Marked for Javier Jiménez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2038
Javier Jiménez damages knee ligaments — 17 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market19 Jul 2038
“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 The request is on a desk at Valladolid, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Felipe Gallardo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valladolid have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Álex Padilla 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jul 2038
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Aimar Rojas is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market19 Jul 2038
LA Galaxy are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Valladolid will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2038
Javier Jiménez damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Timéo Ghipponi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valladolid have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Álex Padilla 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.
Squad12 Jul 2038
Julien Ponceau 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.
Boardroom12 Jul 2038
Burgos will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ivan Ivanov has pre-agreed a move to Valladolid, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Market12 Jul 2038
“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.
Market12 Jul 2038
Valladolid shop where it costs nothing
Jean Chrétien signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
Market12 Jul 2038
Valladolid shop where it costs nothing
Youssef Medani signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Javier Jiménez
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valladolid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces5 Jul 2038
The mood at Valladolid has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad5 Jul 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Valladolid may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Jul 2038
Andrei Raţiu 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 Valladolid hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad5 Jul 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andrei Raţiu and Valladolid agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2038
Álex Padilla 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2038
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Boardroom5 Jul 2038
Valladolid sign 7 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Market5 Jul 2038
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Julien Ponceau’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Sep 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 94 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Mike Trésor 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.
Squad14 Sep 2037
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julien Ponceau 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.
Market14 Sep 2037
The Trilli talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valladolid know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market14 Sep 2037
Valladolid spent the window trying to move Luca Monticelli on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 101 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad7 Sep 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Sep 2037
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2037
Mike Trésor 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Sep 2037
Leganés left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings7 Sep 2037
Marked 8.74 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings7 Sep 2037
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Sep 2037
12 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Market7 Sep 2037
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valladolid know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces31 Aug 2037
Anger at Valladolid 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.
Squad31 Aug 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 108 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Álex Padilla 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Aug 2037
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julien Ponceau 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2037
Marked 9.53 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings31 Aug 2037
Luca Monticelli was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Match29 Aug 2037
Three points for Valladolid, 2‑1 the final word against Osasuna in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 Aug 2037
A performance of 8.77 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2037
The words a physio says slowly. 115 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
Mike Trésor, 38, rolls back the years — 8.53
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.53 at 38, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Mike Trésor 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Julien Ponceau 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.
Match22 Aug 2037
Mike Trésor scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Castellón, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The terraces24 Aug 2037
Everybody has an opinion about Álex Padilla
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Market24 Aug 2037
The name of Julien Ponceau keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Valladolid say nothing, which says plenty.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
The chances came and went for Álvaro Pérez
7 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Nov 2036
Javier Jiménez damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match5 Nov 2036
The cup run ends for Valladolid
2‑3 against Girona, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings10 Nov 2036
Two goals and a mark of 10.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings10 Nov 2036
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.15, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Mike Trésor 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Nov 2036
Julien Ponceau 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.
Player ratings10 Nov 2036
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.03, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces10 Nov 2036
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 Nov 2036
Javier Jiménez damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad3 Nov 2036
A one-man rearguard from Álex Padilla
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
Age has not caught Juanmi Latasa yet — 8.33
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.33 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad3 Nov 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mike Trésor and Valladolid agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Nov 2036
Mike Trésor 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.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
Marked 9.34 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Match1 Nov 2036
It finished 2‑1, and it was Juanmi Latasa’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Valladolid.
Market3 Nov 2036
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valladolid know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
Shots: 6, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces27 Oct 2036
The mood at Valladolid has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Javier Jiménez damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
Age has not caught Julien Ponceau yet — 8.79
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.79 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market27 Oct 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 Valladolid can pretend not to have heard.
Market27 Oct 2036
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valladolid they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Mike Trésor 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Julien Ponceau 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.
Match25 Oct 2036
Rayo Vallecano left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Oct 2036
Javier Jiménez damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings20 Oct 2036
Juanmi Latasa, 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.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Mike Trésor 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.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julien Ponceau 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.
Boardroom20 Oct 2036
Real Sociedad will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Vid Novak has pre-agreed a move to Valladolid, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad20 Oct 2036
Álex Padilla gets it from the manager
“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.
Match18 Oct 2036
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Market20 Oct 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Guille Bueno’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings20 Oct 2036
The one thing Ebroni Gnoan could not do
Shots: 9, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.