20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mallorca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mallorca can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mallorca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mallorca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Ronit Ledesma 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Miguel Román 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mallorca can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Mallorca, and it is not being withdrawn.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. 8.02 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Maroan Sannadi 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Algeciras will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Juan Raffaelli has, at Algeciras, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Algeciras they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
7.85, 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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Alan Jimenez has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Algeciras have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 70 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Algeciras they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings22 Jan 2035
Up for the corner, and Jose Ntamack delivers — 7.81
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jose Ntamack scored, was marked 7.81, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Barcelona is saying, and nobody at Algeciras is enjoying the guessing.
Amit Mamut 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Espanyol have kept their man, and Algeciras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Corrado Riviera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noah Nsoki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Algeciras the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Words at Algeciras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Corrado Riviera 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.
Ivan Aguirre 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.
12 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Algeciras told Francisco Delgado something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Algeciras 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.” Algeciras have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Amit Mamut 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout4 Dec 2034
Zohir Oissa is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“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 Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Algeciras will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Noah Nsoki will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Algeciras the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Player ratings27 Nov 2034
Simón Comesaña was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
12 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Santino Gallardo provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Michał Kopka has, at Algeciras, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
A 3‑1 win over Teruel, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad6 Nov 2034
Words at Algeciras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Simón Comesaña 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Noah Nsoki has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Julen Gallardo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Algeciras can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Algeciras is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Noah Nsoki has agreed terms with Mallorca for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Corrado Riviera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Mallorca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Maroan Sannadi 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.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Words at Mallorca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Martín 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.
Algeciras will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Noah Nsoki has pre-agreed a move to Mallorca, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The mood at Algeciras has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Algeciras is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Amit Mamut 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 Simón Comesaña was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Algeciras are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santino Gallardo signs something — a contract at Algeciras or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Amit Mamut 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 Algeciras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Corrado Riviera 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.
Ceuta will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Hamlet Aleksanyan has pre-agreed a move to Algeciras, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Algeciras can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christian Mutilva will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Algeciras the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Algeciras has been clear about where Francisco Delgado stands, which is more than many ever get.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Algeciras, another week without a signature from Mateo Pérez.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Algeciras, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Algeciras is running low.
“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 Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Granada 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Algeciras is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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. Sevilla have kept their man, and Algeciras go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aníbal Ruiz 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Algeciras is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Horaţiu Moldovan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Algeciras asked and Gijón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Algeciras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Algeciras is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Algeciras have made the call to Zaragoza. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all 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 Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Andorra for Eduardo Perez 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Algeciras they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Corrado Riviera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ivan Aguirre 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Jano Monserrate is in the works
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Algeciras 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 Algeciras can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Andorra have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Eduardo Perez. The answer from Algeciras has not changed — yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Athletic Bilbao keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Algeciras asked and Real Sociedad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Algeciras 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 Horaţiu Moldovan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Horaţiu Moldovan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jose Ntamack 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Eduardo Perez.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Algeciras will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Algeciras they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Eduardo Perez 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 Horaţiu Moldovan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Eduardo Perez will call it something else in private.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout10 Apr 2034
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Julen Gallardo to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutJacobo Martí knocks on the manager’s door
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Algeciras are no longer polite ones.
The terraces6 Mar 2034
The mood at Algeciras has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rufino Lucero 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 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.
Rayo Vallecano left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad6 Mar 2034
Words at Algeciras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Mutilva 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.