Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 The request is on a desk at Huesca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Hugo López 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.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo van Roekel 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. David Navarro has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
26 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eduardo Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huesca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Hugo López 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Noah and Huesca agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Oier Gastesi 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hugo López. 1‑0 against Tarazona, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Huesca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Hugo López and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oier Gastesi 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Huesca, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Eduardo Ramírez is on it.
67 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“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 Huesca, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Huesca will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huesca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Hugo López 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.
55 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huesca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
$2.0M was the most the club would pay and Villarreal were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Oier Gastesi 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Huesca will try again when the window opens; Sevilla may not be selling by then.
Huesca asked and Bayer Leverkusen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
21 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Huesca have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Huesca, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Navarro did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Huesca know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Oier Gastesi 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.
Betis Deportivo will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Huesca were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huesca can pretend not to have heard.
45 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The offer went to Sevilla 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.77 for the rest of it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Huesca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Huesca have gone to Real Madrid 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.
20 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Jemiah Umolu had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Oviedo were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.58, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings7 Jan 2036
Daniel Torres, 20, 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 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Huesca have had the benefit of it.
“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 Huesca, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huesca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huesca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eduardo Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huesca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ratón. 3‑1 against Gimnàstic, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Position 3, 26 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huesca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Oier Gastesi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo van Roekel 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.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
14 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
55 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Huesca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Oier Gastesi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiago Urquiza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Huesca, another week without a signature from Thiago Urquiza.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Eduardo Ramírez is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Huesca know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Huesca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
7.99, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
69 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Huesca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
14 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings5 Nov 2035
Daniel Torres, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.84
A mark of 7.84 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huesca can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Noah, marked 7.85, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huesca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He is 22 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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 Huesca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huesca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 goals in one match, Ratón on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Huesca and Mirandés.
Almería will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Nikola Pavlica has pre-agreed a move to Huesca, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
In brief
SquadWords at Huesca training over how hard people work
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Huesca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Huesca people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huesca can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huesca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal that would have taken Juan José Garrido to Getafe has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Huesca with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Jiménez 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.
Lugo will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dylan Sandoval has pre-agreed a move to Huesca, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Villarreal have kept their man, and Huesca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Huesca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huesca can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Huesca people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Huesca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 9 arrived, 12 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
$630.0K was the most the club would pay and Barcelona were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Oier Gastesi 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.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
In brief
SquadWords at Huesca training over how hard people work
72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Huesca lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Huesca people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Position 3, 78 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Huesca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan José Garrido will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huesca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Huesca have gone to Barcelona 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.
Real Madrid wanted more than $490.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo van Roekel 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huesca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for David Holzer is in the works
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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.
Huesca moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Interim Coach, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Huesca have done the hard part with Valencia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Huesca have gone to Real Madrid 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
The name of Eduardo Ramírez has come up in conversations Huesca were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Huesca asked and Red Bull Salzburg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad20 Aug 2035
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo van Roekel 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Enrique Álvarez 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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo van Roekel 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Huesca people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Huesca offered $570.0K; Barcelona 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Juan José Garrido has his answer from Huesca; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Real Sociedad have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Huesca lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arenas Club waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Huesca is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Real Madrid 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Las Palmas have kept their man, and Huesca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danilo van Roekel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Vlăduţ Cimbru 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.
Celta have accepted the money. What Huesca do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huesca can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan José Garrido will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huesca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Oier Gastesi 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.
Ceuta paid $220.0K and Huesca took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Real Sociedad have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The offer from Levante for Tiziano Favotti 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huesca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Oier Gastesi 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.
Huesca asked and Legia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danilo van Roekel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
37 games, 6 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Huesca now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Position 3 on 78 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Huesca, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan José Garrido will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huesca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad14 May 2035
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Danilo van Roekel 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Huesca, another week without a signature from Tiziano Favotti.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huesca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 May 2035
Álex Jiménez 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.
Elián Chaves 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.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huesca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huesca can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huesca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
58 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings23 Apr 2035
Daniel Luna was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eduardo Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huesca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Everybody at Huesca saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Vlăduţ Cimbru 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan José Garrido will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huesca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Jiménez 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.
A 1‑0 win over Atlético Madrileño, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Vlăduţ Cimbru and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
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.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huesca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Huesca have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Oier Gastesi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Jiménez 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.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Huesca have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Daniel Luna
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tiziano Favotti provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Castellón waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Huesca is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings5 Feb 2035
David Navarro, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 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.
“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 Huesca, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huesca is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
Huesca close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Huesca asked and Gijón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Real Sociedad is saying, and nobody at Huesca is enjoying the guessing.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Huesca have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huesca can pretend not to have heard.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Huesca and Marbella, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
$60.0K was the most the club would pay and Getafe were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Álex Jiménez 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.
Huesca asked and Sevilla said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Elián Chaves 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arenas Club waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Huesca is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Huesca, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Las Palmas 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.
The offer went to Getafe 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.
Oier Gastesi 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.
The name of Eduardo Ramírez has come up in conversations Huesca were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Álex Jiménez 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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Navarro did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danilo van Roekel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Player ratings18 Dec 2034
Tiziano Favotti was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Jemiah Umolu scored in the 87th minute, Tenerife had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Huesca took the lot.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huesca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad2 Oct 2034
Álex Jiménez 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Helber Josua Catano Catano has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Huesca have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The words a physio says slowly. 32 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Jiménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Andriy Lysytskyi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Huesca have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rayo Vallecano have kept their man, and Huesca go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Huesca has been clear about where Carlos Vega stands, which is more than many ever get.
The deal with Atlético Madrid 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huesca they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huesca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Jiménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Huesca asked and Lugo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
David Navarro is 20, and Huesca have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Huesca have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Justin Eversen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huesca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
$240.0K on the table at Valladolid. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Jiménez 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.
Carlos Vega 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Huesca will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lugo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Huesca is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2034
$290.0K settles it between the clubs for Oier Gastesi
Espanyol have accepted the money. What Huesca do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Huesca 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.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Danilo van Roekel has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Huesca have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Add another name to the list: Eldense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Justin Eversen. The answer from Huesca has not changed — yet.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Elián Chaves 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.