The offer from Osasuna for Aitor Gelardo 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.
$3.3M on the table at Deportivo La Coruña. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Pau Martínez has gone, the accounts have $2.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Add another name to the list: Celta have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Manu Hernando. The answer from Gimnàstic has not changed — yet.
The offer went to Eldense this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Burgos paid $2.0M and Gimnàstic took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miguel San Román will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gimnàstic the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Maguette Guèye 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Gimnàstic have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Girona have kept their man, and Gimnàstic go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 The request is on a desk at Gimnàstic, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gimnàstic have done the hard part with Estudiantes, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Racing Santander pay $1.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Manu Hernando 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Gimnàstic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Rueda 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gimnàstic can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
0‑3 to Hércules, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
8 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gimnàstic 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 Gimnàstic, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Tomás Castro Ponce 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 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Gimnàstic have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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 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.
Gimnàstic asked and Tenerife said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Zaragoza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mángel. The answer from Gimnàstic has not changed — yet.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnàstic lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Max scored in the 86th minute, Real Murcia had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Gimnàstic took the lot.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Gimnàstic know it.
Marked 7.82 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Gimnàstic had the best player on the pitch.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Gimnàstic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enes Sali 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maximiliano Rueda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Gimnàstic know 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 Gimnàstic, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Real Avilés have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jaume Jardí. The answer from Gimnàstic has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maximiliano Rueda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Gimnàstic know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Gimnàstic know it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jaume Jardí trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 18 and 35 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.
Tomás Castro Ponce 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 Saúl Del Cerro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gimnàstic can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
6 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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Gimnàstic can tell you which week it ends in.
Manu Hernando and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Gimnàstic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saúl Del Cerro 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gimnàstic told Manu Hernando something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Gimnàstic know it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnàstic can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
David Alba 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.
$3.4M was the most the club would pay and Almería were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Tomás Castro Ponce 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Gimnàstic may not be able to give Max what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Max wants continental football; whether Gimnàstic can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Gimnàstic asked and Valencia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Gimnàstic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Saúl Del Cerro 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gimnàstic can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad25 Jan 2027
9 new faces, and Gimnàstic are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fábio has, at Gimnàstic, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Giva Santos 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Saúl Del Cerro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gimnàstic told Enzo López something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.