69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antequera lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Antequera people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 The request is on a desk at Antequera, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Antequera close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 3 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.
Miguel Loureiro 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Betis have kept their man, and Antequera go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Antequera are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Álex Barbu
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Fèlix Garreta
Transfer targetsA loan move for Mario García is in the works
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Antequera lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Córdoba paid $1.2M and Antequera took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Antequera asked and Oviedo said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Samu Pérez 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.
84 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Antequera 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. Emiliano Agüero scored, was marked 7.53, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Deportivo La Coruña keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fèlix Garreta 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The name of Iván Morales has come up in conversations Antequera were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Real Avilés waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Antequera is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Antequera, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Auckland City for Dylan Ugarte was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Everything agreed with Deportivo La Coruña, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Antequera asked and Albacete said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Adrià Gené 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
David Ramos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
“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 Antequera, and it is not being withdrawn.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.81 for the rest of it.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: David Ramos. 3‑1 against Eldense, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Betis have kept their man, and Antequera go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antequera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Auckland City have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dylan Ugarte. The answer from Antequera has not changed — yet.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Samu Pérez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Ramos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Maximiliano Alanís 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.
Three points for Antequera, 1‑0 the final word against Hércules in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samu Pérez 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.
9 combined actions and 7.36. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Edu Altozano is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutEdu Altozano knocks on the manager’s door
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samu Pérez 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 Antequera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Antequera are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vicente Martínez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Nico Junior scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Villarreal B, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samu Pérez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Antequera are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Favio Durán 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 words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Ramos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Fèlix Garreta 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.
Marked 8.28 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samu Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Vicente Martínez chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
9 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Antequera lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fèlix Garreta 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 Adrià Gené was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antequera lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antequera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
A 1‑1 draw with Gimnàstic leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ousama Siddiki 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Vicente Martínez was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Antequera dressing room was either.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Antequera lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 1‑0 win over Ibiza, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Adrià Gené was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
18 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.
Level with 97 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Antequera had all but put away. CE Europa will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antequera lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
15 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adrià Gené was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vicente Martínez after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Tarazona defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Adrià Gené’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Antequera needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Antequera lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antequera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout19 Oct 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 Vicente Martínez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Antequera training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ousama Siddiki 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 manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
At 22 he has taken a place rather than been given one, and somebody else has to find something to say about it. Antequera have a decision that made itself.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antequera lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Antequera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Izei Núñez 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Antequera know it.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antequera lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
At 38, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.” Vicente Martínez on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antequera lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Fèlix Garreta 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Antequera are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Samu Pérez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sevilla Atlético defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
89 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Antequera lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fèlix Garreta 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.69, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Vicente Martínez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samu Pérez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
Antequera 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rubén Blanco has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
A 1‑0 win over Juventud Torremolinos, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Antequera lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 17 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Antequera until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Edu Altozano 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dylan Ugarte is living that version at Antequera, and it tends to show in the first month.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Antequera will try again when the window opens; Albacete may not be selling by then.
11 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.
Antequera have made the call to Valencia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
$1.5M from Alcorcón for Alberto Quintana. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Antonio Luna damages knee ligaments — 114 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Alberto Quintana was one of the reasons people came, and $1.5M does not replace that by itself.
Antequera offered $180.0K; Leganés 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.
Favio Durán and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Samu Pérez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Alejandro Arana is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
$1.5M from Unionistas for Edu Sánchez. Money is money, but the dressing room has lost the man it looked to.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Antonio Luna damages knee ligaments — 121 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 121 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Edu Sánchez was one of the reasons people came, and $1.5M does not replace that by itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Antequera can pretend not to have heard.
The deal that would have taken Alberto Quintana to Andorra has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Antequera with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $189.1K — a club that wants Andrés Campos 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 Antequera go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$180.0K on the table at Leganés. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Fèlix Garreta 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.
$2.2M was the most the club would pay and Gimnasia y Tiro 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.
Antequera asked and Racing Club 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 Antequera this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Antequera are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at Antequera
The offer went to Gimnasia y Tiro 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.
Antequera asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fèlix Garreta 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jan Rubio 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. Mateo Morales 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eduardo Peña 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.
Antequera have made the call to Aldosivi. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The offer from Arenas Club for Iván Morales 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.
The name of Luis Rivas has come up in conversations Antequera were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Antequera know it.
Atlético Tucumán 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Edu Altozano is in the works