7 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Guadalajara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Barakaldo left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Gómez 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Talavera in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Guadalajara can pretend not to have heard.
Guadalajara offered $250.0K; Athletic Bilbao said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Guadalajara can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Javi Gómez 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.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Guadalajara know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
Position 19 and 20 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
7.73, 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.” Guadalajara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Francisco Jiménez has just signed for Guadalajara, and for once the answer mattered.
Raúl Tavares 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Daniel Budesca had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Ham United have kept their man, and Villarreal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Villarreal can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Alejandro Almaraz 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 easiest signature of my career.” Francisco Jiménez and Villarreal agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
The dugoutRenato Veiga knocks on the manager's door
Villarreal have gone to Betis 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.
The offer from Real Madrid for Alberto Moleiro 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alejandro Almaraz has just signed for Villarreal, and for once the answer mattered.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $40.0M — a club that wants Antony enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villarreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rayo Vallecano have kept their man, and Villarreal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Izei Ríos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.