Marked for Alejandro Hales
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gefle can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Gefle
Malïk Mokédé 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 ratings26 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Gefle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Måns Berggren 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.
Match24 Jun 2028
A 1‑0 win over BK Hacken, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
A performance of 8.35 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings26 Jun 2028
18 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Hales, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Jun 2028
11 matches without a win for Gefle
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Gefle are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gefle may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 May 2028
“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.
Match27 May 2028
No end in sight to Gefle's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gefle has to find a result from somewhere.
Match29 May 2028
Every point is an argument now for Gefle
Position 14 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad29 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gefle this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
A move Alejandro Hales 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. Alejandro Hales is living that version at Gefle, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Gefle training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alem Nezirević 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.
Match27 May 2028
Malïk Mokédé scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to IF Elfsborg, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad29 May 2028
“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 ratings29 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match1 Apr 2028
7 matches without a win for Palestino
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Palestino are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Palestino — 7.76
1 for Antonio Ceza, marked 7.76, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Market3 Apr 2028
Joao Moris has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Palestino they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Julián Fernández 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 ratings3 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Palestino training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joe Abrigo 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.
Market3 Apr 2028
Jason León told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Jason León has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Palestino.
Match1 Apr 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Colo-Colo leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Palestino 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.