The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Granada will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Marbella waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Granada is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Granada ran out of time with Villarreal. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Córdoba were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Pascual 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.
Granada asked and Atlético Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 22 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Granada can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Granada offered $920.0K; Villarreal 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Pascual 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Madrid have kept their man, and Granada go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Jon Ríos to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Pascual 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorge Pascual 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gustavo. 2‑0 against Leganés, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Jon Ríos could afford to be generous.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Granada, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Granada 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Granada told Sergio Rodelas something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
Player ratingsJosé Arnáiz beats them one at a time
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alejandro Marqués wants continental football; whether Granada can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Facundo Agüero 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jon Ríos could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Pascual trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Baïla Diallo is on it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Pascual was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at Granada 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Granada have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Alejandro Marqués’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Granada.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Pascual 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 22 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.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Alejandro Marqués in the middle of it, and Albacete unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Granada lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout7 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.” Jon Ríos kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutManu Lama is still being punished for one mistake
The terracesThe spotlight tightens on Raúl Lizoáin
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
200 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jon Ríos after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Pascual 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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 Jon Ríos to a room that had heard them before.
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 Baba Diocou is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Granada, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I am not asking anybody to be better than they are. I am asking everybody to be as good as they are, every week.” Said out loud, in front of everybody, and the room at Granada was different afterwards.
In brief
SquadBan served, and Benedikt Gimber returns to the reckoning
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
At 21 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Granada will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jon Ríos was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Granada dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutDiego Hormigo dropped after a run of poor form
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Granada have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Granada are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Pascual 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.