Marked for Alberto Solís
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 May 2027
The wait goes on for Andorra
12 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.
Squad10 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.
Match8 May 2027
Andorra cannot find the net
3 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.
Match8 May 2027
Cádiz left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 May 2027
Thomas Carrique 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.
Squad10 May 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 Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
Joaquín signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Joaquín commits to Andorra for another 3 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Fábio Cardoso 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.
Match6 Mar 2027
Andorra cannot find the net
3 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch8 Mar 2027
“I watch every Andorra game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mirandés runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Thomas Carrique 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
The manager makes an example of Diego Alende
“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 ratings8 Mar 2027
Marked 7.17. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The terraces8 Mar 2027
Everybody has an opinion about Fábio Cardoso
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Pressure builds in the Andorra boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 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 Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Feb 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Carrique 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thomas Carrique, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 47. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mirandés can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Guille Donoso: 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.” Mirandés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match30 Jan 2027
Mirandés make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Mirandés have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad1 Feb 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 Mirandés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match30 Jan 2027
Three points for Mirandés, 3‑2 the final word against Albacete in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
Mirandés supporters have found a favourite in Ali Houary
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ali Houary 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Igor Nikić, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
Aingeru Olabarrieta 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Óscar Whalley 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 ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luismi Sánchez, and the manager let it.
Market25 Jan 2027
Mirandés are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Andorra will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Thomas Carrique 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
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marc Cardona 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 Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Miguel Morro has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Nico Serrano 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Nico Serrano 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Nico Serrano’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Andorra.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Thomas Carrique commits to Andorra for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Aingeru Olabarrieta 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Andorra, another week without a signature from Nico Ratti.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Market3 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Alberto Solís has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Andorra.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sergio Molina knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Andorra, and both men came out saying it was fine.