Marked for Javier Carbonell
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Abde 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 Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Cacereño, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.” Alberto Méndez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of David Valero
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Zamora
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Jonatan Goya knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jonatan Goya trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
Abde faces his old club
Unionistas next, and one man in the Zamora dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Zamora until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Market7 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Javier Carbonell to Hércules has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Zamora with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Zamora
Jonatan Goya 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Zamora asked and Deportivo La Coruña said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A loan move for Ángel Pérez is in the works
Zamora have made the call to Alavés. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad7 Sep 2026
No place for Andrés Campos in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Zamora are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Zamora
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jonatan Goya moves up the pecking order
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Zamora than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Pontevedra next, and one man in the Zamora dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
Carlos Ramos 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 Zamora can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pescara have kept their man, and Zamora go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market24 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Albacete have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Javier Carbonell. The answer from Zamora has not changed — yet.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Abde 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Zamora
Markel Lozano 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Zamora are still strangers to each other
5 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Ibiza come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zamora did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
No thanks: Iván Barbero rejects the move
Zamora had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Arouca, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Zamora asked and Deportivo La Coruña said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Abde 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 Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gabriel Sánchez 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pablo Ramos 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos Sánchez 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Zamora have made the call to Benfica. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mario Losada commits to Zamora for another 4 years.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zamora have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abde 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zamora this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Iván Barbero is in the works
Zamora have made the call to Arouca. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Luis Rivas is in the works
Zamora have made the call to Antequera. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The captaincy goes to Markel Lozano. It is not a job that wins matches, but a dressing room always notices who is given it.