Marked for Pau Cubarsí
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Pedri 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Frenkie de Jong, and the manager let it.
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pau Cubarsí 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.
Boardroom12 Oct 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match19 Sep 2026
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match19 Sep 2026
Barcelona make it 5 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Barcelona have 5 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Pedri 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 Barcelona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A hand in 2 of them from Dani Olmo — 7.98
Marked 7.98. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Nobody could get near Raphinha
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Fermín
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Fermín at his very best
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Barcelona.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.20, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Pau Cubarsí 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match5 Sep 2026
6‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A brace, and Gavi takes the afternoon — 8.97
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gavi provided it, and the 8.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Roony Bardghji at 20 — 7.90
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Roony Bardghji did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
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 7.99 for the rest of it.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Pedri pops up at the right end — 7.83
7.83, 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Almería come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Barcelona did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Frenkie de Jong 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Barcelona make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Barcelona have 3 straight wins of it.
Match5 Sep 2026
Lamine Yamal among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Lamine Yamal on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Barcelona and Mallorca.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match29 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Betis, and it could have been more.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Lamine Yamal at 19 — 8.45
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Lamine Yamal did not need any: 8.45, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad31 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barcelona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market31 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Almería have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lamine Yamal. The answer from Barcelona has not changed — yet.
Match29 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Barcelona and Betis, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Pedri
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Anthony Gordon was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Barcelona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pau Cubarsí 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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match22 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑1 against Oviedo, and it could have been more.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.51, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Both of them Raphinha's — 7.93
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 7.93, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Pedri 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 Barcelona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Barcelona and Oviedo, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Pau Cubarsí again, and this time the name on the line is Burgos. Barcelona are listening politely and promising nothing.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Barcelona say no — this time
The offer from Las Palmas for Pau Cubarsí 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Pedri 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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Barcelona
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gabriel Aguilar is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mateo Pérez 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Manuel Pérez 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.
In brief
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Squad
The manager plants his flag on Raphinha
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Squad
Pau Cubarsí is not doing himself any favours
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Squad
Raphinha is training like a man with a point to make
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Boardroom
Barcelona spend it where nobody looks