Marked for Manuel Cabrera
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 May 2029
14 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.
Squad7 May 2029
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Guadalajara lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 May 2029
A fracture rules Javier Ablanque out for 29 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout7 May 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.
Squad7 May 2029
Marcos Baselga 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.
Squad7 May 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pablo Rojo and Guadalajara agree another 2 years.
The terraces7 May 2029
He is 17 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match5 May 2029
Late, late show earns Guadalajara a point
Minute 90, against Real Avilés, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Loan watch7 May 2029
24 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Apr 2029
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Guadalajara lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The terraces30 Apr 2029
Anger at Guadalajara 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.
Match28 Apr 2029
13 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.
Match28 Apr 2029
The goals have deserted Guadalajara
13 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Guadalajara can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A fracture rules Javier Ablanque out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
Pressure builds in the Guadalajara boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Raúl Tavares and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
This is not rotation. Miki has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Guadalajara is pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Teun Gijselhart 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Sep 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Javier Ablanque
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Guadalajara lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces18 Sep 2028
Supporters organise against the Guadalajara 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.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Guadalajara may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market18 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Guadalajara is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match16 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Guadalajara's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Guadalajara has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Kevin Cardozo 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Teun Gijselhart was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets18 Sep 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Granada have kept their man, and Guadalajara go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Guadalajara know it.