Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Isaac Romero 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.
Squad15 May 2034
Words at Sevilla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abel Bretones 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
6 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sevilla is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sevilla heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2034
Words at Sevilla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Salas 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Andrej Bačanin wants continental football; whether Sevilla can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
5 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.
Isaac Romero 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.
Squad1 May 2034
Kike Salas 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.
6 goals in one match, Peio Canales on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Sevilla and Getafe.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Isaac Romero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sevilla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Isaac Romero 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 run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Sevilla are no longer polite ones.
Squad24 Apr 2034
Words at Sevilla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abel Bretones 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sevilla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Sevilla, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sevilla they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Apr 2034
Words at Sevilla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Salas 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Emil Səfərov has just signed for Sevilla, and for once the answer mattered.
Málaga will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kyle Fitzgerald has pre-agreed a move to Sevilla, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Every dressing room knows how to read a signing like this one. Emil Səfərov is not here to sit and wait indefinitely, and the man whose place he has been bought to take knows it better than anyone.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lorenzo Lucchesi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Sevilla the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Isaac Romero 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.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Kike Salas 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until José Ángel Carmona signs something — a contract at Sevilla or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sevilla will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Sevilla hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sevilla can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Apr 2034
Words at Sevilla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Salas 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.