Marked for Roberto Peña
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 Feb 2028
CE Europa will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑2, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Mirandés were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Roberto Peña breaks a bone — 18 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
No sign of nerves from Ryunosuke Sato at 21 — 8.46
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ryunosuke Sato did not need any: 8.46, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Window shuts: 5 in, 4 out at Mirandés
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Barcelona keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Mirandés
Aritz Arambarri 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.
Match1 Feb 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Mirandés and CE Europa, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Mirandés
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zaid Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces31 Jan 2028
Supporters organise against the Mirandés board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match29 Jan 2028
Tarazona will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Mirandés were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
A brace, and Ali Ávila takes the afternoon — 8.84
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ali Ávila provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad31 Jan 2028
25 days out for Roberto Peña after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mirandés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Marked 7.70 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Mirandés
Ryunosuke Sato and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market31 Jan 2028
The fee is $150.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Antequera drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Mirandés
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zaid Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Mirandés asked and Atlético Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2028
33 days out for Roberto Peña after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mirandés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Mirandés
Zaid Romero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Mirandés have gone to Sabadell with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Mirandés asked and Burgos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Mirandés
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín Pascual was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Iker Varela, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Mirandés are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ryunosuke Sato's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Loan watch24 Jan 2028
“I watch every Mirandés game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ypsonas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 Jan 2028
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad17 Jan 2028
9 saves: Igor Nikić was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad17 Jan 2028
42 days out for Roberto Peña after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mirandés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 7.85, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
Agustín Páez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mirandés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Shedrach Ebite, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market17 Jan 2028
Antequera come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Mirandés did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Ryunosuke Sato 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.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Mirandés have gone to Albacete with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jan 2028
52 days out for Roberto Peña after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mirandés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match8 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Mirandés
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mirandés can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Mirandés
Ryunosuke Sato 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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The offer went to Sabadell 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
The medical room confirms 21 days on the sidelines for Hernesto Caballero, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market10 Jan 2028
Add another name to the list: Antequera have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Sebastián Bedoya. The answer from Mirandés has not changed — yet.
Match8 Jan 2028
The goals have deserted Mirandés
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Mirandés can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo La Coruña have kept their man, and Mirandés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
19 days out for Roberto Peña after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mirandés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Celta; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Market12 Jul 2027
Liu Jiashen 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 Mirandés can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Jul 2027
The name of Hernán Cano has come up in conversations Mirandés were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Aritz Arambarri 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The offer went to Arenas Club 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Alan Fernando Gutierrez is living that version at Mirandés, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Ryunosuke Sato 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Mirandés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
It is over: Mirandés are relegated
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
The terraces5 Jul 2027
Anger at Mirandés spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Roberto Peña out for 26 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mirandés will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Jul 2027
“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 Mirandés, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Mirandés
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The deal with Getafe 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mirandés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Federico Gutiérrez has, at Mirandés, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Betis have kept their man, and Mirandés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.