“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 The request is on a desk at Elche, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Fer Niño provided it, and the 8.67 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Dominik Livaković 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Elche and Cultural Leonesa, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Germán Valera was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.56. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Elche can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Elche have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Elche they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche 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. Federico Redondo wants continental football; whether Elche can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I watch every Elche game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Burgos runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Elche told Santiago Longo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Elche can pretend not to have heard.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Santiago Longo wants continental football; whether Elche 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 Elche know it.
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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Germán Valera signs something — a contract at Elche or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Leganés in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Ali Houary 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Elche can pretend not to have heard.
“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 Elche hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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.
Something was said to Marc Aguado and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gonzalo Villar will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Elche the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Elche asked and Real Madrid 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 deal that would have taken Ionuţ Radu to Osasuna has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Elche with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nicolás Goldstein has, at Elche, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Elche will try again when the window opens; Real Murcia may not be selling by then.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Elche go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Elche can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Málaga for Fer Niño 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Elche have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Real Murcia have accepted the money. What Elche do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Elche will try again when the window opens; Celta may not be selling by then.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 13 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The name of John Chetauya has come up in conversations Elche were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Fer Niño 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.
Elche asked and Atlético Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadJohn Chetauya falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Algeciras waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Elche is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Elche will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Elche have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Kevin Lomónaco, marked 7.83, 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.
Elche asked and Real Murcia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 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 Elche, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Kevin Lomónaco 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
Munir signs for Elche to fix the gap everybody could see
There is a particular relief in a club addressing the thing its own crowd has been shouting about. Munir arrives for exactly that job, and now he has to do 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.
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dock Sud have kept their man, and Elche go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Real Avilés waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Elche is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with Albacete; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Progreso have kept their man, and Elche go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. John Chetauya 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.
Virtus Entella 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.
$7.1M was the most the club would pay and Porto 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.
Elche asked and Albacete said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Elche can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Dominik Livaković 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
John Chetauya 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Elche can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The offer went to Porto 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.
11 seasons and 520 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Marc Aguado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Germán Valera, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Marc Aguado falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Elche can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Elche will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche 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. Martim Neto wants continental football; whether Elche 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. Sevilla have kept their man, and Elche go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad19 Jul 2027
John Chetauya 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Elche, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Grady Diangana is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Kevin Lomónaco signs something — a contract at Elche or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Marc Aguado has written the date down.
“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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Iván Ríos 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. Jon Diez 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Marc Aguado 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 arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arenteiro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Elche is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
The terraces5 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $14.9M sale of Abiel Osorio
He is going to Getafe, the club has $14.9M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Kevin Lomónaco 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Elche people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kevin Lomónaco wants continental football; whether Elche can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
At 21 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.
Elche 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.
Matías Scigliano 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Elche 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.
In brief
The dugoutPedro Bigas knocks on the manager's door
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Ionuţ Radu 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Elche can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Elche asked and Real Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Gijón have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Josan Ferrández. The answer from Elche has not changed — yet.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Elche lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Ionuţ Radu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Elche and Ceuta have settled on $3.4M. 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.
“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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Cepeda wants continental football; whether Elche can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Elche asked and Juventud Torremolinos 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. 45 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.
Kevin Lomónaco 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.
19 games, 5 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Elche now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad31 May 2027
5 new faces, and Elche 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.
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 Tete Morente is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Federico Redondo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
0 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Elche will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 29 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 terraces24 May 2027
Elche supporters have found a favourite in Fabinho
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Fabinho 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Elche will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.76 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7 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.
Ferland Mendy 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.
A point taken on 89 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Elche 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 Elche this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Elche can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jorge Reyes after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Marc Aguado
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Matías Dituro's mistake
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Elche will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Elche can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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 Elche, and 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Elche will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Getafe the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Elche will enjoy reviewing.
1 for Santiago Mouriño, marked 7.78, 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.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Elche can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Elche will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
A brace, and Thomas Lemar takes the afternoon — 8.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thomas Lemar provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Cepeda wants continental football; whether Elche can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Sebastián Gularte 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.
A 2‑2 draw with Celta leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jorge Reyes was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Elche dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Elche, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.
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.
“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; Elche are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
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 Rubén Sánchez.
In brief
The dugoutMatías Dituro is still being punished for one mistake
Santiago Mouriño 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Elche heard it as anything else.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Betis scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Facundo Buonanotte is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ferland Mendy 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 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.
“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 Elche, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Elche 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.
Ferland Mendy and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Elche pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Germán Valera
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.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Elche can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Elche, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Elche heard it as anything else.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Elche pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Position 19 and 18 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Elche can pretend not to have heard.
7.64, 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.
“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.
Ionuţ Radu 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Elche can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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; Elche are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kevin Lomónaco wants continental football; whether Elche can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not 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.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matías Dituro, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Feb 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 Jorge Reyes left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
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.
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. Ionuţ Radu knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“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.
In brief
Player ratingsLucas Cepeda beats them one at a time
13 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Espanyol were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Elche scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche 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: Fer Niño. 1‑0 against Espanyol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Jorge Reyes could afford to be generous.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Elche, 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.
0‑3 against Rayo Vallecano, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Elche can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Elche heard it as anything else.
Ferland Mendy 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Elche can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
12 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Elche have lost him in all but the paperwork.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Elche can tell you which week it ends in.
The deal with Villarreal 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.
Elche asked and Girona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Real Avilés waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Elche is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Real Madrid keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Elche can tell you which week it ends in.
10 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Elche have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Elche have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Athletic Bilbao 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: Villarreal keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Elche can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almería have kept their man, and Elche go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Portimonense for Tiziano Perrotta 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“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 phone has started ringing about Tete Morente again, and this time the name on the line is Hércules. Elche are listening politely and promising nothing.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Facundo Buonanotte is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ezequiel Ponce wants continental football; whether Elche can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Atlético Madrid left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
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 Jorge Reyes to a room that had heard them before.
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.
7 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 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 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.
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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jorge Reyes was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Elche dressing room was either.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.98, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“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.
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. Elche know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The terraces7 Dec 2026
Elche are taken apart by Sevilla — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
“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 Elche hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
16 combined actions and 6.97. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Betis kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Elche will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ionuţ Radu 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 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.
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.
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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jorge Reyes was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Elche dressing room was either.
Kevin Lomónaco 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Elche can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ionuţ Radu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Elche 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.
“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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Oviedo defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Tete Morente’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Elche needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Elche have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Elche, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Germán Valera was the best thing in any of them.
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 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 Elche will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Next up on the road: Oviedo, position 8. The supporters who go will talk about it all week and the ones who do not will check their phones at ten to five.
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Federico Redondo scored, was marked 7.43, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Abiel Osorio on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Elche and Alcorcón.
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.
1‑5 against Villarreal, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Elche heard it as anything else.
6 goals in one match, Fer Niño on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Elche and Villarreal.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Ionuţ Radu is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout2 Nov 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 1‑5 defeat, delivered by Jorge Reyes to a room that had heard them before.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Elche can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
13 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.
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 dugout26 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.” Jorge Reyes kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
In brief
The dugoutRoy Revivo asks for a word with the manager
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kevin Lomónaco wants continental football; whether Elche can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Kevin Lomónaco 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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jorge Reyes after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Ezequiel Ponce
Ionuţ Radu 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.
Something was said to Ferland Mendy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Elche know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Alavés next, and one man in the Elche dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Facundo Buonanotte is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Elche heard it as anything else.
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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ezequiel Ponce has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Kevin Lomónaco 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. Lucas Cepeda wants continental football; whether Elche can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.
The dugout28 Sep 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Jorge Reyes to a room that had heard them before.
Kevin Lomónaco 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jorge Reyes after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Elche 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.
Roy Revivo 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.
Successful dribbles: 7. 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.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Elche squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
In brief
Player ratingsPedro Bigas spends the afternoon fouling
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Grady Diangana reports back to Elche with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Marked 7.57. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Matías Dituro
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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout14 Sep 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.” Jorge Reyes kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Elche have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Cepeda trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The bid was some way short and Elche did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Elche 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.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at San Martín is saying, and nobody at Elche is enjoying the guessing.
Ferland Mendy 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Rubén Sánchez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
0‑4 against Real Madrid, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kevin Lomónaco wants continental football; whether Elche can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad31 Aug 2026
13 new faces, and Elche 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ezequiel Ponce wants continental football; whether Elche can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Elche had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Villarreal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Kevin Lomónaco 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Elche and Real Sociedad in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matías Scigliano has just signed for Elche, and for once the answer mattered.
Elche asked and Deportivo La Coruña 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 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $9.8M — a club that wants Ionuţ Radu enough to be asked twice.
The deal with Villarreal 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Elche this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Elche have gone to Celta 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.
The offer from Mallorca for Yago Santiago 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.
Kevin Lomónaco 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.
Add another name to the list: Gijón have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Buba Sangaré. The answer from Elche has not changed — yet.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tomás Herrera 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. Enrique Caballero 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 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Elche, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Elche heard it as anything else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rosario Central have kept their man, and Elche go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
9 new faces, and Elche 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.