The Villarreal Chronicle
Market26 Mar 2029
Isidro Pitta hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villarreal can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Matías Soulé beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 24. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Matías Soulé 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 Villarreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Taty Castellanos
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match24 Mar 2029
Villarreal get the job done against Cartagena
A 2‑0 win over Cartagena, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Villarreal count the cost of losing Iván Castro
45 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Ninety minutes of Maroan Sannadi at his very best
Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Villarreal.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Carles Aleñá in the eights
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Loan watch26 Mar 2029
The goals keep arriving from Álvaro Djaló’s exile
11 goals in 25 games at Eldense — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Villarreal updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
In brief
- The dugout The form table has caught Taty Castellanos
- The dugout Jorge De Frutos knocks on the manager’s door
- The dugout Pablo Fornals has become a man the manager trusts