Marked for Simon Eriksson
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Nov 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Racing Santander, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Nov 2026
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Carlos Arana, and the manager let it.
Match28 Nov 2026
Córdoba left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Mario García 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Racing Santander told Germán Parreño something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match31 Oct 2026
Zaragoza left with the points after a 4‑5 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Íñigo Vicente was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.48. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Andrés Martín
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 23 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Pablo Ramón 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Simon Eriksson is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. 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
Match3 Oct 2026
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Ceuta the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Racing Santander will enjoy reviewing.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 7.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Pablo Ramón 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.89 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Germán Parreño
“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.
Match3 Oct 2026
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Sergio Martínez 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Leandro Soares 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2026
1‑1 against Huesca, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Sergio Canales yet — 8.57
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.57 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Gustavo Puerta 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Simon Eriksson is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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 ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Manu Hernando at his very best
Marked 9.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Racing Santander.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Gustavo Puerta
“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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Lucas Sotero for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Racing Santander will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.38 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
Pablo Ramón 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Granada left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Mario García 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A smaller club would suit Andrés Martín now
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Racing Santander can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
5.23 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
5.57 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.