“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Real Madrid Castilla have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from FC Augsburg for Jesús Fortea 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Madrid Castilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Arenas Club have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sergio Parra. The answer from Real Madrid Castilla has not changed — yet.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lamini Fati trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Real Madrid Castilla have no good answer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeremy de León was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Real Madrid Castilla is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Daniel Yáñez has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Madrid Castilla they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The phone has started ringing about Guillermo Súnico again, and this time the name on the line is Andorra. Real Madrid Castilla 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 Jeremy de León trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Madrid Castilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeremy de León 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Madrid Castilla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The offer from Arenteiro for Guillermo Súnico 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.
Daniel Yáñez 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sergio Parra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Madrid Castilla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Yáñez 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.
Add another name to the list: Arenteiro have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Guillermo Súnico. The answer from Real Madrid Castilla has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeremy de León was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Real Madrid Castilla will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutLamini Fati knocks on the manager's door
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Madrid Castilla is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
David Jiménez 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.
Add another name to the list: Talavera have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Enrique Núñez. The answer from Real Madrid Castilla has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeremy de León 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 Real Madrid Castilla will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Madrid Castilla is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Madrid Castilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mario Rivas and Real Madrid Castilla agree another 4 years.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Real Madrid Castilla will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Madrid Castilla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Cristian David 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 had been thinking. Jeremy de León 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jesús Fortea signs something — a contract at Real Madrid Castilla or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Marked 8.37 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.08 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Real Madrid will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Real Madrid can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Aurélien Tchouaméni is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Real Madrid will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
16 seasons and 414 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Achraf Hakimi 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.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Espanyol have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Espanyol offered $1.2M; Getafe said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Mallorca were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Madrid have kept their man, and Espanyol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Espanyol can tell you which week it ends in.
Kike García 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 19 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester City have kept their man, and Espanyol go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“I watch every Espanyol game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Huesca runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Kike García 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Marc Gallardo chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Real Madrid heard it as anything else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vinícius Júnior. 2‑1 against Espanyol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Real Madrid, and 4 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Carlos Espí is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Espanyol will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fidèle Malcolm Bongelo has, at Espanyol, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Jeremías Merlo 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Espanyol are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Fidèle Malcolm Bongelo is 20, and Espanyol have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Marc Gallardo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Espanyol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Valencia next, and one man in the Espanyol dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 Espanyol will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Unai Núñez has written the date down.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Real Madrid 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 Real Madrid can pretend not to have heard.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
He is 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jude Bellingham. 1‑0 against Valencia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Espanyol have gone to Celta with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $11.4M — a club that wants Ionuţ Radu enough to be asked twice.
Ross Barkley 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Héctor Bravo 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jon Jiménez 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Martí Montes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Leganés waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Real Madrid Castilla is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Arenas Club had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Cádiz for César Palacios 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.
Bruno Iglesias 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 Loren Zúñiga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Raúl Asencio and Real Madrid Castilla agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Madrid Castilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Arenas Club have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Daniel Yáñez. The answer from Real Madrid Castilla has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Loren Zúñiga 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.