$170.0K settles it between the clubs for Marcos Sierra
CE Europa have accepted the money. What Barakaldo do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Barakaldo have done the hard part with Real Madrid, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Arenas Club were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Barakaldo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Sibo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almería have kept their man, and Barakaldo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Barakaldo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Marín 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Barakaldo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Quevedo is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chiki signs something — a contract at Barakaldo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Gastón Pérez has written the date down.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Barakaldo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Barakaldo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Barakaldo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Barakaldo can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Antequera this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Barakaldo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Marín 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.
David López 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.46, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Barakaldo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Sabin Merino 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Pablo Marín 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Barakaldo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Pablo Marín 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.
Matías Scigliano 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Barakaldo. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Aimar Nieto could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Barakaldo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutGastón Pérez knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 71 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.
Jonathan Monsalve and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Barakaldo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Marín 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Barakaldo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
162 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Barakaldo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Barakaldo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Real Sociedad is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Athletic Bilbao is saying, and nobody at Barakaldo is enjoying the guessing.
Íñigo 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Barakaldo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwasi Sibo 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.