Marked for Cláudio Silva
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match1 May 2032
The run at home goes on for Betis
32 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad3 May 2032
Defences have started doubling up on Lautaro Martínez
46 goals and a season average of 7.98 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad3 May 2032
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Match1 May 2032
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Match3 May 2032
The season ends: position 4 for Betis
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 84 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Player ratings3 May 2032
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 10.00, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market3 May 2032
Jeremía Recoba has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Betis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market3 May 2032
Cláudio Silva hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Betis can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 May 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dani Vivian commits to Betis for another 2 years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match27 Sep 2031
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Real Sociedad, and it could have been more.
Player ratings29 Sep 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.36, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market29 Sep 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Betis, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market29 Sep 2031
Miro is on his way
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Betis is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words exchanged at Betis
Giovani Lo Celso 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.
Match27 Sep 2031
7 unbeaten for Betis
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Betis did not have in the autumn.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words at Betis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Darwin Núñez 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.
Market29 Sep 2031
Alexsander wants European nights
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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Cláudio Silva gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cláudio Silva has just signed for Betis, and for once the answer mattered.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market14 Oct 2030
“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 Wolverhampton, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match12 Oct 2030
Hull City will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Wolverhampton were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings14 Oct 2030
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Williams-Barnett provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market14 Oct 2030
Cláudio Silva has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Wolverhampton they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Fábio Carvalho 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.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Conor Gallagher was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Oct 2030
A season average of 7.31 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The terraces14 Oct 2030
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Williams-Barnett 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.
Match12 Oct 2030
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The terraces30 Sep 2030
Anger at Wolverhampton spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market30 Sep 2030
“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 Wolverhampton, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Wolverhampton may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match28 Sep 2030
Nobody wants to play Wolverhampton right now
4 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wolverhampton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
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.
Player ratings30 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Conor Gallagher was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom16 Sep 2030
The caretaker keeps it: Interim Coach confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Market16 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout16 Sep 2030
“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.
Player ratings16 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 25. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market16 Sep 2030
Only the photograph left for Cláudio Silva
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cláudio Silva will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Wolverhampton the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Fábio Carvalho 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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Sep 2030
An average of 7.11 in a first team he is several years too young for. Wolverhampton have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Conor Gallagher was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces2 Sep 2030
Anger at Wolverhampton spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market2 Sep 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market2 Sep 2030
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Wolverhampton have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Window shuts: 38 in, 31 out at Wolverhampton
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 38 arrived, 31 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market2 Sep 2030
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Wolverhampton heard it as anything else.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kieran Trippier and Wolverhampton agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad2 Sep 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wolverhampton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings2 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces8 Jul 2030
Supporters organise against the Wolverhampton board
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.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Wolverhampton can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Jul 2030
“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 Wolverhampton, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Jul 2030
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Miles Leaburn reports back to Wolverhampton with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Wolverhampton offered $2.0M; Brighton 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.
Market8 Jul 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad8 Jul 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wolverhampton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Jul 2030
Add another name to the list: Floriana have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Adam Armstrong. The answer from Wolverhampton has not changed — yet.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Duarte Moreira is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.