Marked for Sergi Canós
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match16 Feb 2030
4‑1, and Nelson Deossa took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Betis tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match13 Feb 2030
The cup run ends for Betis
0‑1 against Athletic Bilbao, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.49, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.22 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market18 Feb 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Betis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.44, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market18 Feb 2030
Lucas Arce has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Betis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Betis may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market21 Jan 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Betis people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market21 Jan 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Betis, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
“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.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
Villarreal wanted more than $4.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
Everything agreed with Athletic Bilbao, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
The offer went to Espanyol 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.
Market21 Jan 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Betis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match22 Dec 2029
4‑0, and Diego Porcel took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Betis tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Diego Porcel takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market24 Dec 2029
Lanús come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Betis did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Dec 2029
Sergi Canós 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 Betis can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
Lucas Arce: 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.” Betis have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Héctor Bellerín, 34, rolls back the years — 7.95
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Betis
Antony 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.
Market24 Dec 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Betis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market24 Dec 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market26 Nov 2029
“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 Betis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match24 Nov 2029
Nobody wants to play Betis right now
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Market26 Nov 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Betis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Nov 2029
A falling-out at Betis
Giovani Lo Celso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Antony 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.
Match24 Nov 2029
Betis make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match24 Nov 2029
Villarreal made Betis work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Antony in the eights
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Appearance number 100 for Diego Porcel
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match27 Oct 2029
Still nobody has beaten Betis
The unbeaten run reaches 12. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Betis may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market29 Oct 2029
Sergi Canós 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 Betis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Tempers go at Betis
Antony 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.
Market29 Oct 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Betis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Matías Gómez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Market29 Oct 2029
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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Betis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Bajčetić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Oct 2029
Three points for Betis, 1‑0 the final word against Celta in a contest settled by the finer margins.
In brief
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Player ratings
Antony in the eights
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Squad
A muscle injury sidelines Juan Pérez for 16 days
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Player ratings
One of those days for Fran García
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Oct 2029
10 unbeaten for Betis
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Betis did not have in the autumn.
Player ratings15 Oct 2029
Up for the corner, and Stefan Bajčetić delivers — 7.82
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Stefan Bajčetić scored, was marked 7.82, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market15 Oct 2029
Only the photograph left for Georgemy
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Georgemy will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Betis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Tempers go at Betis
Giovani Lo Celso 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 Oct 2029
A row about effort at Betis
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antony was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Adrián Liso
“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.
Match13 Oct 2029
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Betis had all but put away. Athletic Bilbao will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad15 Oct 2029
5 Betis players away with their countries
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Market15 Oct 2029
Amar Memić is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Betis has been clear about where Amar Memić stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Apr 2029
“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 Betis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Apr 2029
A falling-out at Betis
Antony and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Betis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Riquelme 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 Apr 2029
11 goals and a season average of 7.32. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match21 Apr 2029
Valladolid left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch23 Apr 2029
36 appearances away from home and 11 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad23 Apr 2029
“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 Betis know it.
Boardroom23 Apr 2029
Doors closed at Betis
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Dani Vivian has become a man the manager trusts
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The dugout
No hiding place for Sergi Canós