22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Girona lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Girona 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 The request is on a desk at Girona, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Girona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Girona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 The request is on a desk at Girona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 7.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Girona they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Diego Burlacu has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Girona will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Girona can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Girona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ramiro Villella has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Yacouba Meïté has, at Girona, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Girona lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Girona, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ramzy El Khiari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Girona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Girona lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luca Messori will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Girona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7.94, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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 words a physio says slowly. 84 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
A brace, and Gastón Valles takes the afternoon — 8.62
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gastón Valles provided it, and the 8.62 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Girona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Girona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reiss Russell-Denny was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Girona lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Girona, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Girona is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Gastón Valles 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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Girona know now that the thought has arrived.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reiss Russell-Denny was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tiago Simoni will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Girona the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Tiago Simoni has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Gastón Valles 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Girona are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Pedrazzini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Girona can pretend not to have heard.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Gastón Valles 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.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Words at Girona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reiss Russell-Denny 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Benjamín Pérez has just signed for Girona, and for once the answer mattered.
$2.7M on the table at Barcelona. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Girona have paid $830.0K for Nicolás Pedrazzini, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Everything agreed with Barcelona, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Ahmed Khaled was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $22.7M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Words at Girona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bautista Goncebat 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.
“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 Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Everybody at Getafe saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Getafe has been clear about where Ignacio Gularte stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fran Gil signs something — a contract at Getafe or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Benjamín Pérez’s negotiating for him
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Getafe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fran Gil 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.
Squad15 May 2034
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefer Gunjo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jefer Gunjo. 1‑0 against Arenteiro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 7.66 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Getafe had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout15 May 2034
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Getafe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamín Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Getafe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 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.
“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 Getafe know it.
Kauê Canela 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.
Squad8 May 2034
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fran Gil 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. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gregorio Blanco provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Getafe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Kauê Canela 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gregorio Blanco. 2‑0 against Real Madrid Castilla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Getafe has been clear about where Namory Dosso Koné stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Getafe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Getafe can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Getafe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Getafe can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Kauê Canela 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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Getafe had all but put away. Villarreal B will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Nobody at Getafe will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Getafe are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad27 Mar 2034
8 new faces, and Getafe 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.
Nobody at Getafe will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamín Pérez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Getafe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Getafe can pretend not to have heard.
Kauê Canela 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 Jefer Gunjo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Getafe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Getafe can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe 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 Fran Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Getafe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Getafe can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Martín Torres has just signed for Getafe, and for once the answer mattered.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Ponferradina keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Getafe are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Kauê Canela 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 Fran Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Getafe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Getafe can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Benjamín Pérez has agreed terms with Girona for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Kauê Canela 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 Fran Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Getafe asked and Deportivo La Coruña said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giannis Christodoulopoulos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Getafe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fran Gil 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.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ben van Dorssen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Getafe are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
14 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Luciano García
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Getafe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Kauê Canela 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Illia Davydok has just signed for Getafe, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fran Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Hércules; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Getafe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fran Gil 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.
Squad24 Oct 2033
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eric Gamen 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.
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.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Getafe could ask drops and the wages Facundo Montiel can ask rise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Getafe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Giannis Christodoulopoulos has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Fran Gil 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.
Squad3 Oct 2033
Eric Gamen 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $97.4K of what Getafe paid for Ilian Saleh is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Getafe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom5 Sep 2033
Deadline passes with 25 signed and 37 gone
That is the business done at Getafe 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.
Getafe offered $570.0K; Atlético Madrid said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Fran Gil 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Las Palmas have kept their man, and Getafe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Getafe people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Getafe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Getafe had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Athletic Bilbao, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
A conversation is coming this week. Getafe will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad22 Aug 2033
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Montiel 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barcelona have kept their man, and Getafe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Getafe have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Getafe can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sevilla keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fran Gil 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Getafe asked and Rayo Vallecano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Pérez 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 Getafe know it.
In brief
The dugoutGori is still being punished for one mistake
Transfer targetsA loan move for Augusto Levrand is in the works
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Getafe people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Getafe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Getafe had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Ponferradina, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Getafe can pretend not to have heard.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The offer from Ibiza for Gregorio Blanco 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Getafe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.