The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tenerife people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tenerife they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at Tenerife, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tenerife this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Iván Chapela 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.
“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 Tenerife, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and César Álvarez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutAntonio Oviedo has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Tenerife people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The phone has started ringing about Franco Zapiola again, and this time the name on the line is Algeciras. Tenerife are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Ander Zoilo 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nobody at Tenerife 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 dugoutIván Chapela asks for a word with the manager
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tenerife is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Gerard Martín 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Chapela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Álvaro Aceves again, and this time the name on the line is Teruel. Tenerife are listening politely and promising nothing.
Nobody at Tenerife 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Iván Chapela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ilias Akhomach signs something — a contract at Tenerife or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Tenerife has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Tenerife offered $10.9M; Sevilla said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tenerife can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Noel López has come up in conversations Tenerife were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Real Sociedad is saying, and nobody at Tenerife is enjoying the guessing.
Ulises Rivas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Tenerife training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Chapela 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Miguel Gallardo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcos Delgado is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tenerife have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Tenerife have gone to Atlético Madrid 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.
The offer went to Maritimo this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tenerife can pretend not to have heard.
Ulises Rivas 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.
Tenerife asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadIván Chapela falls out with a teammate over standards
The offer from Oviedo for Baba Diocou was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
$2.1M was the most the club would pay and Atlético Madrid were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.4M — a club that wants Horaţiu Moldovan enough to be asked twice.
Gerard Martín 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.
Words at Tenerife training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Chapela 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Tenerife will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
In brief
The dugoutDani Martín has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutDani Martín asks for a word with the manager
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tenerife this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” César Álvarez and Tenerife agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Tenerife training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Chapela 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Madrid have kept their man, and Tenerife go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Anthony Landázuri has come up in conversations Tenerife were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Tenerife has been clear about where Baba Diocou stands, which is more than many ever get.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Juanjo Sánchez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tenerife have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Gerard Martín and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
Iván Chapela 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.
12 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Tenerife will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tenerife is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Iván Chapela 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 Dani Martín is on it.
8 clean sheets from 22 appearances at Marbella. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 79 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Tenerife is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Gerard Martín 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Iván Chapela 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.
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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Talavera scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“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 Tenerife hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Noel López. 2‑0 against Bilbao Athletic, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Anthony Landázuri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tenerife the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Gerard Martín 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Iván Chapela, and the manager let it.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Noel López 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sergio Santana after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tenerife this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Iván Chapela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Sergio Santana after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
7 shut-outs in 17 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Gabri De Vuyst has been having a lot of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noel López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Tenerife, another week without a signature from Dani Martín.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tenerife they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Gerard Martín 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: Noel López. 1‑0 against Mérida, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Dani Martín now has 25 of them across 199 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Iván Chapela will call it something else in private.
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Cacereño; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Gerard Martín 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sergio Santana after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Tenerife have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tenerife this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Tenerife asked and Zaragoza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 8.35. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tenerife.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Noel López 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.
$3.1M settles it between the clubs for Marcos Denia
Cádiz have accepted the money. What Tenerife do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Tenerife heard it as anything else.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Gerard Martín 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tenerife they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Tenerife hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.78 for the rest of it.
Ulises Rivas 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.
Marked 8.08. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tenerife.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Noel López 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.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Sergio Santana was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Tenerife dressing room was either.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tenerife they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ulises Rivas 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Tenerife training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noel López 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Adam Jakobsen
Marked 6.70 on 16 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
6 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Gastón Valles 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.
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 dugout26 Apr 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Sergio Santana to a room that had heard them before.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
In brief
The dugoutIván Chapela knocks on the manager's door
Gastón Valles 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.
A 1‑0 win over Real Madrid Castilla, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Tenerife training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julián Rodríguez Seguer 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.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ulises Rivas 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sergio Santana on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ilias Akhomach is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Sergio Santana could afford to be generous.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tenerife they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 6.78, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tenerife this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Chances created: 12. The column nobody reads carried the whole story of the match, and his name was at the top of it.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Tenerife training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julián Rodríguez Seguer 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Tenerife lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Tenerife have had the benefit of it.
Gastón Valles 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
A point taken on 89 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.72 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tenerife this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.41 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sergio Santana on a 4‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Dani Martín is on it.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Dani Martín: 4 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Julián Rodríguez Seguer obliged against Huesca. 1‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Tenerife.
Ulises Rivas 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Noel López 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tenerife this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 11 combined actions and a mark of 7.08, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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 dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Sergio Santana kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Everybody at Tenerife saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 40 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Gastón Valles 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Sergio Santana could afford to be generous.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gastón Valles. 2‑0 against Mérida, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.11. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Tenerife.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Sergio Santana kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
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 Tenerife would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Ponferradina will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Ulises Rivas 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.
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 dugout14 Sep 2026
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.” Sergio Santana kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Tenerife have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.