Marked for Koke
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match7 Dec 2026
First, on 39 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market7 Dec 2026
Cristian Romero wants to know where this is going
“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 Atlético Madrid hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Match5 Dec 2026
A 1‑0 win over Getafe, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.31 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Marked 8.31 — 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
Juan Musso wants European nights
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Rodrigo Mendoza and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Morten Hjulmand is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Koke
“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.
In brief
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The dugout
When it matters, Álex Baena plays
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Squad
Getting past Jan Oblak has become the hardest job in the division
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The dugout
Julen Carrasco: “That is the standard”
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match24 Oct 2026
Nobody wants to play Atlético Madrid right now
3 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 1‑0 win over Villarreal, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.54. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Atlético Madrid.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Rodrigo Mendoza 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 Ademola Lookman is on it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Julen Carrasco, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Koke has had enough of the noise
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Market26 Oct 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Atlético Madrid know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad26 Oct 2026
2 goals and a season average of 7.20. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market19 Oct 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atlético Madrid can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match17 Oct 2026
5 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Pablo Barrios’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Atlético Madrid.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.48 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Pablo Barrios was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.38. 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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Rodrigo Mendoza 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Atlético Madrid
7 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.
In brief
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The dugout
When it matters, Álex Baena plays
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
Koke is still paying for one afternoon at Atlético Madrid
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
2‑3, and no way to dress it up. A derby defeat follows a supporter to work on Monday, and this one will follow him all week.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market5 Oct 2026
“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 Atlético Madrid hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Cristian Romero 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
500 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Match3 Oct 2026
After 6 games, Atlético Madrid finally taste it again
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Barcelona; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.37 — 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juan Musso wants continental football; whether Atlético Madrid can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Atlético Madrid prefer.
In brief
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Boardroom
$28.8M on the table at Atlético Madrid
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Koke gets it from the manager
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Atlético Madrid have gone to Villarreal 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$18.7M on the table at Brighton. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Koke: 18 seasons and counting
585 appearances across 18 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Atlético Madrid know exactly what they have.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Atlético Madrid asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Marcos Llorente has come up in conversations Atlético Madrid were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market3 Aug 2026
Julián Álvarez wants to know where this is going
“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 Atlético Madrid hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alejandro Grimaldo 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Nikita Massalyga arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nikita Massalyga has, at Atlético Madrid, and the first month will show what that does to a man.