Marked for Kader Bamba
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
A one-man rearguard from Raúl Lizoáin
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Izan González is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The terraces5 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorge Pascual 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 ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match3 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jorge Pascual. 1‑0 against Cádiz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kader Bamba, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Enzo Núñez: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Pedro Alemañ has moved up it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Baïla Diallo
“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.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Enzo Núñez to a room that had heard them before.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Granada take on the side everybody is chasing
Andorra arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
Market14 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jorge Pascual’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Pau Casadesús knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pau Casadesús trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Granada until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Granada
Benedikt Gimber 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Kader Bamba is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kader Bamba has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Jorge Pascual
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Jorge Pascual has come out of that comparison in the side, and Granada have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Iñaki Rupérez has moved up it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Granada asked and Racing Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Oviedo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Granada say no to the training-ground money
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A wage question at Granada
Kader Bamba has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Market17 Aug 2026
A season-long audition: Real Sociedad still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Granada's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Squad17 Aug 2026
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Granada have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.