6 Apr 2027
Tuesday
Process
36 Edition

The Almería Gazette

5 Apr 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Peque

36 goals and a season average of 7.67 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

Almería tear Mirandés apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Mirandés, and it could have been more.

Player ratings

Both of them Peque's — 9.37

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.37, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings

Vintage Harold Preciado — 8.04

At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.04, and nobody on the pitch better.

Match

Almería make it 4 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Almería have 4 straight wins of it.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

David Alaba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Nico Melamed beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

A row about effort at Almería

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léo Baptistão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Leonardo Lelo

Marked 8.23 — 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.

In brief

Back issues
35 Edition

The Almería Gazette

29 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Peque

34 goals and a season average of 7.63 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Match

Nico Melamed leads the rout of Ceuta

4‑1, and Nico Melamed took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Almería tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Match

The run at home goes on for Almería

13 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Player ratings

Harold Preciado, 33, rolls back the years — 8.17

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

The dugout

Álex Padilla: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Almería have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

Almería make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Almería have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

David Alaba and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Peque

Marked 8.44 — 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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Nico Melamed at his very best

Marked 8.42. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Almería.

In brief

34 Edition

The Almería Gazette

22 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Peque

33 goals and a season average of 7.61 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Player ratings

Leonardo Lelo beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 32. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

Almería refuse to drop out of the race

Position 2, 63 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.

Player ratings

A brace, and Peque takes the afternoon — 8.73

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Peque provided it, and the 8.73 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

Almería make home a hard place to visit

12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

David Alaba 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.

Match

Peque sends Almería past Leganés

It finished 2‑0, and it was Peque’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Almería.

Squad

A row about effort at Almería

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Léo Baptistão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Almería

7 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.

In brief

33 Edition

The Almería Gazette

15 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Peque

31 goals and a season average of 7.59 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Squad

Peque takes the match ball home

4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Match

Almería tear Castellón apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Castellón, and it could have been more.

Player ratings

Harold Preciado, 33, rolls back the years — 8.26

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Enzo Lorenzo out for 15 days

The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Enzo Lorenzo, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

David Alaba in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Peque at his very best

Marked 10.00. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Almería.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Almería and Castellón in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Player ratings

André Horta was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.02. 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.

In brief

32 Edition

The Almería Gazette

8 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Peque is carrying Almería

27 goals and a season average of 7.52. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

The run at home goes on for Almería

11 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Squad

Andrés Fernández signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrés Fernández and Almería agree another 2 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

David Alaba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Peque at his very best

Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Almería.

Match

Two points walk out of the ground

Level with 87 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Almería had all but put away. Deportivo La Coruña will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.

Squad

A row about effort at Almería

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Ely was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Joseba Zaldua turns it into his own net

Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Almería deserved better, and so did he.

Match

Almería share the spoils with Deportivo La Coruña

A 1‑1 draw with Deportivo La Coruña leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

31 Edition

The Almería Gazette

1 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Peque

26 goals and a season average of 7.51 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Peque wants to know where this is going

“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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

David Alaba 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Almería against Granada

3‑4 to Granada, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Match

Nobody could stop scoring

7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Almería and Granada in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Match

Granada end the Almería run at 5

Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.

Squad

Appearance number 200 for Nico Melamed

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.

Player ratings

Nico Melamed was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.22. 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.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of André Horta at his very best

Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Almería.

In brief

30 Edition

The Almería Gazette

22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Almería tear Real Sociedad B apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Real Sociedad B, and it could have been more.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Peque

25 goals and a season average of 7.51 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Player ratings

A brace, and Peque takes the afternoon — 9.03

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Peque provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

Almería up to position 3

56 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.

The dugout

Rodrigo Ely: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Almería have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Match

Almería cannot stop winning

5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

David Alaba 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.

Match

Almería make home a hard place to visit

10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Player ratings

One of those days for Nico Melamed

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

In brief

  • Squad Words at Almería training over how hard people work
  • Player ratings Leonardo Lelo in the eights
  • Looking ahead The big one: Granada come into view
29 Edition

The Almería Gazette

15 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

No mercy from Almería

Valladolid will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Almería were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.

Player ratings

Peque scores twice — 9.39

Two goals and a mark of 9.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Squad

Peque is carrying Almería

23 goals and a season average of 7.46. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

Almería cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

Almería count the cost of losing Enzo Lorenzo

45 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Squad

David Alaba in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Leonardo Lelo

Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Player ratings

André Horta in the eights

A performance of 8.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

A row about effort at Almería

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Ely was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

In brief

28 Edition

The Almería Gazette

8 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Peque is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.41 with 21 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Match

Almería make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Almería have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Nico Melamed stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Nico Melamed and Almería agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

David Alaba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

The window shuts on the Abdón Prats deal

Almería ran out of time with Mallorca. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.

Match

Nobody wins at Almería

9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.

Match

Almería find a way past Eibar

Eibar made Almería work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Market

One of our own: Nicolás Montero joins the Almería first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nicolás Montero is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Baptistão 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.

In brief

27 Edition

The Almería Gazette

1 Feb 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Transfer targets

Almería agree $1.4M for Abdón Prats

The clubs have shaken hands with Mallorca; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.

Market

Daijiro Chirino attracts admirers

The name of Daijiro Chirino has come up in conversations Almería were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 4 in, 8 out at Almería

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Player ratings

Nico Melamed runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Transfer targets

Omar Khribin will not be coming to Almería

Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Legia is saying, and nobody at Almería is enjoying the guessing.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

David Alaba 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.

Market

Almería say no — this time

The offer from Septemvri for Jeremías Vargas 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.

Transfer targets

River Plate tell Almería: Juan Fernando Quintero is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Match

Almería get the job done against Cultural Leonesa

A 1‑0 win over Cultural Leonesa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

In brief

26 Edition

The Almería Gazette

25 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Rodrigo Ely puts it in writing

“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 Almería, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Villarreal watching Léo Baptistão

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Almería have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

Peque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Nico Melamed beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Match

The run at home goes on for Almería

8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Match

Almería get the job done against Burgos

A 1‑0 win over Burgos, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

Miguel De la Fuente in the eights

A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Boardroom

112% of the income goes out in wages at Almería

Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.

Squad

Almería lose Viti

44 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

In brief

  • Squad A row about effort at Almería
  • Squad 8 new faces, and Almería are still learning each other
  • Transfer targets A loan move for Omar Khribin is in the works
25 Edition

The Almería Gazette

18 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Almería sell Sergio Arribas for $25.1M

Sergio Arribas has left for Athletic Bilbao in a $25.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Market

Business is business: Jon Morcillo goes

Betis paid $24.5M and Almería took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.

Market

Betis come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Almería did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Peque is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.40 with 20 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Squad

6 saves: Andrés Fernández was the team

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 terraces

Almería sell a favourite for $25.1M

The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Sergio Arribas was one of the reasons people came, and $25.1M does not replace that by itself.

Market

Real Sociedad watching Mikel Vesga

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Almería have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Peque 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.

Squad

Mauricio Nievas arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mauricio Nievas has, at Almería, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

In brief

24 Edition

The Almería Gazette

11 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Terms done: Jon Morcillo is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Betis waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Almería is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

Match

Chastening afternoon for Almería

A 1‑4 beating by Albacete was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Market

Villarreal come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Almería did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Transfer targets

David Alaba due for a Almería medical

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.

Market

Javi Muñoz moves on

Girona pay $6.1M, 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.

Squad

Daijiro Chirino signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daijiro Chirino and Almería agree another 4 years.

Market

The Sergio Arribas conversation is coming

Everyone has stopped pretending: Athletic Bilbao will make the call about Sergio Arribas this week. Almería have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.

Player ratings

Sergio Arribas runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Jon Morcillo 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.

In brief

23 Edition

The Almería Gazette

4 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Almería turn down Sevilla for Adrián Embarba

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Peque is carrying Almería

19 goals and a season average of 7.41. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Market

Eyes on Sergio Arribas again

The phone has started ringing about Sergio Arribas again, and this time the name on the line is Athletic Bilbao. Almería are listening politely and promising nothing.

Squad

Jeremías Vargas is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Javi Muñoz 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Carlos Albarrán

Almería asked and Córdoba said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Market

Sergio Arribas is free to find somewhere else

“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Almería has been clear about where Sergio Arribas stands, which is more than many ever get.

Match

Peque sends Almería past Cádiz

It finished 1‑0, and it was Peque’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Almería.

Player ratings

Peque in the eights

A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

In brief

22 Edition

The Almería Gazette

28 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

A brace, and Peque takes the afternoon — 9.07

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Peque provided it, and the 9.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Peque is carrying Almería

18 goals and a season average of 7.38. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

Peque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

André Horta 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.

Player ratings

Adrián Embarba was unplayable

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.

Boardroom

Wages swallow 118% of the Almería income

Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.

Match

Peque rescues a point for Almería

It needed Peque to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Córdoba, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.

The dugout

Joseba Zaldua dropped after a run of poor form

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 dugout

Andrés Ramos on the point

“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Andrés Ramos after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.

In brief

21 Edition

The Almería Gazette

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Almería tear Andorra apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑2 against Andorra, and it could have been more.

Squad

Peque takes the match ball home

3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Market

Sergio Arribas raises the bar for Almería

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Almería heard it as anything else.

Squad

Peque is carrying Almería

16 goals and a season average of 7.32. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Peque 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.

Match

7 goals as Almería and Andorra go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Almería and Andorra, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

Squad

André Horta 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.

Player ratings

Sergio Arribas was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.27. 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.

Player ratings

Javi Muñoz 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.

In brief

  • The dugout No hiding place for Rodrigo Ely
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
  • Player ratings Nico Melamed runs at them all day
20 Edition

The Almería Gazette

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Sergio Arribas has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Almería can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Peque 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.

Match

Peque’s goal not enough for Almería

Peque scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Racing Santander, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

Squad

Defences have started doubling up on Peque

13 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.

Market

Andrés Navarro steps up from the Almería academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andrés Navarro 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.

Match

The run is over for Almería

5 matches without defeat, and then Racing Santander. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Pulido 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.

Squad

Diego Jiménez signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Diego Jiménez commits to Almería for another 1 years.

The dugout

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 1‑3 Andrés Ramos left the room before anybody could ask which.

In brief

19 Edition

The Almería Gazette

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Peque leads the rout of Gijón

3‑0, and Peque took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Almería tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Match

Almería make it 5 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Almería have 5 straight wins of it.

Market

Peque wants more than Almería are offering

“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.

Squad

Peque in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Peque is in the form of his life

A season average of 7.22 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Jon Morcillo at his very best

Marked 8.45. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Almería.

Squad

A row about effort at Almería

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Horta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

One of those days for Sergio Arribas

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

The dugout

Jorge Pulido gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

In brief

18 Edition

The Almería Gazette

30 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Almería cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

Peque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Player ratings

Jon Morcillo was unplayable

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.

Match

Almería see off Zaragoza

Three points for Almería, 1‑0 the final word against Zaragoza in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

A row about effort at Almería

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Horta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

One of those days for Peque

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.28, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Player ratings

Leonardo Lelo in the eights

A performance of 8.22 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

No hiding place for Miguel De la Fuente

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miguel De la Fuente, and the manager let it.

The dugout

A promise honoured for Peque

It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Almería told Peque something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.

In brief

17 Edition

The Almería Gazette

23 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Almería run riot against Las Palmas

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Market

Sergio Arribas asks to leave Almería

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Peque scores twice — 8.99

Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Match

Nobody wants to play Almería right now

3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.

Squad

Bautista Sánchez de León arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bautista Sánchez de León has, at Almería, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Squad

Javi Muñoz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Pulido 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 ratings

Sergio Arribas was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.31. 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.

Player ratings

Jon Morcillo runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

In brief

16 Edition

The Almería Gazette

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

Javi Muñoz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Peque sends Almería past Málaga

It finished 1‑0, and it was Peque’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Almería.

Squad

A row about effort at Almería

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Horta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Peque in the eights

A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Oriol Rosell

“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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Nico Melamed

Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Viti stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Viti and Almería agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

The dugout

A satisfied Andrés Ramos

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Andrés Ramos could afford to be generous.

Player ratings

Leonardo Lelo was immovable

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.

In brief

15 Edition

The Almería Gazette

9 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Peque takes the match ball home

4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.

Match

Almería run riot against Mirandés

4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Match

The cup run ends for Almería

0‑1 against Granada, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Brian Cipenga

Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Peque in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

One of those days for Peque

There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 10.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.

Market

Almería promote Luis Herrero from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luis Herrero 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.

Market

Almería promote Antonio Moya from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Antonio Moya 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.

Squad

Jorge Pulido 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

14 Edition

The Almería Gazette

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Ibrahima Koné: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Almería have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Player ratings

Jon Morcillo was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 24. 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

Peque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Match

Almería find a way past Ceuta

Ceuta made Almería work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Sergio Arribas

Marked 8.04 — 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.

The dugout

Almería keep their word to Sergio Arribas

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.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Almería

9 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.

Boardroom

Wages swallow 92% of the Almería income

Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.

The dugout

A satisfied Andrés Ramos

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Andrés Ramos could afford to be generous.

In brief

13 Edition

The Almería Gazette

26 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Sergio Arribas puts it in writing

“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 Almería, and it is not being withdrawn.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Peque 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.

Match

Leganés take the points off Almería

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

The dugout

No hiding place for Andrés Fernández

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrés Fernández, and the manager let it.

Squad

Léo Baptistão 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 dugout

Andrés Ramos faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Andrés Ramos after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

The dugout

Almería pick somebody else ahead of Joseba Zaldua

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.

The dugout

André Horta does not fit this one

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.

Player ratings

Jon Morcillo was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 11. 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.

In brief

12 Edition

The Almería Gazette

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Peque 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 ratings

Jon Morcillo runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Almería count the cost of losing Jorge Pulido

26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Match

Almería get the job done against Castellón

A 2‑1 win over Castellón, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Squad

André Horta 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 dugout

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.” Andrés Ramos, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.

The dugout

The form table has caught Joseba Zaldua

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.

Player ratings

Off the bench and decisive: Ibrahima Koné

The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Almería were going nowhere until he came on.

Market

The Peque talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Almería know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

11 Edition

The Almería Gazette

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Peque in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

No time for Deportivo La Coruña to settle

The goal that put Deportivo La Coruña ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Almería equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.

Squad

Diego Jiménez signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego Jiménez and Almería agree another 1 years.

Match

Honours even between Almería and Deportivo La Coruña

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

Boardroom

Almería counting the cost

The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Almería now.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arvin Appiah 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 dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Andrés Ramos was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Almería dressing room was either.

Looking ahead

A reunion for Daijiro Chirino

He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Castellón in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.

The dugout

The plan did not have a place for André Horta

Nobody at Almería 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.

In brief

10 Edition

The Almería Gazette

5 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Áron Yaakobishvili is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Player ratings

Jon Morcillo was unplayable

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Javi Muñoz 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.

Squad

A row about effort at Almería

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jorge Pulido was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings

Peque was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.00. 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.

Match

Almería refuse to lose to Granada

A point taken on 93 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.

The dugout

No hiding place for Jorge Pulido

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jorge Pulido, and the manager let it.

Squad

15 new faces, and Almería 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.

Boardroom

87% of the income goes out in wages at Almería

Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.

In brief

  • Match Honours even between Almería and Granada
  • The dugout Joseba Zaldua dropped after a run of poor form
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
9 Edition

The Almería Gazette

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

Sergio Arribas asks to leave Almería

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Player ratings

Vintage Adrián Embarba — 8.05

At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.05, and nobody on the pitch better.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Álex Martín rejects the move

Almería had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Córdoba, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

Javi Muñoz in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Adrián Embarba the difference as Almería beat Real Sociedad B

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adrián Embarba. 3‑1 against Real Sociedad B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

Squad

Jorge Pulido 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.

Player ratings

Sergio Arribas beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Gui

“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.

The dugout

A satisfied Andrés Ramos

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Andrés Ramos could afford to be generous.

In brief

8 Edition

The Almería Gazette

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Jon Morcillo runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Peque 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Almería against Valladolid

1‑2 to Valladolid, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Andrés Fernández gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Andrés Ramos answers for it

“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.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arvin Appiah 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 terraces

The spotlight tightens on Andrés Fernández

Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.

Squad

The formation has left Jorge Moreno behind

Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Almería will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.

Market

The Peque talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Almería know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

7 Edition

The Almería Gazette

14 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Léo Baptistão, 34, rolls back the years — 7.98

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

A move Javi Mier would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Javi Mier is living that version at Almería, and it tends to show in the first month.

Market

Sergio Arribas wants more than Almería are offering

“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.

Squad

Peque in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

Almería promote Víctor Hernández from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Víctor Hernández 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.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Pulido 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Fernando Pacheco

“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.

Match

Honours even between Almería and Eibar

1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.

Squad

Javi Mier is a square peg at Almería

The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.

In brief

  • Boardroom Almería counting the cost
  • The dugout Somebody else is better right now than Joseba Zaldua
  • The dugout The view from the dugout
6 Edition

The Almería Gazette

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Jon Morcillo beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 21 in, 2 out at Almería

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 21 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Market

Peque wants more than Almería are offering

“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.

Squad

A falling-out at Almería

Peque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Facundo Di Biasi

Almería asked and Gimnasia La Plata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Match

Almería come up short against Cultural Leonesa

Cultural Leonesa left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Jorge Pulido 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 dugout

No hiding place for Oriol Rosell

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oriol Rosell, and the manager let it.

Boardroom

Doors closed at Almería

The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.

In brief

  • Squad Almería are still strangers to each other
  • The dugout The manager’s verdict
  • Squad Andrés Fernández wants out of the spotlight
5 Edition

The Almería Gazette

31 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Léo Baptistão scores twice — 8.70

Two goals and a mark of 8.70 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Espanyol come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Almería did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Market

Almería sell Thalys for $9.0M

Thalys has left for Valladolid in a $9.0M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.

Squad

Andrés Fernández keeps Almería in it on his own

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.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Álex Martín rejects the move

Almería had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Córdoba, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Peque 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.

Match

Almería get the job done against Burgos

A 3‑1 win over Burgos, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Transfer targets

Almería rebuffed over Dylan Gorosito

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boca Juniors have kept their man, and Almería go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

The terraces

Almería supporters have found a favourite in Peque

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Peque 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.

In brief

4 Edition

The Almería Gazette

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Match

Almería tear Huesca apart

Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑2 against Huesca, and it could have been more.

Transfer targets

Almería baulk at the price for Rodrigo Riquelme

Betis wanted more than $40.1M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Market

Almería pay Sevilla $26.3M for a proper upgrade

Sevilla did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $26.3M for Peque, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.

Player ratings

A brace, and Léo Baptistão takes the afternoon — 9.23

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Léo Baptistão provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Transfer targets

Almería rebuffed over Peque

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Almería go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Player ratings

Sergio Arribas scores twice — 8.33

Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Almería say no — this time

The offer from Alavés for Federico Bonini 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.

Squad

Fernando Pacheco arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fernando Pacheco has, at Almería, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Transfer targets

Andrea Adorante turns down Almería

The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Venezia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.

In brief

3 Edition

The Almería Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

An offer of $40.1M for Rodrigo Riquelme

Almería have gone to Betis 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.

Transfer targets

Almería bid $26.3M for Peque

The offer went to Sevilla 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.

Market

Almería turn down Real Sociedad for Sergio Arribas

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Transfer targets

Betis tell Almería: Ez Abde is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Transfer targets

No deal for David Alaba at that price

Almería offered $760.0K; Real Madrid 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.

Squad

Léo Baptistão in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almería this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Boardroom

Almería beat the market to Jonatan Goya from Deportivo La Coruña

Deportivo La Coruña will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jonatan Goya has pre-agreed a move to Almería, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

Squad

André Horta 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.

Squad

The formation has left Oriol Rosell behind

Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Almería will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.

In brief

2 Edition

The Almería Gazette

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Almería rebuffed over Rodrigo Riquelme

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Betis have kept their man, and Almería go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Market

Almería turn down Valladolid for Thalys

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Sergio Arribas signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sergio Arribas commits to Almería for another 5 years.

Squad

Words exchanged at Almería

Léo Baptistão 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.

Market

Almería promote Miguel Moya from within

The academy exists for exactly this morning. Miguel Moya 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.

Market

Enzo Lorenzo steps up from the Almería academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Enzo Lorenzo 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.

Market

One of our own: Pol Vázquez joins the Almería first team

Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pol Vázquez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.

The dugout

Miguel De la Fuente gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout

Sergio Arribas knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sergio Arribas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

In brief

1 Edition

The Almería Gazette

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Market

Sergio Arribas wants to know where this is going

“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 Almería hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Adrián Embarba stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Adrián Embarba and Almería agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Almería

Mikel Vesga 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.

Transfer targets

Girona tell Almería: Vladyslav Krapyvtsov is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Squad

Words at Almería training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Léo Baptistão 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.

Market

Talks stall between Almería and Adrián Embarba

“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.

In brief