Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Aymane Jelbat has just signed for Bidvest Wits, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ronwen Modiba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Relebohile Mofokeng has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Álvaro Ratón 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.
$63.0K was the most the club would pay and Celta 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darío Hidalgo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ourense CF have made the call to Real Sociedad. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ourense CF has been clear about where Aymane Jelbat stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Ourense CF will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The offer went to Celta 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.
Ourense CF offered $400.0K; Antequera 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Ourense CF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mamadou Loum 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. Villarreal have kept their man, and Ourense CF go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Álvaro Ratón 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 Mamadou Loum was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Benjamin Dibrani has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Ourense CF know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oihan Rojas after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Mamadou Loum 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Sergio Benito 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 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Adri Pérez’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ourense CF needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Ourense CF have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Sergio Benito 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.
Álvaro Ratón 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Ourense CF are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Bilbao Athletic next, and one man in the Ourense CF dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.