Oviedo are out and Celta go through, 2‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
A brace, and Aleix Febas takes the afternoon — 8.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aleix Febas provided it, and the 8.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Óscar Marcos, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.86
A mark of 7.86 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Celta heard it as anything else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Óscar Marcos has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Pedro Martín kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“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 The request is on a desk at Celta, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Celta until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Celta heard it as anything else.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Vélez is saying, and nobody at Celta is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Celta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Óscar Marcos 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.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Celta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almería have kept their man, and Celta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 7.82 for the rest of it.
The deal with Gijón 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.
Óscar Marcos 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. Ilaix Moriba 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.
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.
The offer from Cádiz for Ionuţ Radu 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.
$3.8M on the table at Atlético Madrid. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Argentinos Juniors have kept their man, and Celta 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.0M — a club that wants Mario De Luis enough to be asked twice.
Ilaix Moriba 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Gabriel Soto 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.