The chase for Enes Ünal ended with $16.6M changing hands and Getafe out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$650.0K on the table at Celta. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Enes Ünal is living that version at Sevilla, and it tends to show in the first month.
Sevilla had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Santander, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Carl Rushworth 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.
Sevilla asked and Valencia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Sevilla and Getafe have settled on $16.6M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sabadell waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Sevilla is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Celta have kept their man, and Sevilla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 Jérémy Doku is on it.
Real Sociedad 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.
Sevilla have made the call to Racing Santander. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sevilla know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Sevilla offered $31.1M; Real Sociedad said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Sevilla have gone to Almería 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sevilla heard it as anything else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sebastián Cáceres wants continental football; whether Sevilla can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Maroan Sannadi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Jon Guridi 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.
19 games, 3 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Sevilla now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Nobody at Sevilla will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sevilla, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sevilla know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Felipe Zenobio 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sevilla. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
In brief
SquadJérémy Doku is training like a man with a point to make
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valladolid can pretend not to have heard.
Aleix Febas 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.
“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 dugout24 May 2027
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.” Pol Camacho chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Las Palmas defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Valladolid, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Juanmi Latasa will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Valladolid escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valladolid can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valladolid they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valladolid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jon Guridi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Braga 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.
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Valladolid, and it is a cruel one.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ramón's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The words a physio says slowly. 57 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valladolid can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valladolid they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jon Guridi. 2‑0 against Real Sociedad B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match3 Apr 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Valladolid. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Marked 8.33 — 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.
Marked 8.32 — 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Braga 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.
In brief
Player ratingsJon Guridi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Valladolid lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Valladolid, and it is not being withdrawn.
Isi Palazón 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Braga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Marcos André 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 Stanko Jurić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Real Sociedad B in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Valladolid will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valladolid lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aleix Febas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 85 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Puskas Akademia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Cádiz kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Valladolid will be asked about the last half hour all week.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.66 for the rest of it.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.75 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valladolid is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Valladolid will try again when the window opens; Real Madrid may not be selling by then.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Valladolid people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Valladolid asked and Real Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Guille Bueno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jon Guridi 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.
Almería have accepted the money. What Sevilla do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer went to Gijón 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.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
César Azpilicueta 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sevilla has been clear about where Rubén Vargas stands, which is more than many ever get.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sevilla will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Lucien Agoumé delivers — 7.95
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Lucien Agoumé scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I watch every Sevilla game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Atlético Madrid runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Rafa 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.
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 Rubén Vargas is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vicente Vega after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“I watch every Sevilla game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Getafe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Sevilla will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jérémy Doku signs something — a contract at Sevilla or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Sevilla that is a harder question to answer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jon Guridi has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutFernando asks for a word with the manager
The clubs have shaken hands with Manchester City; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Sevilla offered $9.2M; Athletic Bilbao said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $122.3M — a club that wants Jérémy Doku enough to be asked twice.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
César Azpilicueta 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Manuel Lozano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The ground is getting bigger
The plans are signed off at a capacity of 49378. Decisions like this are judged twenty years later, by people who were not in the room when they were taken.
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.