Marked for Aimar López
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Sep 2031
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market8 Sep 2031
Noah has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Celta Fortuna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Julen Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Aug 2031
12 matches without a win for Celta Fortuna
The run now stands at 12, and the questions being asked around Celta Fortuna are no longer polite ones.
Market1 Sep 2031
Andrés Antañón has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Celta Fortuna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout1 Sep 2031
“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.
Squad1 Sep 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Celta Fortuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Aug 2031
3 matches without a goal for Celta Fortuna
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings1 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match30 Aug 2031
Mérida left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market1 Sep 2031
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Celta Fortuna will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad1 Sep 2031
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Santino Chavero has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Aug 2031
Only the photograph left for Julen Álvarez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Julen Álvarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Celta Fortuna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market25 Aug 2031
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Huesca waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Celta Fortuna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market25 Aug 2031
Noah attracts admirers
The name of Noah has come up in conversations Celta Fortuna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Jul 2031
Only the photograph left for Julen Álvarez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Julen Álvarez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Celta Fortuna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market28 Jul 2031
Aimar López 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 Celta Fortuna can pretend not to have heard.
Market28 Jul 2031
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Celta Fortuna have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market28 Jul 2031
Luis Bilbao wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Celta Fortuna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Julen Álvarez 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.
The dugout28 Jul 2031
Julen Álvarez knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Julen Álvarez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match21 Jan 2031
Celta march on in the cup
Girona are out and Celta go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market27 Jan 2031
Miguel Román 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 Celta can pretend not to have heard.
Market27 Jan 2031
Atlético Madrid pay $9.2M, 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.
Boardroom27 Jan 2031
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $1.5M of what Celta paid for Sergio Camello is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Market27 Jan 2031
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Michee Talamaku Mvukana is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Market27 Jan 2031
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Match25 Jan 2031
Celta cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The dugout27 Jan 2031
Aimar López: 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.” Celta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Michee Talamaku Mvukana has, at Celta, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Celta may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Celta
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilaix Moriba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad18 Nov 2030
A falling-out at Celta
Javi Galán and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Raúl Delgado pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
The manager makes an example of Micah Mbick
“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.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
Williot Swedberg has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Celta will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market18 Nov 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Williot Swedberg’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market18 Nov 2030
No place for Álvaro Marín in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Álvaro Marín has his answer from Celta; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Celta, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
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Looking ahead
Álvaro Núñez faces his old club
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Boardroom
The Celta production line keeps running
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Looking ahead
Home comforts ahead for Celta
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Nov 2030
Cup progress for Celta
A 4‑0 win over Ceuta, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Both of them Daniel Rus's — 8.48
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings11 Nov 2030
Aimar López, 18, steals the show — 7.90
Marked 7.90 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout11 Nov 2030
Andrés Antañón: 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.” Celta have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market11 Nov 2030
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market11 Nov 2030
Only the photograph left for Pablo Meixús
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pablo Meixús will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Celta the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Ilaix Moriba 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 Celta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match9 Nov 2030
Celta cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Match9 Nov 2030
The run at home goes on for Celta
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 May 2030
Nowhere to hide for Celta
0‑4 against Real Madrid, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match27 May 2030
The season ends: position 5 for Celta
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 77 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Squad27 May 2030
Tempers go at Celta
Ilaix Moriba 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.
The dugout27 May 2030
“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.
Match25 May 2030
The run is over for Celta
5 matches without defeat, and then Real Madrid. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Loan watch27 May 2030
39 appearances at Castellón and the goals keep coming. Celta are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Boardroom27 May 2030
Nobody left the Celta 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.
Squad27 May 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Aimar López commits to Celta for another 4 years.
The dugout27 May 2030
The team sheet said everything about Javi Rueda
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Javi Rueda.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
When it matters, Hugo Álvarez plays
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Market
The Ilaix Moriba talk will not go away
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Feb 2030
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.
Transfer targets11 Feb 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zaragoza have kept their man, and Celta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market11 Feb 2030
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Celta heard it as anything else.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at Celta training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilaix Moriba 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.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Tempers go at Celta
Javi Galán 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.
Boardroom11 Feb 2030
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Lucas Sanseviero has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Celta have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Player ratings11 Feb 2030
Ninety minutes of Ilias Akhomach at his very best
Marked 8.16. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Celta.
Match9 Feb 2030
The run is over for Celta
4 matches without defeat, and then Atlético Madrid. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.