Marked for Benjamín Pérez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match12 Apr 2036
No end in sight to Gijón's wait for a win
20 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gijón has to find a result from somewhere.
Match14 Apr 2036
Gijón 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.
Match12 Apr 2036
Gijón taken apart
0‑3 to Celta, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market14 Apr 2036
Ibón Ispizua has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gijón they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market14 Apr 2036
“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 The request is on a desk at Gijón, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Apr 2036
A row about effort at Gijón
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gaspar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match12 Apr 2036
Gijón cannot find the net
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match12 Apr 2036
No clean sheets in sight for Gijón
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout14 Apr 2036
The manager makes an example of Carlos Martínez
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match9 Feb 2036
12 matches without a win for Gijón
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Gijón are no longer polite ones.
Market11 Feb 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gijón can pretend not to have heard.
Market11 Feb 2036
The deal that would have taken Mael Macía to Ceuta has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Gijón with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The dugout11 Feb 2036
“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.
Player ratings11 Feb 2036
Gaspar, 35, rolls back the years — 7.92
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market11 Feb 2036
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gijón is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Boardroom11 Feb 2036
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Vinko Skrbin has agreed terms with Real Murcia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2036
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Gijón will try again when the window opens; Racing Santander may not be selling by then.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces7 Jan 2036
Anger at Gijón 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.
Match5 Jan 2036
A hiding for Gijón
Beaten 0‑9 by Sevilla, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market7 Jan 2036
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market7 Jan 2036
“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 Gijón, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Jan 2036
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Gijón have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Match5 Jan 2036
The wait goes on for Gijón
6 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.
Match5 Jan 2036
Gijón leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match5 Jan 2036
Nobody could stop scoring
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Gijón and Sevilla in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The dugout7 Jan 2036
“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
Crisis
Match3 Nov 2035
The wait goes on for Gijón
13 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 Nov 2035
The knee: Luka Torres out for 75 days
75 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gijón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
“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.
Match3 Nov 2035
5 matches without a goal for Gijón
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match3 Nov 2035
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Junior Gnalili in trouble away from the ground
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
The dugout5 Nov 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benjamín Pérez, and the manager let it.
Market5 Nov 2035
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Tempers go at Gijón
Joseph Atangana 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
Uneasy
Squad13 Aug 2035
A fracture rules Gonzalo Ferrer out for 65 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gijón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Málaga have kept their man, and Gijón go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market13 Aug 2035
Gijón say no — this time
The offer from Arenteiro for Gabriel Huber was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad13 Aug 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Santiago Muriel and Gijón agree another 4 years.
The dugout13 Aug 2035
The manager makes an example of Kevin Bright
“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.
Market13 Aug 2035
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Benjamín Pérez has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Gijón.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Words exchanged at Gijón
Joseph Atangana 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.
Squad13 Aug 2035
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Transfer targets13 Aug 2035
Betis 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Dec 2034
A fracture rules Víctor Núñez out for 18 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gijón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market4 Dec 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gijón is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom4 Dec 2034
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Gaspar 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.
Squad4 Dec 2034
The medical room confirms 41 days on the sidelines for Jaime Garrido, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad4 Dec 2034
Words exchanged at Gijón
Oskar Dæhli Oppedal 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.
The dugout4 Dec 2034
Kevin Zakaria 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 Kevin Zakaria is on it.
Market4 Dec 2034
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ulises Piedrabuena has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Gijón.
Market4 Dec 2034
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gijón know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout23 Oct 2034
“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.
Market23 Oct 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gijón is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Words at Gijón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gaspar 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.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Gaspar is slowing down
At 34, 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.
Market23 Oct 2034
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Benjamín Pérez has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Gijón.
Match21 Oct 2034
It needed Kevin Zakaria 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 dugout23 Oct 2034
Aaron Bétéhé knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aaron Bétéhé trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Interim Coach was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Gijón dressing room was either.
Market23 Oct 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hugo Guillamón signs something — a contract at Gijón or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market16 Oct 2034
Vitalii Lobko 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 Gijón can pretend not to have heard.
Market16 Oct 2034
Luca Feler has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gijón they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Oct 2034
A row about effort at Gijón
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gaspar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Tempers go at Gijón
Oskar Dæhli Oppedal 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.
Market16 Oct 2034
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gijón, another week without a signature from Rafik Messali.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kyrylo Siheiev, and the manager let it.
Market16 Oct 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Ousmane Camara’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Looking ahead16 Oct 2034
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Amir Saipi’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gijón needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The dugout16 Oct 2034
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.