4‑1 against Grazer AK, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
Beaten 0‑4 by Bayern Munich, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A brace, and Nadiem Amiri takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nadiem Amiri provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mainz 05 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Mainz 05 hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Wouter Burger 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 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 7.12, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
2‑1 against Lugano, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Duvan Valencia was at the centre of the description.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mainz 05 can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Lugano tried to reorganise, Mainz 05 did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Mainz 05 pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Mainz 05 told Iliman N'Diaye something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Ferran Jutglà
“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 Mainz 05, and it is not being withdrawn.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Phillip Tietz 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.
Something was said to Nadiem Amiri and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at Mainz 05 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iliman N'Diaye signs something — a contract at Mainz 05 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Mainz 05 has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
2‑0 against Vojvodina, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A brace, and Phillip Tietz takes the afternoon — 8.47
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Phillip Tietz provided it, and the 8.47 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mainz 05 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ferran Jutglà wants continental football; whether Mainz 05 can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 Mainz 05, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. FC Augsburg spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
3‑0 against Vojvodina, and a performance that will change how the rest of the competition talks about this club. Reputations in continental football are built in single evenings and this was one.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Up for the corner, and Kaishu Sano delivers — 7.84
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kaishu Sano scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
1 for Nadiem Amiri, marked 7.99, 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.
Kaishu Sano 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.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.78, and 2 involvements.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Phillip Tietz will call it something else in private.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Mainz 05 can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mainz 05 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Duvan Valencia has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mainz 05 have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“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 Mainz 05, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mainz 05 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Mainz 05 will try again when the window opens; Southampton may not be selling by then.
“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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Niklas Tauer reports back to Mainz 05 with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Mainz 05 game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Emmen runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniel Haas after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
MarketMainz 05 and Silas are talking past each other
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mainz 05 people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mainz 05 can pretend not to have heard.
$3.1M was the most the club would pay and SC Paderborn 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.
Wouter Burger 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Mainz 05 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lennard Maloney 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 would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Sheraldo Becker'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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mainz 05 can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mainz 05 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The name of Gavin Beavers has come up in conversations Mainz 05 were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Mainz 05 is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iliman N'Diaye signs something — a contract at Mainz 05 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
In brief
The dugoutPhilipp Schulz asks for a word with the manager
SquadNadiem Amiri is the talk of the training ground
BoardroomThe Mainz 05 production line keeps running
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mainz 05 can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mainz 05 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“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; Mainz 05 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Something was said to Ferran Jutglà and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Squad3 May 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Anthony Caci
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Anthony Caci has come out of that comparison in the side, and Mainz 05 have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ferran Jutglà wants continental football; whether Mainz 05 can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not 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 Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
Minute 91, against Borussia Mönchengladbach, 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.
It needed Ferran Jutglà to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Borussia Mönchengladbach, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Dominik Kohr'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.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mainz 05 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Dominik Kohr'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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mainz 05 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mainz 05, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Mainz 05 has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Mainz 05. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“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.
“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; Mainz 05 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Mainz 05 told Anthony Caci something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Daniel Haas on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mainz 05 heard it as anything else.
Wouter Burger 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.
“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; Mainz 05 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mainz 05 heard it as anything else.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mainz 05 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Mainz 05 know it.
50 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Mainz 05 heard it as anything else.
Nadiem Amiri 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 7.21 on 11 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Minute 86, against Eintracht Frankfurt, 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 dugout15 Feb 2027
Robin Zentner 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Mainz 05 paid $43.5M and Celta took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer from Atlético Madrid for Javi Rodríguez 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.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Espanyol had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Celta did not stop to explain themselves.
Ferran Jutglà has gone, the accounts have $43.5M 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Celta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Williot Swedberg was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Williot Swedberg. 1‑0 against Espanyol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Celta did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $43.5M for Ferran Jutglà, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“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 Mainz 05, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Ferran Jutglà from Celta for $43.5M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hamburger SV have kept their man, and Mainz 05 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Abel Ruiz arrives at Celta in a $24.3M statement of intent
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Celta have paid $24.3M for Abel Ruiz, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Chelsea moved on, Ilaix Moriba reports back to Celta, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The name of Ferran Jutglà has come up in conversations Celta were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilaix Moriba 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.
Celta asked and Andorra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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; Celta are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Celta had all but put away. Rayo Vallecano will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Álvaro Marín 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.
Mainz 05 have gone to Celta 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.
0‑3 against VfB Stuttgart, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Mainz 05 people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlanta United FC have kept their man, and Mainz 05 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
$3.3M settles it between the clubs for Oliver Sorg
SV Ried have accepted the money. What Mainz 05 do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Wouter Burger 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: 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.
Mainz 05 offered $17.0K; Bayern Munich 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.
The offer went to Stade Rennais 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer went to Deportivo La Coruña 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ferran Jutglà wants continental football; whether Celta can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 Celta know it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Cádiz ended it 0‑3. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
Celta are taken apart by Cádiz — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Iago Aspas 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.
A point taken on 87 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.
“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 Celta, and 0 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.19 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Celta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 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.
“I watch every Celta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Alcorcón runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout30 Nov 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.” Pol Montes kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Celta told Miguel Román something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ilaix Moriba 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.
“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 Celta, and 3 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Pol Montes kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Borja Iglesias
Two goals and a mark of 8.34 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jones El-Abdellaoui did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Celta heard it as anything else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Celta can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Hugo González 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.
In brief
Player ratingsIago Aspas ran the middle of the pitch — 7.32
Iago Aspas 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ilaix Moriba 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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“I did not go to Real Avilés to sit and watch. I want to come back to Celta and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout26 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Pol Montes to a room that had heard them before.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
“I watch every Celta game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Iraklis Gerolakkou runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Williot Swedberg 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.
7 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.
Villarreal next, and one man in the Celta dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Sergio Carreira has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Álvaro Marín trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Álvaro Marín is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ilaix Moriba 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.
Couhaib Driouech 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Celta, and 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
A 1‑1 draw with Osasuna leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pol Montes was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Celta dressing room was either.
Ilaix Moriba 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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 ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Javi Rodríguez signs something — a contract at Celta or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Celta hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ilaix Moriba 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 Celta this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ferran Jutglà. 2‑1 against Levante, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
7 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.
Celta had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Toluca, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. PSV have kept their man, and Celta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Ilaix Moriba delivers — 7.80
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ilaix Moriba scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ilaix Moriba 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 Hugo González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 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.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Pol Montes on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Borja Iglesias
Ferran Jutglà had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Rayo Vallecano were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Cristian Arceo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Álvaro Marín 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 had been thinking. Ilaix Moriba 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Celta can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventus have kept their man, and Celta go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Racing Ferrol had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Celta 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 plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.