from Catania for Andrej Vasović 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.
Squad5 Jun 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 Luzern this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Luzern training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matteo di Giusto 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Luzern have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad5 Jun 2028
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.
Market5 Jun 2028
The name of Pascal Loretz keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Luzern say nothing, which says plenty.