Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mamadou Aliou Diallo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cartagena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cartagena have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yacine Goudjil has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Samir Meza wants continental football; whether Cartagena can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Liberato was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.70 on the card, and the Cartagena support went home talking about one name.
Squad17 Apr 2034
5 new faces, and Cartagena 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cartagena they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anders Molund was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lucas Ymbert 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
The mood at Cartagena has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cartagena can pretend not to have heard.
Anders Molund and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Nov 2033
Words at Cartagena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Liberato 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
A 2‑1 win over Bilbao Athletic, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Stepan Laskin
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barcelona have kept their man, and Cartagena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Cartagena have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad27 Jun 2033
Words at Cartagena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Rodríguez 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.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Cartagena will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juventud Torremolinos can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Athletic Bilbao, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Espanyol keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Juventud Torremolinos go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Juventud Torremolinos can pretend not to have heard.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Ourense CF had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deal with Granada 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stepan Laskin 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.
Athletic Bilbao have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutMartín Moya knocks on the manager's door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juventud Torremolinos can pretend not to have heard.
Bernabé 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 33 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Patrick Selnaes has, at Juventud Torremolinos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Juventud Torremolinos asked and Valencia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad12 Jul 2032
Stepan Laskin 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.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Juventud Torremolinos offered $46.0K; Cacereño 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Andorra have kept their man, and Juventud Torremolinos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Stepan Laskin 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Juventud Torremolinos will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.