Mirandés 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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.34 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
Barcelona go through and Deportivo La Coruña go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Ceuta 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Facundo Castelli provided it, and the 9.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Victor Zapata has just signed for Deportivo La Coruña, and for once the answer mattered.
Marked 8.57 — 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Gaspar 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout21 Dec 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.” Cristian Jiménez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Castellón 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Facundo Castelli provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Mario Soriano falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
“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.
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 dugout7 Dec 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.” Cristian Jiménez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Leo Román signs something — a contract at Deportivo La Coruña or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.27 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Gaspar 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.
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Soriano 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Deportivo La Coruña will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Manuel Moreno commits to Deportivo La Coruña for another 3 years.
The dugout23 Nov 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.” Cristian Jiménez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutMario Gaspar dropped after a run of poor form
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.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Valladolid; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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.
“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 4 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to José Giménez
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
8 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 were 86 minutes on the clock and Eibar had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Deportivo La Coruña did not stop to explain themselves.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. David Mella did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo La Coruña lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Deportivo La Coruña scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Deportivo La Coruña have 6 straight wins of it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Mario Soriano takes the afternoon — 7.97
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mario Soriano provided it, and the 7.97 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo La Coruña have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mario Soriano. 2‑1 against Cultural Leonesa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
MatchAnother one collected away from home
SquadMario Soriano falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Adrià Altimira
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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 José Giménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
19 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Dani Barcia
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutMario Gaspar dropped after a run of poor form
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo La Coruña lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 56 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Almería spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Soriano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
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.
66 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo La Coruña lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
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.
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo La Coruña lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Ale Gomes 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 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.
20 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.
Successful dribbles: 39. 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.
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo La Coruña lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Two goals and a mark of 9.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yoel Lago provided it, and the 8.10 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 18 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 88 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Deportivo La Coruña had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Córdoba, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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 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.
Deportivo La Coruña asked and Unión de Santa Fe said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jon Rodríguez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Cristian Ruiz 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.
96 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo La Coruña lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 38. 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. 8.24 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportivo La Coruña have done the hard part with Córdoba, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Adama Traoré 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.
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.
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.
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo La Coruña lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Zaragoza paid $4.8M 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.
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 7.86 for the rest of it.
1 for Marc Casadó, marked 7.85, 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportivo La Coruña have done the hard part with Zaragoza, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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 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.
114 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo La Coruña lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang provided it, and the 9.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
$5.0M was the most the club would pay and Gimnasia La Plata 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.
Deportivo La Coruña asked and Wanderers 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 words a physio says slowly. 124 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
$1.0M on the table at Gimnasia La Plata. 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.
The offer from Siracusa for Mariano Barreda 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.
“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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Deportivo La Coruña asked and Grêmio said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo La Coruña lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gonzalo Diez 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jon Cortés is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Héctor Giménez 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.
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.
Deportivo La Coruña asked and La Equidad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
14 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Leo Román trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.