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 phone has started ringing about Tanguy Nianzou again, and this time the name on the line is Córdoba. Sevilla are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sevilla has been clear about where Nicolás Benedetti stands, which is more than many ever get.
Éric Bailly 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Federico Viñas. 1‑0 against Alavés, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Athletic Bilbao pay $13.9M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The chase for Iker Álvarez ended with $6.9M changing hands and Córdoba out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
6 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.
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 21, Peio Canales is already the best thing here
An average of 7.00 in a first team he is several years too young for. Sevilla have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Marked 8.56 — 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces4 Jan 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 29 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Oviedo can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Éric Bailly 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 club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Oviedo deserved better, and so did he.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Oviedo have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The chase for Nélson Monte ended with $3.5M changing hands and Almería out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
A new face in his position, and Éric Bailly suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Oviedo have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
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.
Nicolás Santiago is 16, and Oviedo have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
The chase for Geovanni Banguera ended with $2.1M changing hands and Deportivo Pasto out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
48 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.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Jesús Ruiz