“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 The request is on a desk at Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marc Bernal did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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 23 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.
“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 dugout1 Nov 2027
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.” Tomás Nieto, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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.
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 José Antonio De la Rosa is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marc Bernal’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cádiz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cádiz, another week without a signature from Luis López.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cádiz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Cádiz will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cádiz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cádiz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Obeng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Tomás Nieto after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
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 Jandro Orellana is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bojan Kovačević signs something — a contract at Cádiz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Manu Fernández
The dugoutJavi Ontiveros unhappy with how he is being used
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cádiz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Andorra have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Efe Aghama 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cádiz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Cádiz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The offer from AS Saint-Etienne for García Pascual 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.
“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 Cádiz, 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 Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutJandro Orellana has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutJavi Castro knocks on the manager's door
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Marcos Denia’s exile
The offer went to Barcelona 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Cádiz will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Cádiz know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Sanluqueño can pretend not to have heard.
$1.3M on the table at Villarreal. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Sanluqueño asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Facundo Agüero 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Sanluqueño training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Falón 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 Sanluqueño, another week without a signature from Facundo Agüero.
The dugout7 Jun 2027
Jonny Arriba is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jandro Orellana is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Gonzalo Petit 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bojan Kovačević signs something — a contract at Cádiz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Cádiz is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Position 11 on 49 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.
Jandro Orellana and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 May 2027
Manuel Falón 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.
100 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 dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Gonzalo Cortés left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Agustín Juárez is on it.
Villarreal B will want this one forgotten quickly: 7‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Sanluqueño were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jandro Orellana provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Daniel Yáñez, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.39
A mark of 8.39 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.
Facundo Agüero 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Sanluqueño and Villarreal B, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Agustín Juárez 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ángel Galván
7.97, 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alex Guaricuyu commits to Sanluqueño for another 4 years.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Sanluqueño training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Falón 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.
Ivan Laća 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jandro Orellana. 2‑1 against CE Europa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 21 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Alex Guaricuyu has come out of that comparison in the side, and Sanluqueño have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Everybody at Sanluqueño 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuel Falón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sanluqueño told Jandro Orellana something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Manuel Falón trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Algeciras spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jandro Orellana scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sanluqueño have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jandro Orellana 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sanluqueño will try again when the window opens; Castellón may not be selling by then.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francisco Mwepu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Sanluqueño know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Malavan had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Sanluqueño and Castellón have settled on $880.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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 fee is $3.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Oviedo drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Sanluqueño close the window on a squad of their own making
3 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.
The deal with Juventud Torremolinos 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.
Sanluqueño offered $500.0K; Girona 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Cádiz know it.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Huesca tried to reorganise, Cádiz did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.45 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
$830.0K on the table at Castellón. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
4 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sanluqueño can tell you which week it ends in.
Facundo Agüero 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 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.
Sanluqueño asked and Ibiza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 7.97 for the rest of it.
3 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Moussa Diakité 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Franco Cervi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.45. 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.
Marked 8.42 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Antoñito Cordero is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Deportivo La Coruña.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sergio Ortuño’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cádiz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Sergio Ortuño has written the date down.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Cádiz will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The deal that would have taken Jandro Orellana to Sabadell has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Cádiz with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Tomás Nieto could afford to be generous.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Cádiz will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Javi Ontiveros’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cádiz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo La Coruña have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Cádiz had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Club America, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Wilfrido Báez has just signed for Cádiz, and for once the answer mattered.
The name of Jandro Orellana has come up in conversations Cádiz were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Cádiz will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.