Racing Santander will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Athletic Bilbao were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Manex Lozano did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Efe Korkut will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Athletic Bilbao the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mallorca can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.67 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Manu Morlanes, marked 7.76, 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.
Antonio Raíllo 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 watch every Mallorca game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Athletic Bilbao runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Manu Morlanes. 2‑0 against Valladolid, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Athletic Bilbao this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 20 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Betis tried to reorganise, Athletic Bilbao did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.10. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Athletic Bilbao.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Oihan Sancet'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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Efe Korkut will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Athletic Bilbao the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Óscar De Marcos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Athletic Bilbao game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Salernitana runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Dani Vivian is on it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Athletic Bilbao, another week without a signature from Kevin Pineda.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Athletic Bilbao know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutAlexis Cuello is still being punished for one mistake
SquadManex Lozano has seen what the next man earns
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Athletic Bilbao have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Francisco Trincão and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Efe Korkut 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.
Real Sociedad next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
“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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Athletic Bilbao is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Athletic Bilbao have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Francisco Trincão 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 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Manex Lozano and Athletic Bilbao agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. David López has, at Athletic Bilbao, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Unai Simón
SquadEfe Korkut falls out with a teammate over standards
The deal with Leiria is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Mallorca asked and Genoa said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alejandro Cortés has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
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.
12 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.
A new face in his position, and Arnau Puigmal suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Mallorca have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
12 seasons and 445 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Santiago Acosta is living that version at Mallorca, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Oviedo have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Atlético Madrid have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad2 Aug 2027
David López 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 mood at Mallorca has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luca Campagnaro has just signed for Mallorca, and for once the answer mattered.
Mallorca offered $48.0K; Las Palmas said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Parma have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
David López 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Rodríguez 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 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 Mallorca will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Luca Campagnaro is 20, and Mallorca have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mallorca heard it as anything else.
41 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Manu Morlanes 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Enrique Sanz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marc Vázquez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
The offer from Queretaro for Pablo Lara 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 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 Mallorca hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nicolò Vaccarezza has just signed for Mallorca, and for once the answer mattered.
33 games, 12 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Mallorca now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
David López 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mallorca people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AZ have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Antoniu Roca 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.
David López 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Mallorca will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutManu Morlanes asks for a word with the manager
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Karim Adeyemi 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.
Something was said to Alejandro Balde and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Position 19 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Antonio Raíllo 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 left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antoniu Roca 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
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 Àlex Márquez to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
A brace, and Arnau Puigmal takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arnau Puigmal provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I did not go to OFI to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mallorca and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Àlex Márquez to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Mallorca have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
In brief
The dugoutAdrián Liso has become a man the manager trusts
7 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mallorca heard it as anything else.
Yago Santiago 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Àlex Márquez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David López is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Antonio Raíllo 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 easiest signature of my career.” Manu Morlanes and Mallorca agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Àlex Sala 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sevilla in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Mallorca have no good answer.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Alavés scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad21 Sep 2026
David López 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 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Àlex Márquez was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Mallorca dressing room was either.
Osasuna next, and one man in the Mallorca dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A brace, and Mateo Joseph takes the afternoon — 8.66
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mateo Joseph provided it, and the 8.66 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The chase for César Palacios ended with $7.6M changing hands and Real Madrid out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mallorca can pretend not to have heard.
Mallorca offered $680.0K; Real Madrid said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Joseph 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Levante tried to reorganise, Mallorca did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
9 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadDavid López falls out with a teammate over standards
Mallorca and Elche have settled on $6.7M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Mallorca have gone to Real Madrid with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The offer went to Barcelona this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $740.2K — a club that wants David Alaba enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mallorca 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.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Betis have kept their man, and Mallorca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Sevilla for Sergi Darder 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.
The fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Pumas UNAM drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“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.
The deal with Veracruz is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The offer went to Real Madrid this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Mateo Joseph 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pablo Lara has just signed for Mallorca, and for once the answer mattered.