Marked for Izei Gómez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Jul 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mallorca waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Real Madrid Castilla is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad30 Jul 2035
A fracture rules Izei Gómez out for 44 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Real Madrid Castilla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market30 Jul 2035
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Cacereño had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The dugout30 Jul 2035
Martín Cruz knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Madrid Castilla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad30 Jul 2035
Martín Cruz has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Martín Cruz keeps the shirt for now, at Real Madrid Castilla's convenience rather than his own.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market18 Jun 2035
Teruel come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Real Madrid Castilla did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market18 Jun 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Madrid Castilla they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market18 Jun 2035
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Martín Cruz may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
Martín Cruz knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Madrid Castilla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Martín Esteban wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Real Madrid Castilla have no good answer.
Market18 Jun 2035
The clock does Marc Martínez’s negotiating for him
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Real Madrid Castilla could ask drops and the wages Marc Martínez can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 May 2035
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad21 May 2035
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Real Madrid Castilla had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad21 May 2035
He is 20, he is averaging 7.09, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Market21 May 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Madrid Castilla is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout21 May 2035
Felipe Vega 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.
Squad21 May 2035
The division's best last weekend was a Real Madrid Castilla man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Martín Esteban was the best thing in any of them.
Market21 May 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Àlex Delgado’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market21 May 2035
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Real Madrid Castilla could get for him.
The dugout21 May 2035
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Apr 2035
Martín Esteban has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Madrid Castilla they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
Javier Martín, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The terraces9 Apr 2035
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The terraces9 Apr 2035
A long trip to Pontevedra worth making
2-1, and a corner of somebody else's ground that made more noise than the rest of it put together. Those coaches leave before dawn and nobody outside them ever mentions it.
Squad9 Apr 2035
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Real Madrid Castilla will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Player ratings9 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Apr 2035
At 20 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Izei Gómez, 21, gets his chance
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 21. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Mar 2035
A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Real Madrid Castilla know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market26 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Madrid Castilla is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match24 Mar 2035
Barakaldo left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout26 Mar 2035
Carlos León 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.
Boardroom26 Mar 2035
Nobody left the Real Madrid Castilla dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Izei Cruz makes his debut at 21
At 21 years old, Izei Cruz became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
Market26 Mar 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Àlex Delgado’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
Half an hour was enough for Miguel Santos
He came on with the match going nowhere and left it settled. Real Madrid Castilla had the right man on the bench, and for once the timing was right too.