Sabadell have gone to Alcorcón 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 19 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The fee is $600.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Unionistas drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Javi López-Pinto 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Sabadell training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alfred Gomis 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Unionistas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Unionistas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Sampdoria for Lorenzo Gori 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adri Crespo has just signed for Unionistas, and for once the answer mattered.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Unionistas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Emanuel Quinteros and Unionistas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Joan Gaona 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.
Sabadell paid $600.0K and Unionistas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Unionistas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mérida have kept their man, and Unionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$1.2M on the table at Villarreal. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Iker Punzano enough to be asked twice.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rodrigo Godoy and Unionistas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Quinteros 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 Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
7.75, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Joan Gaona and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Quinteros 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Unionistas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Unionistas asked and Cacereño said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Raúl Prada 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Unionistas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout15 Feb 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.” Nicolás Morales chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Unionistas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Unionistas can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Cultural Leonesa, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Unionistas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Unionistas offered $480.0K; Espanyol said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Unionistas asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raúl Prada 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.
In brief
Squad8 new faces, and Unionistas are still learning each other
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 18 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
7 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Raúl Prada 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutVadik Murria asks for a word with the manager
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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 7.79 for the rest of it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marcos Landaburu wants continental football; whether Unionistas can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Rodrigo Godoy and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Raúl Prada 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Barakaldo leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Nicolás Morales was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Unionistas dressing room was either.
In brief
Player ratingsKarim Jurjo beats them one at a time
120 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Marcos Landaburu has come out of that comparison in the side, and Unionistas have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Nicolás Morales after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
135 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, 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 Raúl Prada was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ourense CF next, and one man in the Unionistas dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Unionistas 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.
160 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Everything agreed with Sportivo Italiano, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Unionistas had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Santander, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Unionistas asked and Antequera 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $100.1K — a club that wants Jordi Ortega enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Sabadell 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.
Raúl Prada 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.
6 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Víctor Olmedo 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.
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Unionistas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Everything agreed with Juventud Torremolinos, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$630.0K was the most the club would pay and Gimnàstic 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Unionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Biel Montero has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pablo Blanco has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Garrido has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcos Parra has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Raúl Prada 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.