The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Santiago García has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 The request is on a desk at Córdoba, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 7.87 for the rest of it.
“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 Córdoba hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Córdoba have done the hard part with Cartagena, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beñat Turrientes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Cartagena had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cartagena they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Roony Bardghji 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Patrick Enrici and Cartagena agree another 4 years.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Cartagena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benito 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.
79 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cartagena have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cartagena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Roony Bardghji 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 7.29 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Javi Guerra 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cartagena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Javi Guerra 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 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.
Real Murcia next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
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 7.90 for the rest of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cartagena they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Cartagena hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javi Guerra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cartagena have done the hard part with Vicenza, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cartagena 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 Aridane Hernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. AC Milan have kept their man, and Cartagena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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 Cartagena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sporting CP have kept their man, and Cartagena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Roony Bardghji 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Cartagena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Guerra is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Juan Iglesias 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pedro Álvaro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Fernando Prieto clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cartagena lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The offer from Ibiza for Yanis Rahmani 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.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Vicente García recited it perfectly.
Javi Guerra 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Eldense have kept their man, and Cartagena go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Fernando Prieto leaves with $32.2K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
In brief
The dugoutJavi Guerra is playing like a man with something to prove
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cartagena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aridane Hernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout28 Dec 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 Fernando Prieto to a room that had heard them before.