Marked for Luis Muñoz
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match15 May 2027
11 matches without a win for Marbella
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Marbella are no longer polite ones.
Match17 May 2027
The season ends: position 15 for Marbella
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 41 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Match15 May 2027
The goals have deserted Marbella
6 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.
Squad17 May 2027
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.
Squad17 May 2027
Santiago Úbeda 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 dugout17 May 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Iván Castillo after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Market17 May 2027
Luis Muñoz is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Marbella has been clear about where Luis Muñoz stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout17 May 2027
José Cambra gets it from the manager
“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.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 dugout1 Feb 2027
Luis Muñoz: 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Marbella close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Market1 Feb 2027
The deal that would have taken David Vassilev to Ourense CF has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Marbella with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad1 Feb 2027
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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Eric Gamen 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.
Match30 Jan 2027
Algeciras made Marbella work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Rodríguez, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Jan 2027
“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.
Match23 Jan 2027
4 matches without a win for Marbella
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Marbella are no longer polite ones.
Match23 Jan 2027
4 matches without a goal for Marbella
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Marbella
Rodrigo Mosqueira and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Marbella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Úbeda 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.
Transfer targets25 Jan 2027
Marbella asked and Levante said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match23 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Jan 2027
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
116 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
1‑3 to Algeciras, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Marbella training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Coke Carrillo 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Marbella
Joaquín Petino and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Sep 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Iván Castillo to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
Coke Carrillo knocks on the manager's door
“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.