Mirandés 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.
The offer from Teruel for Kevin Espinoza 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Mirandés, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mirandés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Mirandés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabricio López 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Mirandés can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Mirandés is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Omar Shatla is living that version at Mirandés, and it tends to show in the first month.
12 appearances and 4 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 Mirandés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martín Pascual 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 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 Mirandés know it.
José Ortega 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ryunosuke Sato did not need any: 7.72, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Mirandés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Romero 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ryunosuke Sato 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.
“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 Mirandés know it.
José Ortega 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 watch every Mirandés game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Moreirense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Julen Cortés could afford to be generous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mirandés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Zaid Romero 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.
Everybody at Mirandés saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“I watch every Mirandés game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ypsonas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Antequera have lost him in all but the paperwork.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
Hugo Camberos, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.07
A mark of 8.07 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 shaken hands with Racing Ferrol; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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 chase for Enzo Maidana ended with $240.0K changing hands and Tarazona out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ali Ávila provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mirandés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The fee is $150.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Antequera drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zaid Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Mirandés asked and Atlético Madrid 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Antequera can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Castellón 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.
Antequera have gone to Arenas Club 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Samu Pérez 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. Arenteiro have kept their man, and Antequera go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Luis Rivas 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Antequera will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Antequera have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
David Ramos 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.
Edu Sánchez 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Antequera are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Federico Redondo wants continental football; whether Antequera can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Ramos 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 Antequera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑2 to Sabadell, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Alberto Domínguez to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Antequera 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.
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.
David Ramos 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 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Antequera, another week without a signature from Nicolás Herrera.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Herrera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Antequera would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Antequera lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samu Pérez 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; Antequera are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antequera 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.” Antequera have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Camberos 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.
Antequera asked and Deportivo Laferrere said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Edu Sánchez 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.
He is 21 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe game went through David Ramos — 7.05
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antequera lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Antequera, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Burgos for Ramón Villalba 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 16 gone
That is the business done at Antequera 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.
Federico Redondo 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ramos 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Antequera can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bogota have kept their man, and Antequera go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antequera lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Mirandés for Rafa Diz 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ramos 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. Santiago Wanderers have kept their man, and Antequera go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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; Antequera are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
8 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.
Nobody at Antequera 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
The offer from Ourense CF for Moha 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.
The chase for Iván Del Olmo ended with $240.0K changing hands and Ibiza out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
Antequera asked and Huachipato 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 offer from Ourense CF for Moha 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.
“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 Antequera, and it is not being withdrawn.
Tenerife paid $2.2M and Antequera took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Antequera have done the hard part with Argentino de Merlo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Ramos 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ramón Villalba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Antequera, and it is not being withdrawn.
Álex Barbu has gone, the accounts have $3.7M 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.
Racing Santander paid $3.7M and Antequera took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The phone has started ringing about Moha again, and this time the name on the line is Ourense CF. Antequera are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrià Gené 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 Antequera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 36, 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.
“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 Antequera, and it is not being withdrawn.
Arkaitz Mariezkurrena 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 Samu Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Arkaitz Mariezkurrena and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Adrià Gené 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Algeciras scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Nobody at Antequera 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alberto Domínguez was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Antequera dressing room was either.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Antequera
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrià Gené was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Iván Rodríguez 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; Antequera are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Alberto Domínguez could afford to be generous.
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 Adrià Gené is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Antequera have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Adrià Gené 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 Samu Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Antequera know it.
“I watch every Antequera game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mirandés runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
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 0‑1 Alberto Domínguez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Arkaitz Mariezkurrena 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 Adrià Gené was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 36, 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Antequera told Aleix Garrido something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Villarreal B in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Antequera 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Antequera, and both men came out saying it was fine.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Antequera can tell you which week it ends in.
Adrià Gené 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; Antequera are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Antón 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ousama Siddiki was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Antequera will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
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 Marcelo Ribeiro is on it.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adrià Gené. 2‑1 against Villarreal B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A performance of 8.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Herrera 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Antequera can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Fèlix Garreta 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Antequera, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.