Marked for Álex Rubio
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Hernán Claro breaks a bone — 44 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Nov 2026
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Albacete
Antonio Puertas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Nov 2026
Late, late show earns Albacete a point
Minute 88, against Granada, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Loan watch23 Nov 2026
“I watch every Albacete game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Osasuna runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Álex Rubio 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Higinio 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Granada leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The form table has caught Fran Gámez
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Fran Gámez knocks on the manager’s door
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Player ratings
José Carlos Lazo beats them one at a time
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 35. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Hernán Claro breaks a bone — 59 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Antonio Puertas 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mateo Gil has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market9 Nov 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Enrique Medina is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Isaac Aketxe 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Álex Rubio 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
It needed Mario Soberón to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Real Sociedad B, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Nov 2026
Hernán Claro breaks a bone — 66 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match31 Oct 2026
Gijón left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Carlos Marín
“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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Pepe Sánchez 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Albacete
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Rubio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad2 Nov 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Agustín Pérez
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Hernán Claro breaks a bone — 73 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Albacete may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Agus Medina goes up and wins it — 7.56
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 7.56 for the rest of it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Albacete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Neva 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Albacete
Álex Rubio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Albacete
16 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.
Loan watch26 Oct 2026
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Albacete, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Lluís 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Oct 2026
88 days out for Hernán Claro after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Albacete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match10 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Albacete
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Ricard Artero: 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.” Albacete have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match10 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Albacete
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Albacete can tell you which week it ends in.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Enrique Campos has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Match10 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Albacete against Eibar
0‑1 to Eibar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Álex Rubio 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Fran Gámez
“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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad31 Aug 2026
136 days out for Hernán Claro after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Albacete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market31 Aug 2026
The fee is $7.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Almería drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Antonio Puertas, 34, rolls back the years — 8.14
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Albacete spend $7.7M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $7.7M for Thalys, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Albacete go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match29 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Antonio Puertas’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Albacete.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Albacete
Álex Rubio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Róber 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Albacete
15 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Ceuta spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$7.7M on the table at Almería. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market24 Aug 2026
Albacete say no — this time
The offer from Castellón for Pepe Sánchez 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Albacete
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Neva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Albacete asked and Valladolid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ceuta made Albacete work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Álex Rubio in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.