Marked for Mateo Rodríguez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces16 Oct 2028
The mood at Albion 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.
Squad16 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mateo Rodríguez
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Oct 2028
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mateo Rodríguez
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Albion can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hernán Toledo and Albion agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mateo Rodríguez
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Manuel Gonzalez has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Albion can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market2 Oct 2028
“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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
68 appearances across 8 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Albion know what they have.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hernán Toledo and Albion agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Albion
Hernán Toledo 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
$2.4M taken back off the Albion table
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Boardroom
Albion answer back
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
Pressure builds in the Albion boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad25 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mateo Rodríguez
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Sep 2028
Every point is an argument now for Albion
Position 15 and 26 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.
Market25 Sep 2028
“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 Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Albion is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Hernán Toledo
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Albion
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Albion is running low.
Match28 Aug 2028
Albion are in real trouble now
Position 15, 23 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match26 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Albion
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market28 Aug 2028
“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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
“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.
Market28 Aug 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Albion is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Albion
Hernán Toledo 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.
Match26 Aug 2028
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Hernán Toledo
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Jul 2028
Only the photograph left for Leonardo Pais
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonardo Pais will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Albion the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market10 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Albion can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Efe Salih Oksal: 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.” Albion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Jul 2028
Nacional left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Albion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Roldán 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.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
4.53. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Apr 2028
No end in sight to Albion's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Albion has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
A chastening introduction for Mateo Rodríguez — 5.68
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.68 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Market17 Apr 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Martín Iglesias will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Albion the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Apr 2028
“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.
Match15 Apr 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Albion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Roldán 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Marked 4.90, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Oct 2027
A fracture rules Mateo Rodríguez out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Albion will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Andrés Romero: 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.” Albion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Albion can pretend not to have heard.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Oct 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 26 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Albion
Hernán Toledo 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Nahuel Roldán 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Aug 2027
Octavio Perdomo: 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.” Albion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match21 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Albion
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Albion
Hernán Toledo 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.