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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vladyslav Krapyvtsov has just signed for Athletic Bilbao, and for once the answer mattered.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Athletic Bilbao heard it as anything else.
Add another name to the list: Molde have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Álex Berenguer. The answer from Athletic Bilbao has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Athletic Bilbao go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Julen Blanco is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadMaroan Sannadi falls out with a teammate over standards
Athletic Bilbao have gone to Veracruz 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.
439 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“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 Athletic Bilbao hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Unai Simón 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. Liverpool have kept their man, and Athletic Bilbao go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“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 Girona hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Girona asked and Betis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“50 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 39 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Girona.