Marked for Daniel Graham
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Jan 2045
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Real Sociedad B will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Jan 2045
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.
Market30 Jan 2045
“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.
Match28 Jan 2045
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad30 Jan 2045
Louka Gautier 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.
Squad30 Jan 2045
Words at Real Sociedad B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ola Visted 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.
Match28 Jan 2045
1‑3 to Osasuna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Jan 2045
Too much change too quickly at Real Sociedad B
5 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.
Player ratings30 Jan 2045
The chances came and went for Manuel Fuentes
9 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Jan 2045
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Real Sociedad B will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market2 Jan 2045
Daniel Graham 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 Real Sociedad B can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Jan 2045
The season belongs to Artur Hein
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 Real Sociedad B have had the benefit of it.
Squad2 Jan 2045
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ola Visted commits to Real Sociedad B for another 3 years.
Squad2 Jan 2045
Words at Real Sociedad B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ola Visted 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.
Match31 Dec 2044
Levante left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings2 Jan 2045
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.08, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings2 Jan 2045
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings2 Jan 2045
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Sep 2044
Ola Visted breaks a bone — 72 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings26 Sep 2044
No sign of nerves from Manuel Fuentes at 21 — 9.24
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Manuel Fuentes did not need any: 9.24, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad26 Sep 2044
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings26 Sep 2044
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market26 Sep 2044
“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.
Squad26 Sep 2044
Ola Visted 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 Real Sociedad B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Sep 2044
It finished 4‑3, and it was Manuel Fuentes’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Real Sociedad B.
Match24 Sep 2044
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Real Sociedad B and Cultural Leonesa, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad26 Sep 2044
Louka Gautier 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Aug 2044
Matthew Martin damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
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.
Market8 Aug 2044
Biel Peña puts it in writing
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Aug 2044
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad8 Aug 2044
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Louka Gautier and Real Sociedad B agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Aug 2044
Daniel Graham is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad8 Aug 2044
Words at Real Sociedad B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ola Visted 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Dec 2043
A fracture rules Adrian Sović out for 80 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Real Sociedad B will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings28 Dec 2043
Age has not caught Ledion Spahiu yet — 8.02
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Dec 2043
Adrian Sović 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.
Squad28 Dec 2043
Ola Visted 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.
Squad28 Dec 2043
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ola Visted, and the manager let it.
The terraces28 Dec 2043
At 22 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.
Match26 Dec 2043
It finished 1‑0, and it was Luciano Strey’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Real Sociedad B.
Player ratings28 Dec 2043
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom28 Dec 2043
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Sep 2043
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Kalvin André scored in the 88th minute, Cádiz had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Real Sociedad B took the lot.
Squad7 Sep 2043
Lewis Pirie breaks a bone — 63 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Sep 2043
The match ball belongs to Kalvin André, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market7 Sep 2043
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Kalvin André reports back to Real Sociedad B with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad7 Sep 2043
Daniel Graham: 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.” Real Sociedad B have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings7 Sep 2043
Age has not caught Kalvin André yet — 8.23
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.23 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market7 Sep 2043
Leganés come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Real Sociedad B did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Sep 2043
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Sociedad B they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad7 Sep 2043
Ola Visted 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2043
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad31 Aug 2043
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Aug 2043
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Sociedad B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match29 Aug 2043
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.
Market31 Aug 2043
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2043
Daniel Graham is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad31 Aug 2043
Words at Real Sociedad B training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ola Visted 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.
Match29 Aug 2043
0‑1 to Alavés, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings31 Aug 2043
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2043
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 109 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market3 Aug 2043
“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 Real Sociedad B, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2043
“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.
Market3 Aug 2043
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Real Sociedad B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Aug 2043
Daniel Graham is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Market3 Aug 2043
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.