The offer from Pontevedra for Jandro Orellana 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.
“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.
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. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Efe Aghama 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.
Santiago Mouriño arrived with a record at a bigger club than this one, and the room has treated him accordingly. The young ones watch him train; the senior ones watch to see whether it lasts.
Nobody at Cádiz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutVictor Aznar knocks on the manager’s door
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cádiz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cádiz heard it as anything else.
The phone has started ringing about Jandro Orellana again, and this time the name on the line is Pontevedra. Cádiz are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Cádiz asked and Barcelona 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jorge Sanguina wants continental football; whether Cádiz can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
In brief
SquadWords at Cádiz training over how hard people work
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cádiz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jun 2028
At 21, Yan Diomandé is already the best thing here
An average of 7.03 in a first team he is several years too young for. Cádiz have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and CE Europa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cádiz is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Santiago Mouriño was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Cádiz asked and Betis said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
6 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Cádiz will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutIker Recio asks for a word with the manager
The fee is $27.8M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Villarreal drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The fee is $24.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Rayo Vallecano drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cádiz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Andrei Raţiu 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A loan enquiry to Atlético Madrid: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The clubs have shaken hands with Villarreal; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer went to Villarreal 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.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Cádiz hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
16 shut-outs in 37 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Victor Aznar has been having a lot of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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 phone has started ringing about Jandro Orellana again, and this time the name on the line is CE Europa. Cádiz are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jandro Orellana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cádiz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Cádiz know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
16 appearances and 2 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 36 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cádiz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings22 May 2028
Yussi Diarra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
Efe Aghama 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cádiz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javi Ontiveros was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cádiz can tell you which week it ends in.
Joaquín González 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cádiz has been clear about where Efe Aghama stands, which is more than many ever get.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
16 shut-outs in 36 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Victor Aznar has been having a lot of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javi Ontiveros was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Yan Diomandé 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Cádiz can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Something was said to Urko Izeta and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yan Diomandé did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cádiz can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cádiz heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cádiz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 May 2028
At 21, Yan Diomandé is already the best thing here
An average of 7.01 in a first team he is several years too young for. Cádiz have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Loan watch1 May 2028
Victor Aznar’s loan is measured in nothing happening
15 clean sheets from 35 appearances at Gimnàstic. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Marc Bernal, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cádiz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Marc Bernal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
34 appearances at Gimnàstic and the goals have stopped going in. Cádiz lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tomás Nieto after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yan Diomandé did not need any: 7.68, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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.
Something was said to Yan Diomandé and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting David Gil's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Manu Fernández scored, was marked 6.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Manu Fernández scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Real Madrid, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
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 Tomás Nieto left the room before anybody could ask which.
Josh Hamilton 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.
“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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Isaac Obeng falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bojan Kovačević signs something — a contract at Cádiz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cádiz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Marc Bernal is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Cádiz will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marc-Olivier Doué will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cádiz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Maroan Sannadi 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.
13 shut-outs in 29 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Victor Aznar has been having a lot of them.
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.
Marc Bernal is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cádiz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Marc Bernal scored in the 85th minute, Valencia had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Cádiz took the lot.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cádiz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Maroan Sannadi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Yan Diomandé 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.
“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; Cádiz are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Urko Izeta.
A 1‑1 draw with Girona leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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.” Tomás Nieto chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cádiz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jandro Orellana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cádiz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cádiz heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 36, 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.
Marc Bernal, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marc-Olivier Doué will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cádiz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
26 appearances at Gimnàstic and the goals have stopped going in. Cádiz lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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 1‑2 Tomás Nieto left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marc-Olivier Doué, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Isaac Obeng 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.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jandro Orellana is on it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cádiz they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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.
100 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tomás Nieto after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Cádiz can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Marc Bernal will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Cádiz escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cádiz people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Marcos Denia reports back to Cádiz with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nando had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Cádiz close the window on a squad of their own making
3 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cádiz heard it as anything else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cádiz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cádiz can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yan Diomandé did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jandro Orellana will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cádiz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javi Ontiveros was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletic Bilbao have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Marc Bernal 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cádiz can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Teruel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Cádiz is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Marc Bernal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The fee is $65.6M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Real Madrid drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Cádiz people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Almería for Roger Martí 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: La Equidad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Cádiz and Real Madrid have settled on $65.6M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cádiz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cádiz have done the hard part with Eibar, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Estudiantes is saying, and nobody at Cádiz is enjoying the guessing.
The name of Marc-Olivier Doué has come up in conversations Cádiz were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
SquadJavi Ontiveros falls out with a teammate over standards
The phone has started ringing about Efe Aghama again, and this time the name on the line is Teruel. Cádiz are listening politely and promising nothing.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Cádiz asked and Andorra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Obeng is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Up for the corner, and Marc Bernal delivers — 7.56
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Marc Bernal scored, was marked 7.56, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cádiz has been clear about where Sergio Ortuño stands, which is more than many ever get.
Joaquín González 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.
Almería go through and Cádiz go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Cádiz can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Marc-Olivier Doué 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.
0‑5 against Real Madrid, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. David Gil knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑5 Tomás Nieto left the room before anybody could ask which.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Isaac Obeng 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Tomás Nieto left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cádiz has been clear about where Efe Aghama stands, which is more than many ever get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Obeng was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cádiz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cádiz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Roger Martí’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cádiz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Cádiz would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Francisco Mwepu decided nobody was going anywhere. Hércules had no time left to answer.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.40, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Marc Bernal, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.37
A mark of 8.37 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Efe Aghama 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.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marc Bernal did not need any: 8.08, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
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.
“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 dugout1 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Tomás Nieto, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cádiz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alavés made Cádiz work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Yussi Diarra was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
Marc-Olivier Doué 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cádiz told Yussi Diarra something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” José Antonio De la Rosa has his answer from Cádiz; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Tomás Nieto, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Obeng is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sergio Ortuño trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Marc Bernal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.07, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say José Antonio De la Rosa is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marc Bernal’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cádiz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Cádiz, another week without a signature from Luis López.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cádiz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Cádiz will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cádiz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cádiz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Obeng 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.” Tomás Nieto after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jandro Orellana is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bojan Kovačević signs something — a contract at Cádiz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Manu Fernández
The dugoutJavi Ontiveros unhappy with how he is being used
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cádiz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
13 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cádiz told Javi Castro something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Tomás Nieto kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cádiz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cádiz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Everybody at Cádiz saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cádiz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cádiz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A performance of 8.18 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Javi Ontiveros was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Tomás Nieto, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
SquadIsaac Obeng falls out with a teammate over standards
$69.2M was the most the club would pay and Real Madrid 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.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cádiz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Cádiz close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 13 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.
Cádiz ran out of time with Gijón. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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.
Cádiz asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Cádiz offered $1.6M; Antequera 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Newell's Old Boys is saying, and nobody at Cádiz is enjoying the guessing.
Marc Bernal and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Ontiveros 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.
0‑1 to Sevilla, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting David Gil's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
18 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cádiz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cádiz can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Jorge Moreno, marked 6.91, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atlético Madrid keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Marc Bernal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Work is signed off on a capacity of 20196. It is the sort of decision a club is judged on twenty years later, by people who were not there when it was taken.
Spezia have accepted the money. What Cádiz do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Barcelona is saying, and nobody at Cádiz is enjoying the guessing.
The deal with Atlético Madrid is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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. Levante have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say José Antonio De la Rosa is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Javi Ontiveros’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cádiz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Cádiz and Barcelona have settled on $29.8M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Valentín Quevedo is living that version at Cádiz, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javi Ontiveros was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Albacete have kept their man, and Cádiz 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 Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Newell's Old Boys 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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Cádiz will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Javi Castro has written the date down.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cádiz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
17 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cádiz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cádiz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cádiz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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. Andorra have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Efe Aghama 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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cádiz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Cádiz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Cádiz had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Barcelona, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Cádiz lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $2.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Eibar drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have shaken hands with Barcelona; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Cádiz lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Cádiz asked and Sevilla said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mario Vera has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nil Vidal 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pedro Romero 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.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
Marc Bernal 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.
35 games, 8 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Cádiz now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Espanyol have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad5 Jul 2027
14 new faces, and Cádiz 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.
The offer from AS Saint-Etienne for García Pascual 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.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutJandro Orellana has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutJavi Castro knocks on the manager's door
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Marcos Denia’s exile
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cádiz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Cádiz asked and Tenerife said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Position 3, 81 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.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Barcelona 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.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Cádiz will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Cádiz know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cádiz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 81 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Cádiz have done the hard part with Barcelona, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: García Pascual. 1‑0 against Huesca, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Three points for Cádiz, 1‑0 the final word against Almería in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Damián was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. 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 ratings31 May 2027
Javi Ontiveros was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
100 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Tomás Nieto could afford to be generous.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Cádiz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutRoger Martí asks for a word with the manager
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 75 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.
11 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jerónimo Domina wants continental football; whether Cádiz can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 Cádiz know it.
Gonzalo Petit 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 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bojan Kovačević signs something — a contract at Cádiz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Cádiz 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.
Up for the corner, and Sergio Ortuño delivers — 7.99
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sergio Ortuño scored, was marked 7.99, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: García Pascual. 2‑0 against Andorra, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Andorra spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Cádiz pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Cádiz scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
9 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.
Jerónimo Domina 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.
Racing Santander left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Iuri Tabatadze was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
36 appearances away from home and 10 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout3 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Tomás Nieto left the room before anybody could ask which.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tomás Nieto after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
8 goals in 32 games at Ibiza — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Cádiz updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Nobody at Cádiz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Las Palmas had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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.” Tomás Nieto chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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 7.69 for the rest of it.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Cádiz pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Sergio Ortuño scored in the 87th minute, Mirandés had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Cádiz took the lot.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cádiz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Urko Izeta 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Antoñito Cordero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Urko Izeta’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cádiz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Cádiz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cádiz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
3 goals in 28 games at Huesca — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Cádiz updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Position 3, 58 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Cádiz can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Gonzalo Petit 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cádiz has been clear about where Jorge Moreno stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
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 dugout15 Mar 2027
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.” Tomás Nieto chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Marked 7.07 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
“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. Castellón defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Roger Martí trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Deportivo La Coruña; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“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; Cádiz are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cádiz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Cádiz will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Gonzalo Petit 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 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Nobody at Cádiz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Real Sociedad B will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Cádiz were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cádiz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Urko Izeta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 8.70 — 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.
Something was said to Iuri Tabatadze and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cádiz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Marked 7.73. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Minute 91, against Valladolid, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cádiz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Position 3, 45 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Add another name to the list: Grenoble Foot 38 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Victor Aznar. The answer from Cádiz has not changed — yet.
Marked 8.18 — 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.
Antoñito Cordero 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
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Moussa Diakité
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cádiz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Sergio Ortuño delivers — 7.85
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sergio Ortuño scored, was marked 7.85, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Tomás Nieto after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Cádiz know it.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Huesca tried to reorganise, Cádiz did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.45 — 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.97, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Birmingham have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The name of Marc-Olivier Doué has come up in conversations Cádiz were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Brian Ocampo 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cádiz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Andorra left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Brian Ocampo 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Tomás Nieto to a room that had heard them before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Cádiz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Celta go through and Cádiz go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cádiz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and García Pascual decided nobody was going anywhere. Gijón had no time left to answer.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
A cup hiding at Celta leaves Cádiz explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
A 2‑1 win over Gijón, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Franco Cervi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Cádiz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Damián will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Cádiz escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
8 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Cervi 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.
Marked 8.37 — 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.
Position 3, 27 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Minute 92, against Las Palmas, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Las Palmas; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Tomás Nieto was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Cádiz dressing room was either.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Damián provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Javi Ontiveros was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. 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.
Nobody at Cádiz will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Málaga in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Cádiz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
David Gil has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
A side in position 6 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
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 7.97 for the rest of it.
3 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Moussa Diakité 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Franco Cervi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.45. 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.
Marked 8.42 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A 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 7.58 for the rest of it.
Roger Martí was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Javi Ontiveros’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Cádiz.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Javi Ontiveros was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.40. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Tomás Nieto on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cádiz can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Match24 Oct 2026
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Cádiz. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Cádiz 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Tomás Nieto, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
The dugout19 Oct 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.” Tomás Nieto chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Antoñito Cordero is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Deportivo La Coruña.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sergio Ortuño’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cádiz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Sergio Ortuño has written the date down.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Cádiz will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
4 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.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Granada spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Gonzalo Petit 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Cádiz has been clear about where Iker Recio stands, which is more than many ever get.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Franco Cervi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Roger Martí
Marked 7.26 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Marked 8.30 — 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.
Marc-Olivier Doué 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.
13 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.
Urko Izeta 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Tomás Nieto could afford to be generous.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Iza has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Cádiz that is a harder question to answer.
Shifted about, taken off before the hour, asked to do somebody else's running — Javi Ontiveros has had enough of being useful and would like to be picked. Cádiz know, and have known for weeks.
The deal that would have taken Jandro Orellana to Sabadell has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Cádiz with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Tomás Nieto could afford to be generous.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Cádiz will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Javi Ontiveros’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Cádiz needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“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 Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo La Coruña have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Cádiz had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Club America, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Wilfrido Báez has just signed for Cádiz, and for once the answer mattered.
The name of Jandro Orellana has come up in conversations Cádiz were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Cádiz will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Cádiz asked and Elche said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cádiz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cádiz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Cádiz offered $14.2M; Torino 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.
Cádiz asked and DAC Dunajska Streda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everything agreed with La Equidad, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Burgos had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
$10.3M on the table at Torino. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rayo Vallecano have kept their man, and Cádiz go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.0M — a club that wants Mario De Luis enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at La Equidad is saying, and nobody at Cádiz is enjoying the guessing.
Gonzalo Petit 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.
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Cádiz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.