$4.1M was the most the club would pay and Ceuta 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo La Coruña have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Asp-Jensen is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad28 Jun 2027
José Giménez 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.
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 David Mella is on it.
José Giménez 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 season average of 7.35 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Yeremay was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Loureiro 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportivo La Coruña has been clear about where Ximo Navarro stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Deportivo La Coruña told David Mella something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Nobody at Deportivo La Coruña 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.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
José Giménez 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 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.
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 dugout3 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Diego Suárez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yeremay provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Leo Román 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 José Giménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” David Mella and Deportivo La Coruña agree another 5 years.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yeremay. 2‑1 against Valladolid, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I did not go to Leganés to sit and watch. I want to come back to Deportivo La Coruña and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 32 matches say the rest.
Nobody at Deportivo La Coruña 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 dugoutThe manager makes an example of Charlie Patiño
“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 had been thinking. José Giménez 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.
A touch he did not mean and a goal that goes in the book with his name against it. Deportivo La Coruña will not blame him tonight and he will not need them to.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Adama Traoré decided nobody was going anywhere. Córdoba had no time left to answer.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Feb 2027
José Giménez 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 is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Diego Suárez kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Deportivo La Coruña asked and Celta 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 phone has started ringing about Teun Gijselhart again, and this time the name on the line is Córdoba. Deportivo La Coruña are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo La Coruña they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Arnau Comas 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 at Deportivo La Coruña 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.