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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Almería will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Mikel Vesga 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7.96, 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Almería 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.
36 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
David Alaba 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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Deportivo La Coruña moved on, Juan Manuel Cruz reports back to Almería, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Almería training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikel Vesga 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. Almería will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikel Vesga 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. Celta have kept their man, and Almería go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Ibrahima Koné has improved at 28, which nobody expected
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.
Almería and Alavés have settled on $910.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer from Athletic Bilbao for Thalys 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.
David Alaba 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 Jun 2027
Words at Almería training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikel Vesga 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 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Miguel De la Fuente has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cádiz can pretend not to have heard.
“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 Cádiz hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
David Gil 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rafael Camacho is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirian 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.
He is 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirian was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lalo Aguilar 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Roberto Ferrer after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Gui and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
11 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cádiz can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Bojan Kovačević 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 Damián was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel De la Fuente was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Marcos Martín after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Álex Muñoz’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Almería needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 98th minute. Mirandés will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
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.
8.14. 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.
Lalo Aguilar 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.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.22, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market22 Mar 2027
Cádiz may not be able to give Kirian what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kirian wants continental football; whether Cádiz can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirian 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Ceuta had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Cádiz had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at KV Oostende, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Urko Izeta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Almería heard it as anything else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mikel Vesga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Miguel De la Fuente 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Marcos Martín after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cote trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Almería will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Jon Morcillo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Léo Baptistão. 3‑1 against Real Sociedad B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Bonini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
7.60, 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.
Jon Morcillo 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.
Almería asked and Deportivo La Coruña 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 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 dugout31 Aug 2026
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 2‑3 Marcos Martín left the room before anybody could ask which.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.