“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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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
SquadYangel Herrera falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
“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.
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
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Yangel Herrera
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Player ratingsPeque was the difference for Almería
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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
SquadYangel Herrera falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
“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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
$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.
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.
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.
$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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad29 May 2028
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.
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.
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.
Squad22 May 2028
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Squad1 May 2028
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.
“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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Gui’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Almería.
Squad24 Apr 2028
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 ratings24 Apr 2028
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.
“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 dugout24 Apr 2028
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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
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.
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.
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 dugout20 Dec 2027
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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 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.
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.
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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
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 ratingsPatrick Soko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Arda Güler at his very best
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
The dugoutIbrahima Koné knocks on the manager's door
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.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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
MarketNobody at Almería has picked up the phone to Gui
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
0‑1 to Racing Santander, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 May 2027
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 dugout10 May 2027
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.
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.
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
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Thalys's mistake
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.
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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Peque’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Almería.
Squad5 Apr 2027
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.
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.
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.