A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Guadalajara will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 87. Real Avilés had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cadete was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Zamora left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout3 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 0‑1 Jesús Sierra left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Raúl Tavares 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.
At 39, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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. Raúl Tavares has moved up it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Guadalajara 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 Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cadete 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Barakaldo the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Guadalajara will enjoy reviewing.
7.63, 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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.67, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Getafe have kept their man, and Guadalajara go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Amigo. 1‑0 against Talavera, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Position 18 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Guadalajara, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Something was said to Javi Gómez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
5 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jesús Sierra after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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.
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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Guadalajara lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Maxim Skavysh is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Jesús Sierra chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
0‑3 against Racing Ferrol, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Javi Gómez 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sten Grytebust, and the manager let it.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Guadalajara dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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 0‑3 Jesús Sierra left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Toño Calvo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Guadalajara needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Something was said to Justin-Noël Kalumba and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kiko Olivas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jesús Sierra was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Guadalajara dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and David Amigo decided nobody was going anywhere. Bilbao Athletic had no time left to answer.
Raúl Tavares scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Mérida, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
137% of the income goes out in wages at Guadalajara
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
9 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Justin-Noël Kalumba has come out of that comparison in the side, and Guadalajara have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Jesús Sierra on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Guadalajara, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadMaxim Skavysh stands down from international duty
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Guille Perero 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.