104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Almería lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Almería, and it is not being withdrawn.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Almería people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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.
Day 39 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Barcelona keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Almería lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valladolid have kept their man, and Almería go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Barcelona 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
37 appearances and 10 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Brian Cipenga 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” André Horta has his answer from Almería; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
120 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
“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 Almería, and it is not being withdrawn.
Almería offered $1.4M; Tarazona 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.
Fernando 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.
127 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
$13.0M on the table at Valencia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Almería have gone to Tarazona with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Javi Guerra 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.
Almería asked and Teruel said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
0‑3 to Eibar, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Javi Guerra 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Almería training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Luna 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.
34 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Martí Fuentes to a room that had heard them before.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Almería can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Almería training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Luna 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Almería, and both men came out saying it was fine.
7 goals in 29 games at Zamora — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Almería updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Nobody at Almería 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Almería know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Almería lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Almería will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Almería lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Almería will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Javi Guerra and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Martí Fuentes to a room that had heard them before.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jair Córdova has his answer from Almería; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Almería will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
16 goals in 32 games at Vélez — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Almería updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Almería can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Brian Cipenga 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Rubén Quintanilla’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Almería needing him to play as if none of it matters.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Almería lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A brace, and Pau Víctor takes the afternoon — 8.94
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pau Víctor provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.81, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Up for the corner, and Stefan Džodić delivers — 7.12
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Stefan Džodić scored, was marked 7.12, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Patrick Soko 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Marcos Luna 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.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Almería lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Almería can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Almería have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Patrick Soko 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcos Luna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Javi Guerra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe game went through Gustavinho — 6.78
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mikel Vesga
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑1 win over Córdoba, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Brian Cipenga 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Almería told Patrick Soko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Almería can pretend not to have heard.
Javi Guerra 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.
29 appearances away from home and 16 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Almería training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Luna 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.
Marked 8.26. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Almería.
Squad18 Oct 2027
6 new faces, and Almería are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Selvi commits to Almería for another 5 years.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Marcos Luna 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Almería, and 4 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Andorra in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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 Rubén Quintanilla has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Almería, and both men came out saying it was fine.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Almería 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 Brian Cipenga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Almería, another week without a signature from Fernando.
Something was said to Obed Vargas and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcos Luna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Almería has been clear about where Nélson Monte stands, which is more than many ever get.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Almería interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Martí Fuentes keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.07 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
A 3‑2 win over Zaragoza, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Marcos Luna 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
“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 Almería, and it is not being withdrawn.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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.
Fernando 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.
Almería asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gustavinho wants continental football; whether Almería can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Brian Cipenga 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.
107 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Almería can pretend not to have heard.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. AS Saint-Etienne moved on, Pau Víctor reports back to Almería, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 17 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
36 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Fernando 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jordan Wright has just signed for Almería, and for once the answer mattered.
114 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almería lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Almería offered $11.9M; Betis 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $98.2M — a club that wants Josh Sargent enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Newell's Old Boys is saying, and nobody at Almería is enjoying the guessing.
$410.0K on the table at Oviedo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$180.0K on the table at Alavés. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
In brief
SquadMarcos Luna falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 121 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.
The offer went to Liverpool 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.
The fee is $14.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Valencia drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Almería go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Almería lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Almería have gone to Valencia with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Madrid is saying, and nobody at Almería is enjoying the guessing.
$380.0K on the table at Oviedo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Almería asked and Oviedo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Marcos Luna 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.
Gustavinho 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 words a physio says slowly. 135 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.
The phone has started ringing about Andrés Fernández again, and this time the name on the line is Osasuna. Almería are listening politely and promising nothing.
The fee is $840.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Antequera drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan Aspra is living that version at Almería, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Almería training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Luna 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.
Fernando 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.
8 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Pau Víctor has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Almería are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Kang-In Lee is in the works
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Matías Aguirre
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Víctor Hernández clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
The words a physio says slowly. 142 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.
The offer went to Sevilla 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.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Martí Fuentes recited it perfectly.
The chase for Jony Álamo ended with $3.4M changing hands and Algeciras out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The deal with Atlético Madrid 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadMarcos Luna falls out with a teammate over standards
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Up for the corner, and Rodrigo Ely delivers — 7.77
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Rodrigo Ely scored, was marked 7.77, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mikel Rodríguez. 1‑0 against Osasuna Promesas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Mikel Rodríguez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Nicolás Espinosa could afford to be generous.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pontevedra will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pontevedra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pontevedra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Pontevedra pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nicolás Espinosa after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Almería will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Almería know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Almería, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Almería. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
3 goals in 8 games at Lusitânia Lourosa — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Almería updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
Mikel Rodríguez 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Joan Martínez 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.
Something was said to Rodrigo Ely and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.67 on the card, and the Pontevedra support went home talking about one name.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Nicolás Espinosa kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Guadalajara in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
In brief
The dugoutAlain Ribeiro knocks on the manager's door
Joan Martínez 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Nicolás Espinosa after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Pontevedra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alberto Gil 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.
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.
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 Álex Comparada is on it.
Words at Pontevedra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikel Rodríguez 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.
Pontevedra asked and Athletic Bilbao said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Adrián Expósito 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pontevedra can pretend not to have heard.
Joan Martínez 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zaragoza have kept their man, and Pontevedra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Pontevedra have made the call to Almería. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Pontevedra have made the call to Real Murcia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Mallorca go through and Almería go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arvin Appiah will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Almería the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Leonardo Lelo 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: Sergio Arribas. 1‑0 against Zaragoza, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Stefan Džodić is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Rodrigo Ely wants continental football; whether Almería can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
A 1‑1 draw with Valladolid leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Gabriel Iglesias chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.