The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Alavés people have started saying his name 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 The request is on a desk at Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Luca Langoni wants continental football; whether Alavés can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tajon Buchanan 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. Atalanta have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Ezequiel Ponce has come up in conversations Alavés were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Langoni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alavés asked and Patronato said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Alavés will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
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.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Alavés have done the hard part with Barcelona, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tajon Buchanan 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.
Alavés asked and Real Sociedad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Izan Yurrieta 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 clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Alavés $2.6M. Toni Martínez left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 73 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
The offer went to CE Europa 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.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alavés lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hugo Novoa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
36 appearances and 10 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alavés lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 7.55 for the rest of it.
Luca Langoni 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 Sergey Muradyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hugo Novoa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Giorgi Guliashvili 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 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hugo Novoa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés 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 Sergey Muradyan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 7.43 for the rest of it.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Hugo Novoa 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.
Tarazona will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. João Bom has pre-agreed a move to Alavés, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Paolo Dorini 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.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Victor Aznar'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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ezequiel Ponce has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Nobody at Alavés 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.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alavés lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Up for the corner, and Pedro Ortiz delivers — 7.74
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Pedro Ortiz scored, was marked 7.74, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Marked 7.70 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alavés lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
A brace, and Luca Langoni takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Langoni provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Leganés. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Pedro Ortiz 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.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alavés lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Pedro Ortiz 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Alavés can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Alavés asked and Athletic Bilbao said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Pontevedra have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Denis Suárez. The answer from Alavés has not changed — yet.
Luca Langoni and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Hugo Novoa 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barcelona have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Alavés had all but put away. Espanyol will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
7 new faces, and Alavés 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
Player ratingsThe cruellest goal, and it is Denis Suárez's
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Alavés scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hugo Novoa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Alavés, and 5 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Hugo Novoa 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.
At 23 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 8.10 — 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.
Marked 8.04 — 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
Nahuel Tenaglia 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 Gael Alonso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
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.
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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Miguel Rodríguez decided otherwise. Girona had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
In brief
SquadWords at Alavés training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.97, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Novoa 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.
Giorgi Guliashvili 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.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alavés lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alavés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 7.74 for the rest of it.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gael Alonso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
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.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Miguel Prado
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alavés will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The fee is $5.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Córdoba drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 31 signed and 22 gone
That is the business done at Alavés until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
36 appearances and 11 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Novoa 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 much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Alavés told Ander Guevara something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ville Koski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Valladolid will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑1 draw with Zaragoza leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout22 May 2028
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.” Pol Camacho chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lucas Lavagnino has his answer from Valladolid; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutMurilo is still paying for one afternoon at Valladolid
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Valladolid will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Chacón will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Valladolid the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Cancelo 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 Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pol Camacho after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valladolid have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
João Cancelo 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Valladolid, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés 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.” Alavés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alavés they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Rodríguez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mario Márquez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yusi signs something — a contract at Alavés or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Cancelo 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.
“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; Valladolid are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Adrián'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.
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 Kaj de Rooij is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Granada in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
A mark of 7.75 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Valladolid is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Valladolid had all but put away. Mallorca will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Valladolid they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Isi Palazón 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Valladolid training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Cancelo 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 watch every Valladolid game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Feirense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 Pol Camacho left the room before anybody could ask which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valladolid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Valladolid, and 4 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Valladolid 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 Guille Bueno trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Carlos Clerc’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Valladolid needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Valladolid would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Valladolid will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
10 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.
0‑3 against Villarreal, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Alavés can tell you which week it ends in.
“I did not go to Valladolid to sit and watch. I want to come back to Alavés and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Rodríguez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Valladolid will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
João Cancelo 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 Guille Bueno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Valladolid, and 1 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Luis Chacón’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Valladolid needing him to play as if none of it matters.