Marked for Javier Hidalgo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match15 Jan 2033
0‑4 to Villarreal B, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market17 Jan 2033
“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.
The dugout17 Jan 2033
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Real Avilés may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2033
The paperwork begins on Kauã Freire
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Real Avilés have done the hard part with Burgos, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Lucio Falasco 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 targets17 Jan 2033
Real Avilés asked and Valencia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jan 2033
Thomas Cáceres 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.
Match11 Jan 2033
A 1‑0 win over Arenas Club, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout17 Jan 2033
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Nov 2032
10 matches without a win for Real Avilés
The run now stands at 10, and the questions being asked around Real Avilés are no longer polite ones.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Lucio Falasco 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.
Market22 Nov 2032
Amir Etien told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Amir Etien has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Real Avilés.
Player ratings22 Nov 2032
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
The manager makes an example of Frankie Impey
“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 dugout22 Nov 2032
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
Somebody else is better right now than Nicolás Castillo
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The terraces22 Nov 2032
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Match20 Nov 2032
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Cultural Leonesa will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Apr 2032
Pressure builds in the Real Avilés boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad26 Apr 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
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 7.58 for the rest of it.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
“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.
Player ratings26 Apr 2032
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad26 Apr 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces26 Apr 2032
The crowd has taken to Pedro Ramos
At 16 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match24 Apr 2032
Arenteiro left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout26 Apr 2032
“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.