10 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.
0‑3 against Villarreal, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Alavés can tell you which week it ends in.
“I did not go to Valladolid to sit and watch. I want to come back to Alavés and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Rodríguez 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 Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alavés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Alavés can tell you which week it ends in.
Cádiz left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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 0‑1 Julen Blanco left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
SquadMariano falls out with a teammate over standards
0‑5 to Atlético Madrid, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Alavés has been clear about where Nicolás Valentini stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luca Castillo is living that version at Alavés, and it tends to show in the first month.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, 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 Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Alavés can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alavés, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alavés. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Adrián Pica
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.
In brief
The dugoutÁngel Pérez knocks on the manager's door
The dugoutGetúlio left out for tactical reasons at Alavés
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
6 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.
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alavés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Alavés will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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 Julen Blanco to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tomás Mendes
5 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Alavés can tell you which week it ends in.
Alavés asked and Real Madrid 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
The bid was some way short and Alavés did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at Alavés 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.
“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 Alavés hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Everything agreed with Real Murcia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Alavés ran out of time with Gijón. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
0‑7 against Real Madrid, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Alavés and Real Madrid, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Pablo Ibañez 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.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Alavés dressing room in a hurry
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Nicolás Valentini's mistake
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alavés is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ezequiel Ponce wants continental football; whether Alavés can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Yusi 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Alavés have gone to Sevilla 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.1M — a club that wants Chofis enough to be asked twice.
Alavés asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Pablo Ibañez 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 dugout16 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Antonio Sivera's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
5 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ander Guevara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alavés have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Alavés are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Alavés has been clear about where Selu Diallo stands, which is more than many ever get.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Alavés have paid $5.9M for Ezequiel Ponce, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
244 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Alavés are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sassá 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adrián Pica trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Elche have accepted the money. What Alavés do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $422.8K — a club that wants Diego Percan enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Córdoba 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Pablo Ibañez 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.
Mikel Rodríguez 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.
“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 Alavés will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Toni Martínez was one of the reasons people came, and $20.7M does not replace that by itself.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $422.8K — a club that wants Diego Percan enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Botafogo-SP waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Alavés is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Carles Aleñá wants continental football; whether Alavés can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Toni Martínez 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 phone has started ringing about Hugo Novoa again, and this time the name on the line is Algeciras. Alavés are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Julen Blanco has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The offer from Aldosivi for Facundo Garcés 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ville Koski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alavés the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Alavés hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Rodríguez 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.
Alavés asked and Real Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Ibañez 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 Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
The chase for Iván Martínez ended with $560.0K changing hands and Cartagena out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Toni Martínez 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Iván Martínez has just signed for Alavés, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sassá 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.
Atlético Madrid pay $31.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alavés have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Valladolid for Toni Martínez 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.
Alavés offered $6.5M; Marbella 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Cartagena; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
He is going to Atlético Madrid, the club has $31.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Juventud Torremolinos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Alavés is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Marbella 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.
The phone has started ringing about Toni Martínez again, and this time the name on the line is Racing Club. Alavés are listening politely and promising nothing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $7.2M — a club that wants Pablo Moreno enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Stefano Condino has, at Alavés, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adrián trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Position 15 on 36 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Toni Martínez 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Alavés and Villarreal, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad24 May 2027
Pablo Ibañez 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.03, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Andreas Christensen is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Alavés they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gustavo Albarracín and Alavés agree another 5 years.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sassá 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Ibañez 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” David Herrero after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Alavés told Miguel Rodríguez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Toni Martínez. 1‑0 against Levante, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Pablo Ibañez 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
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.” David Herrero, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Alavés told Jeremía Recoba something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Barcelona next, and one man in the Alavés dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Toni Martínez. 1‑0 against Espanyol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 dugout19 Apr 2027
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.” David Herrero, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Alavés told Ángel Pérez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Alavés know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Levante in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nobody at Alavés 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alavés is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Ibañez 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ander Guevara trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
0‑2 to Real Madrid, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Pablo Ibañez 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Real Madrid.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Real Madrid in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Hugo Novoa is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Pablo Ibañez a promise
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Antonio Blanco provided it, and the 8.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antonio Blanco. 3‑1 against Real Sociedad, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Pablo Ibañez 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.
Marked 8.15 — 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.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Felipe Duran could afford to be generous.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ville Koski's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alavés is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jon Pacheco 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ander Guevara, and the manager let it.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Pablo Ibañez 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alavés lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alavés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Jon Pacheco 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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alavés lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Alavés are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Alavés know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alavés lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 18 and 19 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Toni Martínez 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Toni Martínez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Alavés.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Ibañez 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 sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alavés lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Alavés is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Alavés hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Felipe Duran has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Antonio Blanco will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Alavés escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The offer from Stade de Reims for Getúlio 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.
5 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Alavés heard it as anything else.
Jon Pacheco 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.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Pablo Ibañez had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alavés have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Alavés may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Alavés 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.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alavés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 18 and 15 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Add another name to the list: Oviedo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Facundo Garcés. The answer from Alavés has not changed — yet.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alavés will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Real Madrid for Toni Martínez 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Barakaldo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Alavés is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Ceuta moved on, Carlos Benavídez reports back to Alavés, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Jon Pacheco 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.
Alavés asked and Almería said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alavés will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Zaragoza for Adrián 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.
Jon Pacheco 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Toni Martínez has his answer from Alavés; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Pablo Ibañez 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 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alavés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Alavés rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Osasuna had no answer to any of it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Everything agreed with Real Madrid, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Toni Martínez 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alavés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from Ponte Preta for Sassá 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alavés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
8 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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 7.61 for the rest of it.
Jon Pacheco 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alavés will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Out, 0‑2 to Athletic Bilbao, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
7.78, 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Espanyol had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alavés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑3 against Rayo Vallecano, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
Nicolás Valentini 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 Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Alavés can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Alavés dressing room in a hurry
The dugoutLucas Boyé is still being punished for one mistake
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alavés 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.
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Ibañez 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. Alavés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jon Pacheco 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Felipe Duran after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alavés will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Toni Martínez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Pablo Ibañez 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ander Guevara’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Alavés needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Facundo Garcés trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alavés. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alavés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Alavés heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Hugo Novoa 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Alavés hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 15 combined actions and a mark of 7.43, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 127 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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 Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pablo Ibañez, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 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 Felipe Duran to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Nicolás Valentini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alavés will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Jon Pacheco 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Toni Martínez. 2‑1 against Elche, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Alavés are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Elche in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alavés. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Carlos Benavídez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
6 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Alavés can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
13 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Facundo Garcés has his answer from Alavés; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Felipe Duran was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Alavés dressing room was either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez 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.
Antonio Blanco 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Carles Aleñá was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Felipe Duran was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Alavés dressing room was either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Alavés asked and Almería said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Enzo Jiménez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Lucas Cabrera is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Betis left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Pablo Ibañez 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 dugout14 Sep 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 0‑1 Felipe Duran left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clock did what Almería would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Alavés 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.
Alavés had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Valladolid, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Osasuna have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Alavés and Almería have settled on $6.9M. 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.
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 7.74 for the rest of it.
The offer from Hércules for Ángel Pérez 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.
Everything agreed with Valladolid, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Jon Pacheco 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.
Alavés asked and Elche 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Oviedo scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mariano 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.
Jon Pacheco 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Aug 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Felipe Duran to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
Alavés offered $15.6M; Valencia 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Vladyslav Krapyvtsov arrives from Girona with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Alavés will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Deportivo La Coruña pay $4.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
“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 Alavés hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leo Gutiérrez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Iván Cortés 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mariano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sassá has just signed for Alavés, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Alavés hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Facundo Garcés wants continental football; whether Alavés can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.