Marked for Massimo Campana
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Sep 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Matkivskyi
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ceuta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Ignacio Schor 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.
Squad17 Sep 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ceuta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marc Domènech, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Defensive actions: 14, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
13 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.
Match15 Sep 2035
Ceuta draw a blank against Eibar
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Eibar defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Sep 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Matkivskyi
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ceuta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Sep 2035
Bjorn Berge hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ceuta can pretend not to have heard.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Words at Ceuta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Schor 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.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Tempers go at Ceuta
Abou Bassinga 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.
Match8 Sep 2035
0‑1 to Cultural Leonesa, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
Ceuta are $50.5M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Player ratings10 Sep 2035
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad10 Sep 2035
“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.
Market10 Sep 2035
Álvaro Duran is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Ceuta has been clear about where Álvaro Duran stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Aug 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Matkivskyi
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ceuta lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom13 Aug 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Ceuta
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ceuta is running low.
Market13 Aug 2035
“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.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Leo Habek gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Leo Habek has just signed for Ceuta, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Marc Domènech 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.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Tempers go at Ceuta
Abou Bassinga 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.
Boardroom13 Aug 2035
Ceuta are $50.7M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Market13 Aug 2035
No place for August Bryld in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” August Bryld has his answer from Ceuta; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market13 Aug 2035
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Lukáš Gothard arrives at Ceuta with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 May 2034
“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 Burgos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market29 May 2034
Momodou Jatta has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Burgos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 May 2034
A fracture rules Lucas Harrison out for 25 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Burgos will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match27 May 2034
5 matches without a win for Burgos
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Burgos are no longer polite ones.
Squad29 May 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Burgos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2034
Pablo Galdames 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.
Squad29 May 2034
“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.
Match27 May 2034
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings29 May 2034
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.