It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcorcón 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 Gastón Tedesco 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.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Matthias Köbbing has, at Alcorcón, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Ovie Ejaria 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.
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.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Alberto Quintana 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Simon Caillet has just signed for Alcorcón, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ovie Ejaria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Javier Giménez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcorcón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Juventud Torremolinos left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gastón Tedesco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Gastón Tedesco was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Javier Giménez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Carles Soria and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ovie Ejaria 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑4, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad23 Nov 2026
6 new faces, and Alcorcón 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.
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 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.
Ovie Ejaria 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 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 conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Uri has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gastón Tedesco 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 Alcorcón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Javier Giménez on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
13 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ovie Ejaria 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.
Alberto Quintana 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 7.99 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Alcorcón had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout2 Nov 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 0‑2 Javier Giménez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ovie Ejaria
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ovie Ejaria has come out of that comparison in the side, and Alcorcón have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alcorcón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ovie Ejaria 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.
Axel Juárez 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 15-year-old it feels ownership of. Izei Ruiz 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Alcorcón 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.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alcorcón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Everybody at Alcorcón saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Axel Juárez 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.
Carles Soria scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Hércules, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gastón Tedesco is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Carles Soria was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
The dugout19 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Javier Giménez 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.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alcorcón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alcorcón have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ovie Ejaria 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Alcorcón will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alcorcón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Carles Soria 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Axel Juárez and Alcorcón agree another 2 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ovie Ejaria is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alcorcón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alberto Quintana scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ovie Ejaria 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 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.
10 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Javier Giménez to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Ovie Ejaria 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.
Alcorcón asked and Ibiza 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 Alcorcón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Javier Giménez on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alcorcón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alberto Quintana and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Ovie Ejaria 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.
Alcorcón asked and Valencia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Vladyslav Kopotun. 2‑0 against Teruel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.61 — 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Alcorcón know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alcorcón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Diego Valdez is living that version at Alcorcón, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Alcorcón close the window on a squad of their own making
23 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Alcorcón had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Villarreal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Alberto Quintana 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 Gastón Tedesco was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Teruel next, and one man in the Alcorcón dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alcorcón 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 Alcorcón can pretend not to have heard.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Alcorcón have paid $1.5M for Alberto Quintana, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Alberto Quintana was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $1.5M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcorcón 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.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alcorcón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$10.2M was the most the club would pay and Rayo Vallecano were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows 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 Alcorcón, and it is not being withdrawn.
Alcorcón have gone to Antequera 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.
Vladyslav Kopotun 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.
Alcorcón have made the call to Corinthians. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad24 Aug 2026
6 new faces, and Alcorcón 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.
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alcorcón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Alcorcón have gone to Rayo Vallecano 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 $11.5M — a club that wants Isi Palazón enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Betis have kept their man, and Alcorcón 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.
Tarsi Aguado 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Alcorcón are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Gimnasia y Esgrima have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alcorcón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.0M — a club that wants Selton enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Alcorcón have done the hard part with Gimnàstic, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Madrid have kept their man, and Alcorcón go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Enzo Martín 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. Pol Méndez 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. Fernando Caballero is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Izei Ruiz 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Alcorcón will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Tarsi Aguado 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 loan enquiry to Gimnàstic: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Alcorcón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Esteban Aparicio 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.