84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valladolid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
David Alaba 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.
Day 14 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guille Bueno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.75, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Valladolid had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad30 Aug 2032
9 new faces, and Valladolid are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout30 Aug 2032
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
120 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valladolid lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juanmi Latasa signs something — a contract at Valladolid or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Valladolid 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Valladolid. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valladolid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Gijón is saying, and nobody at Valladolid is enjoying the guessing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tom Dulongpont is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Everything agreed with Girona, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad19 Jul 2032
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeray Cabanzón 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.
Cádiz will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Eduardo Aguirre has pre-agreed a move to Valladolid, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The phone has started ringing about Elyh Harrison again, and this time the name on the line is Stade Brestois. Valladolid are listening politely and promising nothing.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valladolid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
David Alaba 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 Yeray Cabanzón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Valladolid 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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 Valladolid, 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jun 2032
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeray Cabanzón 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.
“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; Valladolid are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Valladolid has been clear about where Gérald Kilota stands, which is more than many ever get.
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valladolid lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have shaken hands with Gijón; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tom Dulongpont has, at Valladolid, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
David Alaba 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.
The deal that would have taken Elyh Harrison to Almería has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Valladolid with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mario Ortega is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Almería waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Valladolid is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Favio Funes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valladolid the goodbyes have quietly begun.
David Alaba 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 medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Valladolid have done the hard part with Real Madrid, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Gijón; the supporters will say both, in that order, all 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Mirandés spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergio Martínez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valladolid the goodbyes have quietly begun.
David Alaba 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Juanmi Latasa. 2‑1 against Mirandés, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad1 Mar 2032
Guille Bueno 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.
Marked 8.26 — 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.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valladolid 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Dec 2031
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeray Cabanzón is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luken Serrano has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eduardo Medina has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
A brace, and Juanmi Latasa takes the afternoon — 9.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juanmi Latasa provided it, and the 9.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valladolid they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
David Alaba 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Add another name to the list: Independiente Medellin have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Elyh Harrison. The answer from Valladolid has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guille Bueno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Valladolid will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergio Martínez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valladolid the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valladolid 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 Guille Bueno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valladolid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
David Alaba 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Guille Bueno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings13 Oct 2031
Julien Ponceau was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
“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; Valladolid are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Diego Conde
David Alaba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Aug 2031
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guille Bueno is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 34 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Valladolid can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alejandro Marqués is on it.
The offer from Jagiellonia for Alejandro Marqués 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Independiente Medellin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valladolid have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
David Alaba 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
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.
David Alaba 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.
Valladolid asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Gabriel González is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guille Bueno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Marco Mancebo has improved at 30, 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergio Martínez, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Jul 2031
The manager has not finished forgetting Mathis Lachuer'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.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valladolid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
David Alaba 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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Somtochuwku Ezenabo has agreed terms with Getafe for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Guille Bueno 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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Deian Verón is on it.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valladolid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valladolid have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
David Alaba 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Valladolid go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valladolid they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeray Cabanzón 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valladolid know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Valladolid have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valladolid 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Valladolid had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Real Madrid, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeray Cabanzón 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 Valladolid can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valladolid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valladolid they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Valladolid, and it is not being withdrawn.
David Alaba 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 Yeray Cabanzón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marcos Navarro after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Feb 2031
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guille Bueno 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 manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alejandro Marqués is on it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juanmi Latasa signs something — a contract at Valladolid or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Huesca next, and one man in the Valladolid dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Position 6 on 43 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Elyh Harrison has written the date down.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alejandro Marqués provided it, and the 9.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Heerenveen for Elyh Harrison 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.
David Alaba 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Cristian Duma reports back to Valladolid with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alejandro Marqués. 3‑1 against Córdoba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Osasuna waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Valladolid is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The match ball belongs to Juanmi Latasa, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Boardroom3 Feb 2031
Valladolid close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
David Alaba 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 name of Elyh Harrison has come up in conversations Valladolid were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
MarketValladolid may not be able to give Garri what he wants