Marked for Izei Muñoz
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
The scrutiny sharpens at Ibiza
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Ibiza is running low.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market4 Jun 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at Ibiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2035
The deal with Ponferradina 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.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Leo Moya signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leo Moya and Ibiza agree another 5 years.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletic Bilbao have kept their man, and Ibiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Jun 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Paul Fleurus, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jun 2035
Leo Moya is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Leo Moya 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.
Squad4 Jun 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Ibiza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 May 2035
No sign of nerves from Enrique Medina at 20 — 7.61
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Enrique Medina did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad7 May 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dani Clavijo and Ibiza agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The terraces7 May 2035
He is 20 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 2035
Three points for Ibiza, 1‑0 the final word against Antequera in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings7 May 2035
Izei Muñoz runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 May 2035
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 May 2035
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout7 May 2035
The manager makes an example of Rodrigo Trejo
“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.
Squad7 May 2035
A row about effort at Ibiza
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Ferreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
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Looking ahead
Ibiza take on the side everybody is chasing
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The dugout
Iván Fernández does not fit this one
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The dugout
Mateo Smodlaka has become a man the manager trusts
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Mar 2035
11 matches without a win for Ibiza
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Ibiza are no longer polite ones.
Match3 Mar 2035
Chastening afternoon for Ibiza
A 0‑3 beating by Alcorcón was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad5 Mar 2035
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.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
This is not rotation. Lautaro Luján has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Ibiza is pretending otherwise.
Market5 Mar 2035
“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.
Match3 Mar 2035
Ibiza are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
Paul Fleurus gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom5 Mar 2035
Nobody left the Ibiza 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.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
No place for Andrés Varela on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Ibiza pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2034
A fracture rules Andrés Rubio out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ibiza will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
Benjamín Ruiz: 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.” Ibiza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match21 Oct 2034
No end in sight to Ibiza's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Ibiza has to find a result from somewhere.
Match21 Oct 2034
A bad afternoon for Ibiza against Tenerife
2‑3 to Tenerife, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Oct 2034
Words at Ibiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dani Clavijo 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.
Squad23 Oct 2034
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Fuentes, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Oct 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Izei Muñoz commits to Ibiza for another 3 years.
The dugout23 Oct 2034
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.