A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Eldense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Aleix Febas 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eldense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Floris Smand again, and this time the name on the line is Gijón. Eldense are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Sotelo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Eldense will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Eldense can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Eldense have done the hard part with Athletic Bilbao, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Aleix Febas 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.
Eldense asked and Hércules said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Rubén Quintanilla 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.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Eldense will try not to make too much of it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Guille Macho has his answer from Eldense; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 160 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad31 May 2027
Sascha Risch 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.
Rubén Quintanilla 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sascha Risch signs something — a contract at Eldense or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Ceuta scored in the 93th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ceuta can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ceuta 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 Edoardo Goldaniga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gorka Guruzeta. 1‑0 against Real Sociedad B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Ceuta pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Ceuta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Guillermo Vallejo 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 Edoardo Goldaniga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
5 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.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Eldense may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Sascha Risch 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Celta have kept their man, and Eldense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Eldense are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Eldense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Marked 8.46 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Eldense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sascha Risch 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eldense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The deal with Rayo Vallecano is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eldense 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 Sascha Risch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Eldense asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Eldense know it, and so does everybody who watches him.