0‑3 to Zaragoza, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Las Palmas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Las Palmas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Niccolò Rizzo 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.
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.
Toni Martínez 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Las Palmas can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edward Cedeño, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Dec 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Álex Suárez
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 dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Enzo Santiago was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Las Palmas dressing room was either.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Enzo Santiago after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
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 Taisei Miyashiro is on it.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Eldense left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Enzo Santiago left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Nobody at Las Palmas 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Las Palmas, another week without a signature from Jefté Betancor.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Burgos in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Las Palmas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Álex Suárez
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.
“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.
Nobody at Las Palmas 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Leganés? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Las Palmas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Niccolò Rizzo 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 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 Taisei Miyashiro 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 Las Palmas would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Enrique Clemente has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Toni 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Adam Arvelo 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jefté Betancor, and the manager let it.
The dugout8 Nov 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 Enzo Santiago to a room that had heard them before.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Kirian is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Sergio Carreira 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Nobody at Las Palmas 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Álex Suárez's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Las Palmas, another week without a signature from Jefté Betancor.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Las Palmas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Las Palmas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Enrique Clemente’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Las Palmas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Las Palmas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Álex Suárez and Las Palmas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ale García 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.
“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 Las Palmas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Las Palmas asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
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.” Enzo Santiago chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Almería? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Las Palmas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal that would have taken Jonathan Viera to Leganés has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Las Palmas with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Las Palmas, another week without a signature from Lucas Bergström.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Kirian is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutÁlex Suárez is still being punished for one mistake
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Las Palmas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
ES Setif paid $16.4M and Las Palmas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Marvin Park has gone, the accounts have $16.4M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Add another name to the list: Leganés have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jonathan Viera. The answer from Las Palmas has not changed — yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Las Palmas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Álex Suárez's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Las Palmas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have shaken hands with Alavés; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The words a physio says slowly. 77 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” FC Argeș had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Las Palmas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Castellón have kept their man, and Las Palmas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Marvin Park again, and this time the name on the line is Colo-Colo. Las Palmas are listening politely and promising nothing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Taisei Miyashiro and Las Palmas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Álex Suárez, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
10 new faces, and Las Palmas 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
The dugoutÁlex Suárez is still being punished for one mistake
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
The deal with Valladolid is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The phone has started ringing about Marvin Park again, and this time the name on the line is Arenteiro. Las Palmas are listening politely and promising nothing.
$640.0K on the table at Villarreal. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Las Palmas have made the call to Ferro Carril Oeste. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 Ale García is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Las Palmas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The fee is $2.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Mallorca drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Las Palmas have gone to Valladolid 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Las Palmas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrián Suárez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Up for the corner, and Sergio Ruiz delivers — 7.72
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sergio Ruiz scored, was marked 7.72, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Rodrigo Mendoza 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.
“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.
Boardroom10 May 2027
Nobody left the Las Palmas 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Enzo Santiago left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Gimnàstic suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Las Palmas, and the summer will force it.
Rodrigo Mendoza 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Rodrigo Mendoza 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rodrigo Mendoza. 1‑0 against Córdoba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 dugout12 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Enzo Santiago, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Álex Suárez's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Cádiz in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑4 Enzo Santiago left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Álex Suárez is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 2 saves does not settle it either way.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Racing Santander in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
1 for Álex Suárez, marked 7.39, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Marked 8.21 — 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.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Enzo Santiago kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Rodrigo Mendoza 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.
He is 22 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Kirian was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
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.
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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Enzo Santiago after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sergio Ruiz is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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 dugout7 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Álex Suárez
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Las Palmas man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Iker Bravo was the best thing in any of them.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Cádiz the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Las Palmas will enjoy reviewing.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Las Palmas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Iker Bravo 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Las Palmas can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Las Palmas told Matías Arezo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Las Palmas, and 5 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
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 dugout19 Oct 2026
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Enzo Santiago to a room that had heard them before.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Las Palmas lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Sergio Barcia's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
4 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.
Matías Arezo 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.
“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 Las Palmas know it.
15 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.
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.
“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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Las Palmas, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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 Enzo Santiago to a room that had heard them 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $18.0M — a club that wants Sergio Carreira enough to be asked twice.
The deal with Deportivo La Coruña is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Veracruz have kept their man, and Las Palmas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rubén Gutiérrez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jan Lorenzo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mateo León has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Álex Suárez