Marked for Ale Gomes
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 2026
David González 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Pablo Galdames
“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 ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Burgos who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Ale Gomes 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 Burgos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Dec 2026
It needed Álex Forés to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Las Palmas, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Luis García after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The step up is real for Ale Gomes
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Burgos
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David González, and the manager let it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.94 on the card, and the Burgos support went home talking about one name.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Burgos
Ale Gomes 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
Ander Cantero gets picked when it counts
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 Ander Cantero is on it.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Granada leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Luis García: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.15 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Miguel Paul arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Miguel Paul has, at Burgos, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Match10 Oct 2026
A 2‑1 win over Real Sociedad B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces12 Oct 2026
He is 23 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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Burgos
Marcelo Expósito and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Burgos are still strangers to each other
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Luis García, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Antonio Salado
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match3 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Burgos
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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Burgos
Curro 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Burgos training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David González 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
123% of the income goes out in wages at Burgos
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to José Gragera, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ale Gomes
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ale Gomes has come out of that comparison in the side, and Burgos have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match16 Sep 2026
Burgos out of the cup
Málaga ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Burgos ran out of time with Zaragoza. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Burgos
Jon Karrikaburu 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The step up is real for Ale Gomes
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Álex Lizancos and Burgos agree another 4 years.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Tomás Lingua 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 33. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The deal with Huesca 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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
$320.0K was the most the club would pay and Oviedo were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Burgos asked and Olympiacos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ander Cantero, and the manager let it.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Burgos
Ale Gomes 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Burgos will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Burgos offered $7.8M; Elche said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $344.9K — a club that wants Ovie Ejaria enough to be asked twice.
Squad24 Aug 2026
David González 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Burgos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Jon Karrikaburu’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Burgos.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.89 on the card, and the Burgos support went home talking about one name.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Burgos
Ale Gomes 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Burgos can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Curro signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Curro commits to Burgos for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Álex Forés 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 Burgos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
David González 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Burgos asked and KV Oostende said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Oier Luengo for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Burgos will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Castellón have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Brais Martínez. The answer from Burgos has not changed — yet.
Market3 Aug 2026
The clock runs on Curro's contract
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Estudiantes have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.