“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Las Palmas can pretend not to have heard.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mateo Aćimović is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giovanni Bonfanti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Las Palmas 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Las Palmas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Position 20 and 38 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Tarazona will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: West Bromwich Albion keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Aćimović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Alberto Vaquero has come up in conversations Tarazona were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Paco Esteban is in the works
Las Palmas asked and Galatasaray said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giovanni Bonfanti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Manu Fuster and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Las Palmas 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.
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.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Las Palmas would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
A new face in his position, and Enrique Clemente suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Las Palmas have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tarazona have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Tarazona, and it is not being withdrawn.
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. Elche have kept their man, and Tarazona go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Luka Reyes again, and this time the name on the line is Miedź Legnica. Tarazona are listening politely and promising nothing.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Tarazona told Sergi Armero something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tarazona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tarazona lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tarazona can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tarazona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Tarazona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Aćimović 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Tarazona told Marc Trilles something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tarazona know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
Position 20 and 38 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Tarazona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tiziano Van Der Tuin 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 Mateo Aćimović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tarazona lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Tarazona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Aćimović 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 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.
Marc Trilles 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 dugout10 May 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Luka Reyes to a room that had heard them before.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 98 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Tarazona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Aćimović 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.
A 1‑0 win over Sevilla Atlético, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marc Trilles 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Tarazona pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout3 May 2027
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.” Luka Reyes kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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 Tarazona, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 7.80 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Tarazona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Medina 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.
He is 19 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.
6 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.
Busi 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Ángel López 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Tarazona pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.” Luka Reyes after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for André Nader
Álvaro 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tiziano Van Der Tuin, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Ángel López 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.81, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Luka Reyes after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Position 20 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Santiago Medina has, at Tarazona, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Aćimović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marc Trilles 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Tarazona can tell you which week it ends in.
Tarazona asked and Ibiza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marc Trilles 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ángel López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tarazona can pretend not to have heard.
Alberto Vaquero 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.
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Tarazona training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. André Nader 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.