Marked for Dani Díaz
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout5 Jul 2027
Takefusa Kubo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Real Sociedad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Jul 2027
The offer from Las Palmas for Dani Díaz 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.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Real Sociedad heard it as anything else.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Jon Martín is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Yangel Herrera 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Real Sociedad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Kiwior 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alavés have kept their man, and Real Sociedad go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match4 Nov 2026
A 2‑0 win over Leganés, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Match9 Nov 2026
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Dani Díaz at 20 — 8.17
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dani Díaz did not need any: 8.17, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Héctor Fort goes up and wins it — 7.49
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.49 for the rest of it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Squad9 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 Real Sociedad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Jakub Kiwior 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.
The dugout9 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
1‑2 to Osasuna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Real Sociedad will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match3 Oct 2026
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Igor Zubeldia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jakub Kiwior was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Real Sociedad
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Gonçalo Guedes is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Jakub Kiwior gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jakub Kiwior is on it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Tomás Gallardo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Real Sociedad dressing room was either.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Dani Díaz runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 13. 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
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
1‑5 to Atlético Madrid, 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jakub Kiwior 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Orri Óskarsson and Real Sociedad agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Jakub Kiwior gets it from the manager
“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 ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.14 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom31 Aug 2026
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.