Marked for Kevin Mfuamba
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2032
Denys Halenkov damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Boardroom14 Jun 2032
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Eibar
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market14 Jun 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Eibar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Adu Ares 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 Eibar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Jon Magunazelaia 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 Jun 2032
Wages eat 127% of everything Eibar earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad14 Jun 2032
“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.
Market14 Jun 2032
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kevin Mfuamba has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Eibar.
Market14 Jun 2032
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Eibar will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
In brief
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Market
Javi Martón linked with a move away
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Boardroom
The Eibar production line keeps running
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Jan 2032
31 matches without a win for Eibar
The run now stands at 31, and the questions being asked around Eibar are no longer polite ones.
Match12 Jan 2032
Eibar are in real trouble now
Position 22, 6 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings12 Jan 2032
Adu Ares runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market12 Jan 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ander Madariaga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Eibar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom12 Jan 2032
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Tempers go at Eibar
Adu Ares 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.
Squad12 Jan 2032
Words at Eibar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Bernat 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.
Squad12 Jan 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kevin Mfuamba, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jan 2032
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Eibar told Kevin Mfuamba something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Nov 2031
No end in sight to Eibar's wait for a win
25 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Eibar has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Eibar
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Tempers go at Eibar
Adu Ares 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.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Words at Eibar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Bernat 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 ratings1 Dec 2031
One of those days for Adu Ares
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.12, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom1 Dec 2031
Wages eat 106% of everything Eibar earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Market1 Dec 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kevin Mfuamba has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Eibar.
Match29 Nov 2031
Honours even between Eibar and Huesca
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Andrea Beghetto dropped after a run of poor form
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Nov 2031
The wait goes on for Eibar
23 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.
Player ratings17 Nov 2031
Adu Ares runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 42. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match17 Nov 2031
Eibar sink to position 22
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market17 Nov 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market17 Nov 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ander Madariaga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Eibar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Tempers go at Eibar
Áron Yaakobishvili 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.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Words at Eibar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brian Ocampo 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.
Match15 Nov 2031
Brian Ocampo scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Cádiz, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Player ratings17 Nov 2031
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Nov 2031
The wait goes on for Eibar
22 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.
Match8 Nov 2031
A hiding for Eibar
Beaten 0‑3 by Córdoba, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings10 Nov 2031
Adu Ares runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Nov 2031
Adu Ares 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 Eibar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Nov 2031
Juan Bernat 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.
Boardroom10 Nov 2031
Still no name above the door at Eibar
Day 9 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.
Boardroom10 Nov 2031
Nobody left the Eibar dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad10 Nov 2031
The manager makes an example of Kevin Mfuamba
“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.
Squad10 Nov 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Jun 2031
Eibar are in real trouble now
Position 22, 13 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market30 Jun 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Eibar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Adu Ares 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 Eibar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Juan Bernat 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.
Squad30 Jun 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías Gómez and Eibar agree another 2 years.
Market30 Jun 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Áron Yaakobishvili’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Apr 2031
Nobody could get near Adu Ares
Successful dribbles: 45. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces14 Apr 2031
Anger at Eibar spills outside the ground
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.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Apr 2031
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.
Match12 Apr 2031
A hiding for Eibar
Beaten 0‑3 by Osasuna, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market14 Apr 2031
Only the photograph left for Kervin Arriaga
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kervin Arriaga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Eibar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom14 Apr 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Eibar
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad14 Apr 2031
Tempers go at Eibar
Adu Ares 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 Apr 2031
Words at Eibar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Bernat 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.