There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Zakaria Eddahchouri provided it, and the 9.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Diego García 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 Zakaria Eddahchouri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
21 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
A 2‑0 win over Real Madrid Castilla, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Shots: 22. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arenteiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Arenteiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabián Sánchez 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.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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 Enzo Romero left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Sergio Rodríguez's mistake
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.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jano Franco has, at Arenteiro, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The deal with Albacete 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arenteiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arenteiro can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
94 minutes played. Yuri found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Arenas Club went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Eddahchouri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 38, 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.
Diego García 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 22 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
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.
Dani Lasure 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Enzo Romero after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Words at Arenteiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zakaria Eddahchouri 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.
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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dani Lasure’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Arenteiro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Eddahchouri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Dani Lasure 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Arenteiro 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Arenteiro will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutDani González knocks on the manager's door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabián Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Arenteiro can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Dani Lasure 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is David Ferreiro’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Arenteiro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zakaria Eddahchouri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arenteiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Enzo Romero on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Diego García’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Arenteiro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The deal with Deportivo La Coruña 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.
Arenteiro asked and Real Sociedad 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 Arenteiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Arenteiro are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A loan enquiry to Celta: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Arenteiro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Berardozzi 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 about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yuri is living that version at Arenteiro, and it tends to show in the first month.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Málaga is saying, and nobody at Arenteiro is enjoying the guessing.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Cristian Ibañez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Antonio Martínez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Enzo Herrero has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nil Rojas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.