It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Santander this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Guliashvili, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Alberto Blanco kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Racing Santander know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Racing Santander is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
That is the business done at Racing Santander 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.
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.
Matteo Prati 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.
He is 19, and nobody at Racing Santander signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Juan Carlos Arana is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutSimon Eriksson asks for a word with the manager
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Santander heard it as anything else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sergio Canales and Racing Santander agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Racing Santander asked and Platense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Still no offer on the table, and Julen Agirrezabala’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
19 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Racing Santander, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Racing Santander would admit. It shows on Saturdays.