Marked for José León
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Sep 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Osasuna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Osasuna may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Sep 2030
A falling-out at Osasuna
Ante Budimir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market23 Sep 2030
Only the photograph left for Nil Gómez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nil Gómez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Osasuna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Sep 2030
A row about effort at Osasuna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Dubasin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match21 Sep 2030
Mallorca left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Aimar beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Loan watch23 Sep 2030
José León wants to come home
“I did not go to Levante to sit and watch. I want to come back to Osasuna and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market16 Sep 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levante can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Levante
Maroan Sannadi 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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. José León is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Mouriño 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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
A move Branco Castelli would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Branco Castelli is living that version at Levante, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom16 Sep 2030
Osasuna will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Tobías Peralta has pre-agreed a move to Levante, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Match14 Sep 2030
A bad afternoon for Levante against Córdoba
0‑2 to Córdoba, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Javier Bustillos, and the manager let it.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Raúl De Tomás knocks on the manager’s door
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Marc Nielsen
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom19 Aug 2030
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Boardroom19 Aug 2030
A stranger takes charge at Levante
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
Boardroom19 Aug 2030
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
Market19 Aug 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levante can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout19 Aug 2030
Iván Ríos keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Levante may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Aug 2030
Words exchanged at Levante
Maroan Sannadi 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.
Squad19 Aug 2030
The step up is real for José León
At 20 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.
Boardroom19 Aug 2030
Graduation day at Levante
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Transfer targets19 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Levante go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
Still nobody in the Osasuna dugout
42 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Market12 Aug 2030
Saba come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Osasuna did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Espanyol have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Aug 2030
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.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Osasuna have done the hard part with Real Madrid, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
Osasuna have gone to Rayo Vallecano with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Agustín Cortez is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Jonathan Dubasin 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.
Squad12 Aug 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Osasuna can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Jul 2030
The knee: Iván García out for 15 days
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Osasuna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market15 Jul 2030
The bid was some way short and Osasuna did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market15 Jul 2030
“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 Osasuna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market15 Jul 2030
Jonathan Dubasin wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Osasuna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market15 Jul 2030
Only the photograph left for Emil Søgaard
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Emil Søgaard will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Osasuna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A falling-out at Osasuna
Alejandro Catena and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Jorge Montero is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A row about effort at Osasuna
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Torró was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom15 Jul 2030
Still no name above the door at Osasuna
Day 14 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.