Marked for David Lorenzo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gianluca Mancuso
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Ibiza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Oct 2028
Ibiza bow out of the cup
Andorra go through and Ibiza go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market30 Oct 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Ibiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market30 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Izan Yurrieta
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Izan Yurrieta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ibiza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A falling-out at Ibiza
Enol Rodríguez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Ibiza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcos Cuenca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Oct 2028
A 2‑0 win over Gimnàstic, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.25, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Javier Bravo, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Aug 2028
Gianluca Mancuso damages knee ligaments — 147 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 147 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.
Market28 Aug 2028
“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.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
Ibiza and Albacete have settled on $1.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The terraces28 Aug 2028
Supporters turn on the $4.7M sale of Daniel Yáñez
He is going to Málaga, the club has $4.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market28 Aug 2028
Málaga pay $4.7M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
Ibiza offered $2.2M; Sanluqueño said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market28 Aug 2028
Ibiza say no — this time
The offer from Barakaldo for Izan Yurrieta was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Ibiza
Enol Rodríguez 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 targets28 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sanluqueño have kept their man, and Ibiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Getafe is saying, and nobody at Ibiza is enjoying the guessing.
Market24 Jul 2028
“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.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Celta wanted more than $3.5M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market24 Jul 2028
Ibiza say no — this time
The offer from Real Avilés for Santiago Müller was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
The deal with Modena 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Ibiza
Diego Arroyo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Ibiza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcos Cuenca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” David Lorenzo and Ibiza agree another 3 years.
Loan watch24 Jul 2028
“I did not go to Pontevedra to sit and watch. I want to come back to Ibiza and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ibiza can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Bébé 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 Ibiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Ibiza
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Marcos Cuenca 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
60 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market23 Aug 2027
One of our own: Luis Rey joins the Ibiza first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luis Rey is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market23 Aug 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mario Méndez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market23 Aug 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Lorenzo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
The ground is getting bigger
The plans are signed off at a capacity of 3484. Decisions like this are judged twenty years later, by people who were not in the room when they were taken.