19 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Carlos Fernández 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Oviedo can tell you which week it ends in.
0‑2 to Racing Santander, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Nacho Vidal 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Felipe Carrasco after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Oviedo told Brandon Domingues something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Jacobo has written the date down.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Dani Rebollo
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Oviedo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑2 to Athletic Bilbao, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Nacho Vidal 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 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Oviedo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
16 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Oviedo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Oviedo and Sevilla, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nacho Vidal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Oviedo can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Felipe Carrasco after 2‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutPeio Canales knocks on the manager's door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Oviedo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
36 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Oviedo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Valencia, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Oviedo ran out of time with Huesca. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Alberto Reina 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.
Oviedo asked and Atlético 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Nacho Vidal 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
9 new faces, and Oviedo 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Oviedo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
8 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Madrid have kept their man, and Oviedo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Oviedo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nacho Vidal 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Oviedo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 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.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Aarón Escandell has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Oviedo are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
63 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Oviedo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑10 to Real Madrid, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Diego López 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.
Match1 May 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Oviedo and Real Madrid in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Carmo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Oviedo can tell you which week it ends in.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Nacho Vidal
BoardroomNobody left the Oviedo dressing room in a hurry
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A 0‑3 beating by Real Madrid was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad21 Dec 2026
David Carmo 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Oviedo can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” José Álvarez after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutChris Ramos dropped after a run of poor form
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Oviedo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Carmo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chris Ramos. 3‑1 against Girona, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 dugout7 Dec 2026
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.” José Álvarez kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Oviedo has been clear about where Ruly stands, which is more than many ever get.
Something was said to Estanis Pedrola and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Oviedo ran out of time with Almería. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The bid was some way short and Oviedo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
David Carmo 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.
Nacho Vidal 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 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
15 new faces, and Oviedo 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Juan Cruz is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Everything was agreed with Deportivo La Coruña and then the doctor spoke. Oviedo have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Oviedo 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Carlos Fernández provided it, and the 8.61 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Oviedo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Córdoba 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $11.1M — a club that wants Federico Bonini enough to be asked twice.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aarón Escandell was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.