Marked for Ignacio Gallardo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Apr 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ignacio Gallardo
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Castellón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Castellón is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Apr 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alberto Jiménez and Castellón agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Mamadou Koné 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 Castellón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match7 Apr 2029
Gimnàstic left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Diego Barri 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Ryunosuke Sato
6 goals and a season average of 7.32 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Rodrigo Gallo will call it something else in private.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Market
No place for Ander Zoilo in the plan
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Market
Agustín Sienra linked with a move away
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Apr 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ignacio Gallardo
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Castellón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market2 Apr 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Castellón is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Apr 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alberto Jiménez and Castellón agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Agustín Sienra and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market2 Apr 2029
No place for Rubén López in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Rubén López has his answer from Castellón; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Castellón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Millán 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.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Serpeta
“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.
Market2 Apr 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market2 Apr 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Castellón know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Mar 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Ignacio Gallardo
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Castellón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market26 Mar 2029
Jari Vlak has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Castellón they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Castellón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2029
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Castellón can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Rodrigo Gallo
“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
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adam Jakobsen. 1‑0 against Ibiza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Juan Millán 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.
Loan watch26 Mar 2029
“I watch every Castellón game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Alavés runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Marked 7.66 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Castellón had the best player on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Mar 2029
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Castellón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match19 Mar 2029
62 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
“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.
Market19 Mar 2029
Sabin Merino 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 Castellón can pretend not to have heard.
Market19 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Antonio Gala
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Antonio Gala will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Castellón the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Ryunosuke Sato and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match17 Mar 2029
Three points for Castellón, 2‑1 the final word against Eldense in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Pablo Santiago
5 goals and a season average of 7.41 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Ninety minutes of Pablo Santiago at his very best
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Castellón.