Marked for Pedro Ramallo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Albion
Federico Puente 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Baltasar Barcia 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Carlos Airala
“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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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 Sebastián Jaume is on it.
Market23 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lucas Rodríguez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market23 Nov 2026
1 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Albion could get for him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Albion
Tomás Moschion and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Lacoste was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Nov 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
137% of the income goes out in wages at Albion
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baltasar Barcia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Pedro Ramallo. Albion will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy goes to Federico Puente. It is not a job that wins matches, but a dressing room always notices who is given it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Oct 2026
Pedro Ramallo 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 Albion can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Albion
Santiago Costa 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Baltasar Barcia 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 dugout26 Oct 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Albion are still strangers to each other
14 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Agustín Pereira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baltasar Barcia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages swallow 186% of the Albion income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Albion training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baltasar Barcia 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Albion is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Albion they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Francisco Ginella has agreed terms with Montevideo City Torque for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
70 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Baltasar Barcia 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Albion
Santiago Costa 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 dugout24 Aug 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The José Álvarez talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Albion know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market24 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Albion, another week without a signature from Francisco Ibáñez.