The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Àlex Sosa 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.
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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Pejiño was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Eibar close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 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.
The deal with Coventry City 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Torino keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Juan Bernat 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.
Eibar ran out of time with Andorra. 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Elgezabal 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. Club Brugge have kept their man, and Eibar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Juan Pablo Rodríguez 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.
Javi Martínez 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Andorra were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
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: 17. 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 Eibar 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 Unai Elgezabal 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. Héctor Ferrer is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Pejiño was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
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.
Jon Bautista 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Eibar and Gijón, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Adu Ares 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. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Eibar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Jon Bautista 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 Álvaro Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
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 Jon Guruzeta is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sergio Álvarez’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Eibar needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javi Martínez 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.
Las Palmas left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Fernando Solís left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Eibar, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Eibar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Javi Martínez 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jorge León 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.
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.
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 Málaga; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.90 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unai Elgezabal 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.
Juan Pablo Rodríguez 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 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Eibar.
Squad7 Dec 2026
6 new faces, and Eibar 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Ceuta will replay every second of the added time for a week.
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.
Sergio Álvarez 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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Leganés will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A brace, and Jon Bautista takes the afternoon — 9.04
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jon Bautista provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pejiño 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eibar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Unai Elgezabal is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luis Ruiz has his answer from Eibar; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout16 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.” Fernando Solís, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 17 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Barcelona go through and Eibar go home, 0‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Jon Bautista 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. Diego Ruiz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pejiño 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.
Jon Bautista 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 Lander Olaetxea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Javi Martínez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Iván Gil will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Eibar escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Javi Martínez 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 Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Eibar deserved better, and so did he.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lander Olaetxea and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Valladolid had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Juan Pablo Rodríguez 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. Raúl Ramírez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lander Olaetxea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Adu Ares was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Fernando Solís could afford to be generous.
Sergio Álvarez 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.
500 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 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.
“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 Eibar, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Burgos the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Eibar will enjoy reviewing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eibar 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 Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A 2‑2 draw with Burgos leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Fernando Solís was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Eibar dressing room was either.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Jon Magunazelaia obliged against Andorra. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Eibar.
Two goals and a mark of 8.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Marked 8.38 — 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.
“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 terraces21 Sep 2026
Eibar's travelling support get something back at Huesca
They paid twice — for the ticket and for the journey — and got a 1-0 win for it. Away support is the truest kind precisely because nothing about it is convenient.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imanol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutJavi Martínez is still being punished for one mistake
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Jon Bautista
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Eibar will try again when the window opens; Leganés may not be selling by then.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cesena is saying, and nobody at Eibar is enjoying the guessing.
Sergio Álvarez 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. Unai Elgezabal 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.
Eibar asked and Juventus 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. Luka Ruiz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The deal with Leganés 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Trabzonspor keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eibar 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 Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Eibar have gone to Leganés 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.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
1 for Álvaro Rodríguez, marked 7.20, 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.
Eibar asked and San Diego Football Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Imanol 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.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
$7.7M on the table at Almería. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Eibar offered $3.9M; Gijón 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.
Marked 7.66. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Unai Elgezabal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Eibar asked and Columbus Crew said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marked 7.14 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.
$5.3M was the most the club would pay and Rayo Vallecano 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.
Jon Bautista 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.
Columbus Crew 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.
Deportivo La Coruña 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.
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.
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Andorra in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Mallorca have kept their man, and Eibar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer went to Rayo Vallecano 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 is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mario Gutiérrez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Iván Castillo 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. Biel Hidalgo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rubén Ortega 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 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.
Jon Bautista 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. Unai Elgezabal 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.
24 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Ellis Simms is in the works