Marked for Daniel González
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jul 2029
Ante Budimir 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 Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Daniel González is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Osasuna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jon Moncayola 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Samir Ben Sallam out for 51 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Osasuna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Moi Gómez, 34, rolls back the years — 7.96
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.96 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ante Budimir 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sam Rak-Sakyi is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market21 Aug 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Osasuna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Catena 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.
Boardroom21 Aug 2028
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Osasuna
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match19 Aug 2028
Nobody wins at Osasuna
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.