Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
José Giménez 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.
Deportivo La Coruña 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Marc Casadó 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.
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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Leo Román 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.
“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 Deportivo La Coruña hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad8 Feb 2027
José Giménez 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 easiest signature of my career.” Lorenzo Amatucci and Deportivo La Coruña agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Deportivo La Coruña asked and Valencia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Santiago Garro has just signed for Deportivo La Coruña, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Giménez 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.
Javi Rueda 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 was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of 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 Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Deportivo La Coruña asked and Celta 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 phone has started ringing about Teun Gijselhart again, and this time the name on the line is Córdoba. Deportivo La Coruña are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer from Haras El Hodoud for Mateo Raschia 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.
Leo Román was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Giménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Yeremay was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
Minute 90, 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Asp-Jensen and Deportivo La Coruña agree another 5 years.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Deportivo La Coruña, and 5 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
The offer from Willem II for Gonzalo Aquilino 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.
José Giménez 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 most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Adrià Altimira wants continental football; whether Deportivo La Coruña can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Deportivo La Coruña go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
12 combined actions and 7.17. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Half the programme played, position 4, 42 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arnau Comas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Deportivo La Coruña heard it as anything 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.
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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Angeliño has come out of that comparison in the side, and Deportivo La Coruña have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo La Coruña people have started saying his name in the past tense.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
José Giménez 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.
Position 3, 38 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.
José Giménez 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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Deportivo La Coruña and Leganés in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Marked 8.33 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnau Comas 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.
Castellón will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Deportivo La Coruña were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
5 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jonatan Goya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo La Coruña the goodbyes have quietly begun.
José Giménez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lorenzo Amatucci 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.
Marked 8.41 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Mario Soriano at his very best
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Adama Traoré 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.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Giménez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yeremay. 2‑0 against Albacete, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arnau Comas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
José Giménez 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kiko Olivas, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Arnau Comas falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutCarlos Franco dropped after a run of poor form
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo La Coruña they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Leo Román and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Giménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ximo Navarro has his answer from Deportivo La Coruña; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
3 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Deportivo La Coruña hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Giménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alejandro Herrera is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adama Traoré. 1‑0 against Cultural Leonesa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnau Comas 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Deportivo La Coruña, and 5 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yeremay 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Giménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Yeremay was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.36. 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 Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
16 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo La Coruña they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Arnau Comas 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.
Nobody at Deportivo La Coruña 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.
Leo Román and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Leo Román has improved at 26, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Carlos García 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.
Marked 7.04 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 said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arnau Comas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Giménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Diego Suárez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Leo Román 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yeremay 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.
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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Córdoba had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Arnau Comas 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.
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.
A 1‑0 win over Ceuta, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
David Mella, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Leo Román 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo La Coruña they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Teun Gijselhart 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 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” MC El Bayadh had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mario Soriano and Deportivo La Coruña agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Giménez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Adrià Altimira reports back to Deportivo La Coruña with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Deportivo La Coruña until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Add another name to the list: Las Palmas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dani Barcia. The answer from Deportivo La Coruña has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almería have kept their man, and Deportivo La Coruña go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 22 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.
Zaragoza will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Deportivo La Coruña were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Betis paid $4.9M and Deportivo La Coruña took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Deportivo La Coruña offered $2.8M; Godoy Cruz 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from Sevilla for Yeremay 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Leganés waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo La Coruña is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
$6.1M was the most the club would pay and Almería were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Deportivo La Coruña, and it is not being withdrawn.
Leo Román 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jonatan Goya will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportivo La Coruña the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levante have kept their man, and Deportivo La Coruña go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
José Giménez 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.
$20.9M was the most the club would pay and Barcelona 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.
Deportivo La Coruña have gone to Rayo Vallecano with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$2.1M on the table at Godoy Cruz. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jonatan Goya has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luismi Cruz and Deportivo La Coruña agree another 4 years.
$13.8M on the table at Barcelona. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The offer went to Almería 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.
$3.3M on the table at Rayo Vallecano. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Spartaks had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leo Román and Deportivo La Coruña agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Leo Román 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Biel Campos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yeremay 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 Mariano Barreda again, and this time the name on the line is Spartaks. Deportivo La Coruña are listening politely and promising nothing.