Marked for Daniel Marques Nunes
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad23 Aug 2027
7 saves: Pau López was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market23 Aug 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Daniel Marques Nunes had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Marked 8.18 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market23 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
A new deal for Nil Rey
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Andorra
Gustaf Nilsson 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Andorra
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Andorra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Carreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Inter Miami CF is saying, and nobody at Andorra is enjoying the guessing.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Matías Scigliano is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Andorra
Gustaf Nilsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Sergio Carreira 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.
Boardroom16 Aug 2027
Córdoba will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Martín Lucero has pre-agreed a move to Andorra, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Market16 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Andorra have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Matías López Vélez has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Castellón have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Franchu keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Andorra may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market12 Jul 2027
Andorra say no — this time
The offer from Burgos for Juan Sebastián 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alberto Solís had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market12 Jul 2027
Joel Sacks hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Andorra can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Jul 2027
Osasuna pay $4.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Andorra have done the hard part with Córdoba, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sergio Carreira commits to Andorra for another 4 years.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Andorra
Aingeru Olabarrieta 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
32 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.