Thalys

Attacking Midfielder (R) - Almería
25 Jan 2029
Thursday
Process

Marked for Thalys

129 Edition

The Almería Gazette

15 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Thalys says no to Valencia

“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Thalys had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.

Market

Almería turn down Real Madrid for Arda Güler

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Transfer targets

Unai Marrero due for a Almería medical

Everything agreed with Real Sociedad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Market

Imanol Varela agrees terms with Valladolid

The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Almería people have started saying his name in the past tense.

The dugout

Moisés Brandán keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Almería may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

Peque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Arda Güler was unplayable

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.

Market

Gui wants to know where this is going

“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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Franco Morales gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Franco Morales has just signed for Almería, and for once the answer mattered.

In brief

Back issues
128 Edition

The Almería Gazette

8 Jan 2029
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Almería say no — this time

The offer from Olympiacos for Peque 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.

Transfer targets

Almería rebuffed over Vladyslav Vanat

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Girona have kept their man, and Almería go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Wojciech Szczęsny

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Almería have done the hard part with Barcelona, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Market

Moisés Brandán 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 Almería can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Eyes on Thalys again

The phone has started ringing about Thalys again, and this time the name on the line is Valencia. Almería are listening politely and promising nothing.

Squad

Yangel Herrera signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yangel Herrera commits to Almería for another 3 years.

Squad

Peque 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 Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Lucas Robertone wants to know where this is going

“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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

A row about effort at Almería

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arda Güler was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

123 Edition

The Almería Gazette

4 Dec 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Almería say no — this time

The offer from Deportivo Cali for Javi Muñoz 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.

Market

Peque wants to know where this is going

“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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

Almería may not be able to give Giorgi Kochorashvili what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Giorgi Kochorashvili wants continental football; whether Almería can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Peque 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Almería

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yangel Herrera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Giorgi Kochorashvili

“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.

Player ratings

Nico Melamed was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 19. 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.

Match

Almería caught on 91 minutes

The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Oviedo scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.

Squad

Ibrahima Koné slips down the pecking order

The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ibrahima Koné is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.

In brief

120 Edition

The Almería Gazette

13 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Fernando

31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Almería lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Almería through in the cup

A 1‑0 win over Zaragoza, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.

Match

Almería win it in stoppage time

The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Cultural Leonesa will replay every second of the added time for a week.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Patrick Soko

Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Lucas Robertone pops up at the right end — 7.78

7.78, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.

Player ratings

André Horta pops up at the right end — 7.98

7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.

Squad

Peque 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 Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Only the photograph left for Agustín Heredia

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Heredia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Almería the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Gui wants to know where this is going

“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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

In brief

119 Edition

The Almería Gazette

6 Nov 2028
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

The knee: Fernando out for 39 days

39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

The dugout

Nicolás Gómez: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Almería have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Squad

Fernando has been here 10 seasons

300 appearances across 10 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.

Market

Daijiro Chirino raises the bar for Almería

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Almería heard it as anything else.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Peque 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.

Player ratings

Arda Güler runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Market

Andrés Arroyo has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Almería can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Match

Almería come up short against Mirandés

Mirandés left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Thalys

“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.

In brief

113 Edition

The Almería Gazette

25 Sep 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Fernando out for 87 days

87 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

A fracture rules José Luis Palomino out for 44 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Almería will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Market

Yangel Herrera wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the Almería dugout

40 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.

Player ratings

Arda Güler runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

Peque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Late, late show earns Almería a point

Minute 95, against Levante, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

The dugout

Thalys gets it from the manager

“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.

Player ratings

Nobody on the pitch touched Peque

7.86, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Almería had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.

In brief

  • Loan watch Selvi counts the days
  • The dugout Somebody else is better right now than Jon Guridi
  • The dugout Jon Guridi asks for a word with the manager
107 Edition

The Almería Gazette

14 Aug 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules José Luis Palomino out for 91 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Almería will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Transfer targets

The paperwork begins on Álvaro Fernández

A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Almería have done the hard part with Villarreal, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.

Transfer targets

Almería rebuffed over Vladyslav Vanat

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Girona have kept their man, and Almería go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Squad

Thalys is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Peque 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.

Squad

Daijiro Chirino has improved at 26, 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. 4 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.

Market

Eyes on Ramón Villalba again

The phone has started ringing about Ramón Villalba again, and this time the name on the line is KV Kortrijk. Almería are listening politely and promising nothing.

Market

Marcos Luna wants to know where this is going

“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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Market

The Peque question follows Almería around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Peque’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

97 Edition

The Almería Gazette

5 Jun 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Transfer targets

Almería make their move for Vladyslav Vanat

$17.4M on the table at Girona. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Market

Almería say no — this time

The offer from Atlético Madrid for Arda Güler 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.

Match

Full time on the season at Almería

Position 4 on 75 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.

Transfer targets

Almería make their move for Toni Martínez

$13.0M on the table at Alavés. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

Player ratings

A brace, and Thalys takes the afternoon — 8.96

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thalys provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Transfer targets

Cultural Leonesa tell Almería: Lucas Ribeiro is not for sale

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.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Arda Güler

22 goals and a season average of 7.37 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Nélson Monte 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 Almería can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets

Almería make their move for Yann Bodiger

$1.8M on the table at Ceuta. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.

In brief

  • Market Peque raises the bar for Almería
  • Market Only the photograph left for Selvi
  • Squad Peque in a row with a teammate
96 Edition

The Almería Gazette

29 May 2028
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Peque is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.32 with 27 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Álex Muñoz has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Almería they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Boardroom

Almería to lose Fabricio Pérez Espósito for free

There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Fabricio Pérez Espósito has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

Peque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Lucas Robertone has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Almería can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Player ratings

Peque beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

Almería get the job done against Cádiz

A 3‑2 win over Cádiz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Stefan Džodić

At 23 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.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Horta 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.

In brief

95 Edition

The Almería Gazette

22 May 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Almería may not be able to give Yangel Herrera what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yangel Herrera wants continental football; whether Almería can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Peque 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.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Muñoz 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 ratings

Daijiro Chirino stands above it all

Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.40 on the card, and the Almería support went home talking about one name.

The dugout

Half-satisfied: Mario Prieto on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

The dugout

When it matters, Ibrahima Koné plays

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.

The dugout

Thalys is still paying for one afternoon at Almería

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

Player ratings

Patrick Soko beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 13. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

The form table has caught Gonzalo Aquilino

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

92 Edition

The Almería Gazette

1 May 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Peque

Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Arda Güler

20 goals and a season average of 7.35 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Álex Muñoz has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Almería they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

Peque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Gui wants more than Almería are offering

“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.

Match

Ibrahima Koné the difference as Almería beat Real Sociedad B

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ibrahima Koné. 1‑0 against Real Sociedad B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

100 appearances for Thalys

100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Muñoz 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 ratings

Ibrahima Koné takes the honours

Marked 7.90 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Almería had the best player on the pitch.

In brief

  • The dugout No place for André Horta on the big day
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Álex Muñoz
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
91 Edition

The Almería Gazette

24 Apr 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Patrick Soko beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 36. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Peque is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.31 with 25 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Daijiro Chirino wants to know where this is going

“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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Peque 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.

Match

Gui sends Almería past Valladolid

It finished 1‑0, and it was Gui’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Almería.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Horta 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 ratings

Gui was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.09. 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of André Horta

“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.

The dugout

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.” Mario Prieto, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

In brief

  • The dugout Ibrahima Koné gets picked when it counts
  • The dugout The manager has not finished forgetting Thalys's mistake
  • Market The Peque question follows Almería around
83 Edition

The Almería Gazette

28 Feb 2028
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Almería run riot against Getafe

4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Match

Almería cannot stop winning

7 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.

Player ratings

Peque scores twice — 8.85

Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Peque is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.36 with 23 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Market

Peque wants more than Almería are offering

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Yangel Herrera 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.

Match

Almería keep winning on the road

4 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.

Squad

Thalys signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thalys commits to Almería for another 5 years.

Squad

Lucas Robertone reaches 200 appearances

200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.

In brief

  • Player ratings One of those days for Nico Melamed
  • Player ratings Arda Güler was on a different afternoon to everybody else
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of André Horta
77 Edition

The Almería Gazette

17 Jan 2028
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Nico Melamed was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 29. 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.

Market

Peque attracts admirers

The name of Peque has come up in conversations Almería were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Player ratings

Up for the corner, and Gui delivers — 7.82

Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gui scored, was marked 7.82, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.

Market

Agustín Ortega puts it in writing

“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 Almería, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Almería sign Cristian Duma for $1.1M

The paperwork is done: Cristian Duma joins from Elche in a deal worth $1.1M. Now comes the harder part.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Peque

18 goals and a season average of 7.28 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Yangel Herrera wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Squad

Peque 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 Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

6 goals as Almería and Huesca go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Almería and Huesca, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

In brief

73 Edition

The Almería Gazette

20 Dec 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Nico Melamed runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Yangel Herrera 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.

Squad

André Horta 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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Arda Güler at his very best

Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Almería.

Match

Late, late show earns Almería a point

Minute 89, against Andorra, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.

Match

Almería share the spoils with Andorra

A 1‑1 draw with Andorra leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

The dugout

André Horta 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.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Mario Prieto chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.

The dugout

Thalys is still paying for one afternoon at Almería

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

In brief

66 Edition

The Almería Gazette

1 Nov 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

The knee: Carles Soria out for 14 days

14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Player ratings

Nico Melamed was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 32. 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.

Player ratings

Both of them Yangel Herrera's — 8.21

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.21, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Peque 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 Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Gui wants more than Almería are offering

“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.

Market

Iván Sandoval wants European nights

The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.

Match

Yangel Herrera the difference as Almería beat Ceuta

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yangel Herrera. 3‑2 against Ceuta, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Match

Yangel Herrera at the heart of a fast Almería start

2 goals inside twenty minutes with Yangel Herrera in the middle of it, and Ceuta unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Horta 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.

In brief

  • Player ratings Patrick Soko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
  • Player ratings Ninety minutes of Arda Güler at his very best
  • The dugout No hiding place for Thalys
57 Edition

The Almería Gazette

30 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

The knee: José Luis Palomino out for 57 days

57 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Squad

Andrés Fernández stands alone

12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Squad

A fracture rules André Horta out for 49 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Almería will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

The dugout

Thalys says Almería went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Marco Antonio Bueno puts it in writing

“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 Almería, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Daijiro Chirino wants to know where this is going

“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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Peque 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.

Player ratings

Arda Güler in the eights

A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Player ratings

Nico Melamed in the eights

A performance of 8.01 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

54 Edition

The Almería Gazette

9 Aug 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

José Luis Palomino damages knee ligaments — 83 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.

Squad

A fracture rules André Horta out for 71 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Almería will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Transfer targets

Almería agree $950.0K for Iván Sandoval

The clubs have shaken hands with Cádiz; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Squad

The step up is real for Arda Güler

At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Squad

A move Tomáš Digaňa would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tomáš Digaňa is living that version at Almería, and it tends to show in the first month.

The dugout

Thalys is still being punished for one mistake

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.

Market

The Daijiro Chirino question follows Almería around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Daijiro Chirino’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

Market

Almería and Tomáš Digaňa are talking past each other

“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.

The dugout

When it matters, Arvin Appiah plays

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.

In brief

50 Edition

The Almería Gazette

12 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

José Luis Palomino damages knee ligaments — 117 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 117 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.

Squad

103 days out for André Horta after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Almería will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Transfer targets

Almería agree $1.7M for Ramón Villalba

The clubs have shaken hands with Leganés; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Market

Brian Fernández 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 Almería can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Daijiro Chirino wants more than Almería are offering

“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.

Squad

Peque 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 Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Almería rebuffed over Thiago Silvero

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vélez have kept their man, and Almería go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Almería promote Manuel Navarro from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Manuel Navarro 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.

Market

Almería promote Carlos Márquez from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Carlos Márquez 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.

In brief

  • Squad Thalys signs on for more
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Brian Fernández
  • The dugout Thalys is still being punished for one mistake
49 Edition

The Almería Gazette

5 Jul 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

111 days out for André Horta after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Almería will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Álex Muñoz puts it in writing

“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 Almería, and it is not being withdrawn.

The dugout

Ibrahima Koné says Almería went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Yangel Herrera raises the bar for Almería

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Almería heard it as anything else.

Squad

Thalys is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Peque 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 targets

Door shut on Sinan Bakış

Almería asked and Zaragoza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

Gui signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gui commits to Almería for another 4 years.

Boardroom

Intake day at the Almería academy

7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.

In brief

48 Edition

The Almería Gazette

28 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

André Horta breaks a bone — 120 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Almería get their man

The chase for Yangel Herrera ended with $9.4M changing hands and Real Sociedad out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.

Market

Brian Cipenga asks to leave Almería

“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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Peque 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.

Squad

Real improvement from Áron Yaakobishvili at Almería

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Áron Yaakobishvili is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Late improvement for Daijiro Chirino

At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

Transfer targets

Almería try to borrow Thiago Silvero

Vélez 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.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Thalys

“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.

Market

The Peque question follows Almería around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Peque’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

In brief

46 Edition

The Almería Gazette

14 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

140 days out for André Horta after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Almería will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Business is business: Sergio Arribas goes

Sevilla paid $21.8M and Almería took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Market

Villarreal come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Almería did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Transfer targets

Fee done, terms next for Gonzalo Aquilino

Almería and Deportivo La Coruña have settled on $2.2M. 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Álvaro Valles

Almería 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.

Market

Chumi moves on

Villarreal pay $5.3M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.

Squad

Daijiro Chirino signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daijiro Chirino commits to Almería for another 4 years.

Squad

Peque 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 Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Almería sell Mikel Vesga for $920.0K

Mikel Vesga has left for Celta in a $920.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

In brief

  • Squad A muscle injury sidelines Javi Muñoz for 15 days
  • The dugout The manager makes an example of Brian Fernández
  • The dugout The manager has not finished forgetting Thalys's mistake
41 Edition

The Almería Gazette

10 May 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Match

Racing Santander end the Almería run at 16

Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 16 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Marc Bernal 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.

Player ratings

Jon Morcillo runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

A bad afternoon for Almería against Racing Santander

0‑1 to Racing Santander, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Álex Muñoz 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 dugout

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 Mario Prieto to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

Álex Muñoz gets it from the manager

“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.

Squad

No place for Lucas Ontivero in the new shape

He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Almería are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.

The dugout

Almería pick somebody else ahead of Brian Fernández

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.

In brief

36 Edition

The Almería Gazette

5 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Nobody wants to play Almería right now

5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

Peque is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.21 with 19 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Marc Bernal 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.

Squad

Carles Soria signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carles Soria and Almería agree another 3 years.

Match

Peque sends Almería past Mirandés

It finished 1‑0, and it was Peque’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Almería.

Squad

André Horta 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.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Peque

Marked 8.04 — 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.

Player ratings

Arda Güler runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The dugout

Carles Soria left out for the big one

A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Carles Soria will call it something else in private.

In brief