Marked for Iván Pérez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
The knee: Omar Ouhdadi out for 89 days
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alcorcón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Ariel Bulacio breaks a bone — 136 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 136 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad27 Mar 2028
At 20, Jorge Salinas is already the best thing here
An average of 7.02 in a first team he is several years too young for. Alcorcón have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Herrando 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Couhaib Driouech, and the manager let it.
Market27 Mar 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fernando Pacheco has his answer from Alcorcón; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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 dugout27 Mar 2028
Gaizka Ayesa gets picked when it counts
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 Gaizka Ayesa is on it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Jaume Jardí asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Feb 2028
The wait goes on for Alcorcón
10 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.
Market28 Feb 2028
“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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match26 Feb 2028
Alcorcón cannot find the net
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market28 Feb 2028
Jorge Herrando 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 Alcorcón hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad28 Feb 2028
At 20, Jorge Salinas is already the best thing here
An average of 7.00 in a first team he is several years too young for. Alcorcón have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcorcón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mathis Lachuer 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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 Alcorcón, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Jorge Salinas, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.08
A mark of 8.08 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market3 Jan 2028
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A season average of 7.01 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Alcorcón know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Couhaib Driouech 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.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Alcorcón
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Herrando was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Alcorcón go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Nov 2027
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alcorcón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at Alcorcón
Couhaib Driouech 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Alcorcón
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Herrando was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match27 Nov 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomás Orqueida, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Ekaitz Jiménez dropped after a run of poor form
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Aug 2027
53 days out for Sergio Cubero after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alcorcón will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Alcorcón
Couhaib Driouech 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Herrando 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luis Vacas and Alcorcón agree another 4 years.
The dugout9 Aug 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.
Market9 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
The division’s best young player: Nicolás Azambuja
A whole season of being the finest 19-year-old anybody in this league could put on a pitch. Alcorcón have him, and everybody else now knows it.
Squad24 May 2027
A season average of 7.12 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Alcorcón know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Herrando 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words exchanged at Alcorcón
Tarsi Aguado 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 dugout24 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Iván Pérez
“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.
The dugout24 May 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alcorcón, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 May 2027
A fracture rules David Rodríguez out for 33 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alcorcón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout3 May 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Herrando 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.
Match1 May 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 May 2027
Joan Puig 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 Alcorcón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout3 May 2027
Tarsi Aguado gets it from the manager
“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.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Jorge Salinas did the work nobody counts — 7.20
9 combined actions and 7.20. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Boardroom3 May 2027
Nobody left the Alcorcón dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad3 May 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Alcorcón know it.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Player ratings
Sergio Cubero beats them one at a time
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Looking ahead
Borja Martínez faces his old club
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad22 Mar 2027
A fracture rules David Rodríguez out for 78 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alcorcón will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Tomás Orqueida: 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.” Alcorcón have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Mar 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match20 Mar 2027
Whatever happens, Alcorcón do not lose
6 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A row about effort at Alcorcón
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Herrando was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words exchanged at Alcorcón
Tarsi Aguado 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 terraces22 Mar 2027
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.
Match20 Mar 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Joaquín Barolín’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Alcorcón.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
A promise honoured at Alcorcón
Something was said to David Torres and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tarsi Aguado 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 Alcorcón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Half-satisfied: Eduardo Nieto on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad21 Sep 2026
At 18 he was the best of everybody his age in the division for one weekend. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Match19 Sep 2026
Point won or two lost for Alcorcón?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Antequera? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Rufo
Nobody at Alcorcón is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I want to play”: Iván Guaraz speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Market21 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Esteban Aparicio may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Nicolás Azambuja at 18 — 7.94
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Nicolás Azambuja did not need any: 7.94, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad14 Sep 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Transfer targets14 Sep 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 2‑1 win over Teruel, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Nicolás Azambuja 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match12 Sep 2026
Alcorcón hit back inside 2 minutes
Teruel held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Alcorcón answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Alcorcón
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Orqueida was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Alcorcón 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
The formation has left Tomás Orqueida behind
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Looking ahead
Iván Pérez faces his old club