“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 The request is on a desk at Algeciras, and it is not being withdrawn.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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Clermont Foot is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Odsonne Édouard 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.
Squad30 May 2033
Words at Clermont Foot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Pellegrino 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.
“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 Clermont Foot will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bogdan Jočić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Clermont Foot will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Position 5 on 56 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Clermont Foot will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Clermont Foot can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Clermont Foot will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Clermont Foot they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Bogdan Jočić 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 dugout23 May 2033
The manager has not finished forgetting Fran Tomek's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Clermont Foot now.
Squad23 May 2033
Words at Clermont Foot training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alessandro Pellegrino 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bogdan Jočić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Clermont Foot is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Clermont Foot can pretend not to have heard.
Odsonne Édouard 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Dejan Suhovršnik has, at Clermont Foot, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 dugout25 Apr 2033
The manager has not finished forgetting Fran Tomek's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Clermont Foot could ask drops and the wages Juan Pablo Goicochea can ask rise.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Pablo Goicochea will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Clermont Foot the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Clermont Foot, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Hidalgo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Clermont Foot saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Chigwada, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Mar 2033
Fran Tomek 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Clermont Foot are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrea Chiummariello provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Clermont Foot is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Noah Nsoki 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.
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. Paris Saint-Germain have kept their man, and Clermont Foot go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Clermont Foot are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Noah Nsoki obliged against SC Bastia. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Clermont Foot.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Clermont Foot 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. Dean Zandbergen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Clermont Foot the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Bogdan Jočić 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.
Clermont Foot asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Clermont Foot will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.