Frédéric Barbier

Attacking Midfielder (L) - Granada
5 Aug 2043
Wednesday
Process

Marked for Frédéric Barbier

812 Edition

The Granada Gazette

17 Feb 2042
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Milan Mutsers damages knee ligaments — 43 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 43 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 ratings

Pau Casadesús goes up and wins it — 7.77

A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.77 for the rest of it.

Squad

Tempers go at Granada

Riley Owen 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.

Match

Ventsi Bodurov among the goals in a wild afternoon

8 goals in one match, Ventsi Bodurov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Granada and Osasuna.

Squad

Steven van der Sloot 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.

Match

Ventsi Bodurov rescues a point for Granada

It needed Ventsi Bodurov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 4‑4 against Osasuna, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

Squad

A muscle injury sidelines Frédéric Barbier for 15 days

Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Granada will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Axel Carrasco

Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

Nico Vargas changes it off the bench

He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Granada had a different afternoon.

In brief

Back issues
809 Edition

The Granada Gazette

27 Jan 2042
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No clean sheets in sight for Granada

17 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.

The terraces

The mood at Granada 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.

Boardroom

Pressure builds in the Granada boardroom

The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.

Squad

Riley Owen 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 Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Milan Mutsers 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.

Match

Rayo Vallecano take the points off Granada

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

Milan Mutsers runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Bobby Sains 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.

Squad

Pau Casadesús asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief