Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Albacete will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Martín Úbeda has just signed for Albacete, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Neva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Martín Núñez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Albacete 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Carlos Neva 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 8.00 — 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.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vicente Gutiérrez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ricard Artero 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.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Albacete had all but put away. Huesca will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Something was said to José Carlos Lazo 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 Albacete will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Neva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Munir’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Albacete.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Munir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
“I watch every Albacete game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Osasuna runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Camilo Salamanca has, at Albacete, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Albacete have done the hard part with Zaragoza, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CSKA Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Albacete asked and Zaragoza 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. Alejandro Ibañez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Albacete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
2‑5 to Leganés, 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 team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Albacete will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Antonio Puertas 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 8 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
7 goals in one match, Mario Soberón on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Albacete and Leganés.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 105 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Antonio Puertas 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Carlos Neva 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.
12 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Vicente Gutiérrez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Agustín Pérez
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.
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Albacete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Neva 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mario Soberón. 1‑0 against Castellón, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Albacete, and 3 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lluís, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 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.” Vicente Gutiérrez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Albacete have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Juan Aguilar is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
7.66, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Albacete had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Vicente Gutiérrez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Albacete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Carlos Neva 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.
Ricard Artero 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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Albacete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Carlos Neva 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 8.03 — 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.
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Vicente Gutiérrez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Agustín Pérez
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Minute 88, against Granada, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“I watch every Albacete game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Osasuna runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
Racing Santander will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Albacete were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 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 Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Albacete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Neva 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Antonio Puertas 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mateo Gil has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Enrique Medina is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Álex Rubio 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 needed Mario Soberón to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Real Sociedad B, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Rubio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Agustín Pérez
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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 7.56 for the rest of it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Albacete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Neva 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.
16 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Albacete, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
1 for Antonio Pacheco, marked 7.61, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
7 matches without a win, and then this, against Zaragoza. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Albacete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Neva 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. Albacete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Albacete have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Albacete can tell you which week it ends in.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Enrique Campos 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.
Álex Rubio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Albacete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Antonio Puertas 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Albacete can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Neva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Albacete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Neva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad28 Sep 2026
16 new faces, and Albacete 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Albacete, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was 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 Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Albacete did not have in the autumn.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Carlos Neva falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 120 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Burgos the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Albacete will enjoy reviewing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Carlos Neva 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Héctor Duran has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Felipe Morales 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Albacete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Albacete close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 1 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Neva 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.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jesús Vallejo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Vicente Gutiérrez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Albacete dressing room was either.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Agustín Pérez
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Albacete will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The fee is $7.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Almería drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.14 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
Albacete spend $7.7M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $7.7M for Thalys, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Albacete go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
15 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Ceuta spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
$7.7M on the table at Almería. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer from Castellón for Pepe Sánchez 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 Carlos Neva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Albacete asked and Valladolid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albacete this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Antonio Puertas 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. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Albacete go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Albacete training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Neva 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.
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. Albacete will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Ceuta next, and one man in the Albacete dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Ricard Artero arrives from Girona with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Javi Villar signs something — a contract at Albacete or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The deal with Girona is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Albacete 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Àlex García has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leo Nieto 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. Markel Cruz 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Carlos Jiménez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Argentinos Juniors have kept their man, and Albacete go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Antonio Puertas 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 Carlos Neva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Still no offer on the table, and Jesús Vallejo’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
10 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.
A loan enquiry to Manchester City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.