Marked for Ernest Ohemeng
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
Adri Castellano damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Pepe 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Marbella
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Marbella can tell you which week it ends in.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernando Barrios, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 102% of the Marbella income
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
8 new faces, and Marbella are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Marbella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manu García 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Oct 2026
Adri Castellano damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
Pepe Sánchez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Marbella have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Pepe Sánchez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marbella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Oct 2026
Alcorcón left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Marbella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Moreno 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Rubén Fernández after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Marbella, and it is a cruel one.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marbella lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Pepe Sánchez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marbella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad28 Sep 2026
At 37, 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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marco Rossello, and the manager let it.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Marbella, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad21 Sep 2026
Adri Castellano damages knee ligaments — 74 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
Match16 Sep 2026
Cup progress for Marbella
A 1‑0 win over Arenas Club, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Squad21 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match16 Sep 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Marbella scored in the 106th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Dani Ángel is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Marbella make it 3 in a row
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Marbella have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Marbella
Pepe Sánchez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. David Vassilev 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Zakaria Eddahchouri’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Marbella.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad14 Sep 2026
81 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Marbella lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Marbella
Pepe 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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Marbella asked and Rayo Vallecano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Sanluqueño, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.20 — 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Marbella will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Rubén Fernández, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Marbella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Moreno 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
Adri Castellano damages knee ligaments — 95 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Marbella have gone to Tenerife 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Marbella
Marcos Gómez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
San Telmo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Manu García 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
A season-long audition: Gimnasia y Esgrima still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Marbella's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Marcos Gómez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Marbella this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Karlsruher SC have kept their man, and Marbella go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
A loan move for Mees Eppink is in the works
Marbella have made the call to Utrecht. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Marbella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Moreno 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Marbella know which stage they are at.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Juan Rodríguez and Marbella agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Adri Castellano 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The formation has left Dani Ángel behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Marbella will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“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 Marbella know it.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Racing Ferrol have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Temperley: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market3 Aug 2026
He is 20, and nobody at Marbella signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months and counting on José Cambra
Still no offer on the table, and José Cambra’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.