Marked for Benjamín Garay
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
15 days out for Benjamín Garay after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pontevedra will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Álvaro Pérez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pontevedra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Facu Ballardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Biel Vega after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.
Match12 Dec 2026
Point won or two lost for Pontevedra?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Racing Ferrol? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Looking ahead14 Dec 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bilbao Athletic in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The plan did not have a place for Ignacio Lema
Nobody at Pontevedra is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Txus Vizcay wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Pontevedra will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Erik Pimentel and Pontevedra agree another 1 years.
Match5 Dec 2026
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Arenas Club. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Alain Ribeiro 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Three points for Pontevedra, 1‑0 the final word against Arenas Club in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Both jobs done by Diego Gómez — 6.79
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.79, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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.” Biel Vega, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Ignacio Lema dropped after a run of poor form
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Benjamín Garay out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pontevedra will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Nov 2026
6 matches without a win for Pontevedra
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Pontevedra are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Erik Pimentel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Ignacio Lema gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
107% of the income goes out in wages at Pontevedra
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Joan Gaona beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.40 on the card, and the Pontevedra support went home talking about one name.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Half-satisfied: Biel Vega on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Alberto Gil 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 38 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Age has not caught Xavi Puerto yet — 7.91
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match21 Nov 2026
The wait goes on for Pontevedra
5 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Erik Pimentel 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
1‑2 to Mérida, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Edu Sousa
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Mauricio Páez
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Xavi Puerto 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pontevedra told Rubén Hernández something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Txus Vizcay
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Pontevedra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alberto Gil 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.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Mérida next, and one man in the Pontevedra dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Lema, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Biel Vega: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Pontevedra
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alberto Gil was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
No place in the plan for Germán Niz
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Match24 Oct 2026
Point won or two lost for Pontevedra?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Tenerife? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alain Ribeiro’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Pontevedra needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Pontevedra squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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 Benjamín Garay has written the date down.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Nothing got past Juanra
8 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“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 Pontevedra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Pontevedra 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Pontevedra had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at River Plate, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Pontevedra asked and Valladolid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Miki Bosch for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Pontevedra will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Pontevedra 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Diego Gómez is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Diego Gómez 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Alberto Gil 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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zamora in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.