Marked for Ander Honrado
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Nov 2027
Ander Honrado damages knee ligaments — 16 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Match27 Nov 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Albacete, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market29 Nov 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Arenas Club, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Joan Gaona 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 Arenas Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Arenas Club are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Jorge Juliá gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Solini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ander Honrado
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arenas Club lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.29, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Arenas Club may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Leandro Cañete 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
The decline has begun for Joan Gaona
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Arenas Club is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Match20 Nov 2027
Guadalajara made Arenas Club work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Market22 Nov 2027
Jorge Juliá told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Jorge Juliá has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Arenas Club.
The dugout22 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ander Honrado
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Arenas Club lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Jari Vlak 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 Arenas Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market15 Nov 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Fernando Barrios has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Arenas Club.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Seydine N'Diaye 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Arenas Club are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
No hiding place for Verde
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Verde, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Sep 2027
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Álex Hidalgo damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Match15 Sep 2027
A 1‑1 win over Pontevedra, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“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.
Match18 Sep 2027
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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Jari Vlak 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 Arenas Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Zakaria Eddahchouri was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Arenas Club's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Arenas Club has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Álvaro Vázquez damages knee ligaments — 88 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
Anger at Arenas Club spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match7 Dec 2026
Arenas Club are in real trouble now
Position 19, 7 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Leandro Cañete and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match5 Dec 2026
1‑2 to Pontevedra, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ander Honrado commits to Arenas Club for another 4 years.