Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unai Elgezabal 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dani Cárdenas, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
8 new faces, and Eibar 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 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.
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.
Nobody at Eibar 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.
Javi Martínez 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 Álvaro Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Leganés had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
A 1‑1 draw with Leganés leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Vicente Sosa chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Rodríguez 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 Granada, 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.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Eibar have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Eibar told Unai Elgezabal something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eibar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jonmi Magunagoitia has his answer from Eibar; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Jon Bautista was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.55. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
“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 Eibar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unai Elgezabal 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.
“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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
13 new faces, and Eibar 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.
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.
“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 Eibar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Eibar close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 1 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Eibar will try again when the window opens; Wanderers may not be selling by then.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Eibar asked and Club America said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A 2‑0 win over Cádiz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Jon Guruzeta was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Pejiño will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Eibar escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The clubs have shaken hands with Leganés; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The chase for Dani Cárdenas ended with $8.3M changing hands and Rayo Vallecano out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Eibar have gone to Wanderers 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Genaro has, at Eibar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.9M — a club that wants Rubén Pulido enough to be asked twice.
Javi Martínez 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.
Dani Cárdenas was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $8.3M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.