Huesca had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Boca Juniors, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Marked 8.40 — 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ro Abajas 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 dugout25 Jan 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.” David Rojas kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Huesca are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
The dugoutRo Abajas dropped after a run of poor form
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Sergi Enrich
Sergi Enrich scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑3 to Cádiz, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Álvarez 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.
Huesca asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
20 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout18 Jan 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 2‑3 David Rojas left the room before anybody could ask which.
Boca Juniors 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.
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.
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.
0‑3 against Las Palmas, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Yann Kembo 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” David Rojas after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Málaga. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Álvarez 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, David Rojas could afford to be generous.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Huesca are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Felipe Klein is 39 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
There were 6 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Jesús Álvarez 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Mirandés leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” David Rojas was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Huesca dressing room was either.
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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Alejandro Cantero had Huesca level again within 2 minutes, and Ceuta never got to play with a lead at all.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huesca this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” David Rojas after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Julio Alonso’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Huesca needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
A 3‑3 win over Tenerife, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Daniel Luna takes the afternoon — 8.75
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Luna provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Sergi Enrich 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Huesca and Tenerife in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Álvarez 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Luna 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 Efe Aghama
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jesús Álvarez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 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.
Yann Kembo 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” David Rojas on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Huesca training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Lara 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Huesca 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.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Agustín Lara
The dugoutPiña is still being punished for one mistake
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Sergi Enrich in the middle of it, and Cultural Leonesa unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“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.
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.
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.
Sergi Enrich 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 Jesús Álvarez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.