“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Avilés can pretend not to have heard.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Real Avilés have had the benefit of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Real Avilés they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Rivera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ignacio Álvarez and Real Avilés agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Real Avilés asked and Mirandés 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Javi Cueto 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Real Avilés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Rivera 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: Javi Cueto. 2‑1 against Barakaldo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pablo Álvarez, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Dec 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 Biel Lorenzo to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Real Avilés 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.
In brief
The dugoutLuis Alcalde knocks on the manager’s door
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Real Avilés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Rivera 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.
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 Natanael Hernández is on it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Real Avilés would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Berto Cayarga 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Rivera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Real Avilés had all but put away. Huesca will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Real Avilés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christian Rivera 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.
Minute 86, against Unionistas, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutLeonardo Santos has become a man the manager trusts
Javi Cueto 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.
Level with 94 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Real Avilés had all but put away. Zamora will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Real Avilés can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Tao Paradowski 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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Real Avilés know now that the thought has arrived.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Biel Lorenzo could afford to be generous.
Luis Alcalde had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Osasuna Promesas were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Real Avilés are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Real Avilés close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christian Rivera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arenteiro have kept their man, and Real Avilés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Real Avilés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Gete 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.
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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Avilés lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Viti 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Álvaro Gete 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Javi Cueto has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Álvaro Gete 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 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 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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Racing Ferrol defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Nobody at Real Avilés 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christian Rivera and Real Avilés agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than 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 Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Real Avilés, another week without a signature from Luis Alcalde.
A loan enquiry to Juventud Torremolinos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.