Marked for Monrad Fredheim
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Apr 2029
Monrad Fredheim damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Market2 Apr 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Córdoba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad2 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Córdoba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrian Leon Barišić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Geremías Coppo 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Córdoba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
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.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Pedro Ortiz asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Market2 Apr 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Córdoba know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Mar 2029
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Córdoba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Córdoba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Córdoba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Salim El Jebari 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
36 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Theo was the difference for Córdoba
Marked 7.85. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Match24 Mar 2029
It needed Theo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Zaragoza, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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 Nikolay Obolskiy is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Mar 2029
Monrad Fredheim damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Market19 Mar 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Reinaldo Benítez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Córdoba have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Theo signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Theo and Córdoba agree another 4 years.
Squad19 Mar 2029
A falling-out at Córdoba
Juan Gutiérrez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
A row about effort at Córdoba
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrian Leon Barišić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match17 Mar 2029
0‑1 to Las Palmas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
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 Enrique Jiménez to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Mar 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Monrad Fredheim
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Córdoba lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Konstantinos Giannakou scored, was marked 6.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Córdoba training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrian Leon Barišić 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Jordi Alba in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Córdoba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Mar 2029
65 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The terraces12 Mar 2029
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.
Match10 Mar 2029
Huesca made Córdoba work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market12 Mar 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Mar 2029
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Córdoba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market5 Mar 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Córdoba they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A falling-out at Córdoba
Carlos Albarrán and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Juan Gutiérrez 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.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“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.
Match3 Mar 2029
Almería left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market5 Mar 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Córdoba can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The Córdoba board find $4.8M for the manager
Money, not words, and it is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending $4.8M well is entirely his problem now.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Córdoba
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Market
The Juan Gutiérrez talk will not go away
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Feb 2029
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Córdoba lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Córdoba this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Adrian Leon Barišić 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.
Match24 Feb 2029
It finished 1‑0, and it was Salim El Jebari’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Córdoba.
Market26 Feb 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Geremías Coppo wants continental football; whether Córdoba can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad26 Feb 2029
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.81 on the card, and the Córdoba support went home talking about one name.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Enrique Jiménez on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.