Marked for Carlos Clerc
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Nov 2027
Antonio Rüdiger 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
Still nobody has beaten Valladolid
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match30 Oct 2027
A 2‑0 win over Real Sociedad B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brais Martínez 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.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Marcos André at his very best
Marked 8.27. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valladolid.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.04, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Carlos Clerc
“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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
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 dugout1 Nov 2027
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.” Raúl Ferrer, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Oct 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Valladolid heard it as anything else.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Antonio Rüdiger 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.
Market4 Oct 2027
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos Clerc and Valladolid agree another 2 years.
Match2 Oct 2027
A 1‑0 win over Burgos, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Brais 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.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Ninety minutes of Marcos André at his very best
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Valladolid.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Raúl Ferrer on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 May 2027
Fernando Tapia 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Stanko Jurić 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.
Match8 May 2027
It needed Cyriel Dessers to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Mirandés, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Market10 May 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout10 May 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Carlos Clerc
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.
The dugout10 May 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Raúl Ferrer after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Market10 May 2027
The name of Juanmi Latasa keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Valladolid say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Lucas Lavagnino
“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.
Looking ahead10 May 2027
Málaga next, and one man in the Valladolid dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
Alexis Moreno 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcos André, and the manager let it.
Match24 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
Garri counts the days
“I watch every Valladolid game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cádiz runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout26 Apr 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 Raúl Ferrer to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The team sheet said everything about Carlos Clerc
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Carlos Clerc.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amath N'Diaye 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
The form table has caught Toni Fuidias
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match6 Mar 2027
Cultural Leonesa will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Valladolid were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Juanmi Latasa takes the afternoon — 8.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juanmi Latasa provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
Kaj de Rooij: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valladolid have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match6 Mar 2027
Whatever happens, Valladolid do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Clerc and Valladolid agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Stanko Jurić 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Alexis Moreno is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.26 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yeray Cabanzón 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Alexis Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Valladolid
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stanko Jurić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Feb 2027
12 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Carlos Clerc
“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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Marked 7.96. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad15 Feb 2027
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.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“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 Valladolid, and 0 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match13 Feb 2027
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Market
Experience through the door at Valladolid
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Looking ahead
A reunion for Pablo Tomeo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Manuel Baldé 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. Manuel Baldé has, at Valladolid, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
$950.0K was the most the club would pay and Girona were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
No thanks: Cláudio Ramos rejects the move
Valladolid had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Porto, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Carlos Clerc and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Mario Maroto again, and this time the name on the line is Almería. Valladolid are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
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The dugout
No hiding place for Lucas Lavagnino
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Squad
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Girona 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
The offer went to Real Sociedad 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Perugia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Valladolid did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$760.0K on the table at Betis. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market3 Aug 2026
Miguel Rubio 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 Valladolid hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Iván Alejo and Valladolid agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sergi Canós in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Valladolid
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Chacón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market3 Aug 2026
36 months and counting on Iván Alejo
Still no offer on the table, and Iván Alejo’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.