Marked for Pedro Gallardo
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad10 May 2027
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Atlético Madrid lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match8 May 2027
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings10 May 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.42, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match10 May 2027
The season ends: position 2 for Atlético Madrid
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 94 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Squad10 May 2027
Rafael Leão 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Pablo Barrios is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.24 with 16 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad10 May 2027
Pablo Barrios 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 terraces10 May 2027
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout10 May 2027
Álex Baena gets picked when it counts
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 Álex Baena is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad3 May 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pedro Gallardo
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Madrid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 May 2027
Koke has been here 18 seasons
594 appearances across 18 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad3 May 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Álex Baena
16 goals and a season average of 7.40 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad3 May 2027
Julián Álvarez 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 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match1 May 2027
Athletic Bilbao left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match1 May 2027
After 5 games, Atlético Madrid finally taste it again
The first defeat in 5 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Athletic Bilbao; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout3 May 2027
“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 dugout3 May 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Atlético Madrid told Alejandro Grimaldo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad26 Apr 2027
40 goals and a season average of 7.85. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Pedro Gallardo damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Match24 Apr 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑1 against Elche, and it could have been more.
Match26 Apr 2027
91 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Rafael Leão takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match24 Apr 2027
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market26 Apr 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Apr 2027
Rafael Leão among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Rafael Leão on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Atlético Madrid and Elche.