Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sascha Risch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Eldense asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eldense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sascha Risch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Iván Leszczuk 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 is 21 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.
Gimnàstic made Eldense work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Julen Campos left the room before anybody could ask which.
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Eldense are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Sascha Risch 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Julen Campos was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Eldense dressing room was either.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Manu Molina’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Eldense needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.08, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sascha Risch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Iván Leszczuk 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 easiest signature of my career.” Borja Calvo and Eldense agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout7 Dec 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 Julen Campos 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.
Hugo Alba, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.49
A mark of 8.49 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.
Iván Leszczuk 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 is 21 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Atlético Madrileño had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Dario Đumić 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Eldense will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 33, 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Eldense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dario Đumić 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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Julen Campos was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Eldense dressing room was either.
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.
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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Eldense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sascha Risch 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.
Iván Leszczuk 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Iván Guaraz 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.
8 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Luiz Felipe has moved up it.
In brief
Player ratingsBorja Calvo beats them one at a time
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Dioni 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.
7.40, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Eldense had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Eldense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Clemente 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.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” Julen Campos chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Eldense 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.
Sascha Risch 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.
Iván Leszczuk 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.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Eldense know which stage they are at.
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.
That is the business done at Eldense 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gimnasia y Esgrima keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Eldense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Iván Leszczuk 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Eldense 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.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.