Marked for Brandon Gómez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Espanyol
7 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.
Market27 Sep 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Espanyol, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Espanyol may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Brandon Gómez 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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Tyrhys Dolan 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.
Match25 Sep 2027
The goals have deserted Espanyol
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Espanyol can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Espanyol
Álvaro Lemos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Espanyol can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces24 May 2027
The mood at Espanyol has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad24 May 2027
Kike García 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 Espanyol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Espanyol 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Tyrhys Dolan has had enough of the noise
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Market24 May 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Omar El Hilali signs something — a contract at Espanyol or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Brandon Gómez, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager makes Kike García a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Espanyol. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout24 May 2027
Andoni Gorosabel asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Espanyol
Dean Huijsen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market18 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Espanyol have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Brandon Gómez gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Brandon Gómez has just signed for Espanyol, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
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.
Match16 Jan 2027
Getafe made Espanyol work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Ninety minutes of Pol Lozano at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Espanyol.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Chances created: 12. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Espanyol 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Espanyol have made Edu Expósito available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Sep 2026
7 matches without a win for San Telmo
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around San Telmo are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Juan Cruz Zurbriggen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at San Telmo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Batallini 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 ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fabián Henríquez, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
San Telmo will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at San Telmo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Half-satisfied: Enzo Benítez 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.