It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑1 draw with Talavera leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Eduardo Herrera chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Manu Sánchez’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Unionistas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Nobody at Unionistas will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Unionistas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Juan Artola 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.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Robert 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.
Everybody at Unionistas saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
6 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Unionistas, another week without a signature from Tomás Silva.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Unionistas could ask drops and the wages Dani Gómez can ask rise.
Loan watch17 Nov 2031
Max Thompson’s loan is measured in nothing happening
7 clean sheets from 10 appearances at Ceuta. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Filippo Visentin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Unionistas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Juan Artola 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.
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Three points for Unionistas, 3‑1 the final word against Arenas Club in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Robert 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Eduardo Herrera on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Unionistas told Ignacio Sinturión something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 43 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Unionistas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Manu Sánchez 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Unionistas, another week without a signature from Jesús Chacón.
Arenas Club next, and one man in the Unionistas dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Unionistas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch13 Oct 2031
Max Thompson’s loan is measured in nothing happening
4 clean sheets from 5 appearances at Ceuta. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Unionistas can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Robert 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Eduardo Herrera after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Unionistas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Unionistas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7.44, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Unionistas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Guido Segura will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Unionistas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Juan Artola 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Celta have kept their man, and Unionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Unionistas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Unionistas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Lautaro Ferreira has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ignacio Sinturión and Unionistas agree another 4 years.
Unionistas asked and Zaragoza 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 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.
“I watch every Unionistas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Madrid runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Unionistas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Real Sociedad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Unionistas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
Boardroom1 Sep 2031
Deadline passes with 31 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Unionistas until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
A brace, and Felipe Serrés takes the afternoon — 8.07
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Felipe Serrés provided it, and the 8.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Ignacio Sinturión has, at Unionistas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Felipe Serrés. 3‑1 against Arenas Club, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.