From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match4 Nov 2026
The small margins put Elche out
Out, 1‑2 to Villarreal, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match9 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Elche
Position 19 and 6 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad9 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Germán Valera 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A masterclass from Rafa Mir
Marked 8.42 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Álvaro Rodríguez at his very best
Marked 8.31. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Elche.
Squad9 Nov 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Matías Dituro knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Match7 Nov 2026
Elche share the spoils with Betis
A 1‑1 draw with Betis leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market2 Nov 2026
“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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
163% of the income goes out in wages at Elche
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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Elche come up short against Oviedo
Oviedo left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Víctor Chust. Elche will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Sergio Busquets
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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Shots: 7, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad2 Nov 2026
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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Rafa Mir leaves them behind him
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Player ratings
An afternoon Abiel Osorio will want back
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Germán Valera 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.93, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
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.
Match24 Oct 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Álvaro Rodríguez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Elche.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Abiel Osorio gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match17 Oct 2026
No end in sight to Elche's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Elche has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Elche
Sergio Busquets 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Matia Barzic is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Elche training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Valera 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Villarreal left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Marked 8.90 — 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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
Elche supporters have found a favourite in Martim Neto
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Martim Neto has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.51, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Álvaro Rodríguez is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match10 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for Elche
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Elche are no longer polite ones.
Match10 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Elche against Osasuna
1‑2 to Osasuna, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Marked 8.83 — 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Elche
Federico Redondo 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to John Chetauya, and the manager let it.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Rafa Mir keeps on missing
Shots: 11, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Víctor Chust finally opens his account
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Elche
Álvaro 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Elche training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Valera 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.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
278% of the income goes out in wages at Elche
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
One of those days for Rafa Mir
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.24, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Matías Dituro's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad5 Oct 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Matías Dituro knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
Chastening afternoon for Elche
A 1‑4 beating by Barcelona was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 27 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Alejandro Iturbe is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Germán Valera 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
Inquest at Elche
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Sep 2026
Cup progress for Elche
A 2‑1 win over Castellón, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match16 Sep 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Elche scored in the 98th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Elche
Álvaro 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 8.93 — 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.79 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match19 Sep 2026
Levante left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Víctor Chust, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Elche
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Elche are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Germán Valera 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abiel Osorio, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
The afternoon belonged to Víctor Chust
7.88, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Elche had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
Sergio Busquets wants to know where this is going
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Elche
Sergio Busquets 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Elche training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Valera 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Rayo Vallecano left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Wages eat 192% of everything Elche earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes of Martim Neto at his very best
Marked 8.90. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Elche.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Matías Dituro's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
In brief
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Player ratings
Rafa Mir could have had three
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Player ratings
Tete Morente could have had three
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Market
Experience through the door at Elche
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Aug 2026
There were 14 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.43 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 3‑4, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match29 Aug 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Elche and Real Madrid, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Álvaro Rodríguez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Pedro Bigas dropped after a run of poor form
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gonzalo Villar, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Elche training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Valera 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
1‑2 to Real Sociedad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Sergio Busquets
“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 Aug 2026
Elche supporters have found a favourite in Martim Neto
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Martim Neto has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Martim Neto was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.75. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
The one thing Rafa Mir could not do
Shots: 7, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Elche
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market17 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eduardo Vázquez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market17 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Juan Fernández 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
One of our own: Ismael Marín joins the Elche first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ismael Marín is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
No investment in the facilities at Elche
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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Everybody has an opinion about Timo Königsmann
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Elche has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Aug 2026
Elche say no — this time
The offer from Mirandés for Lucas Cepeda 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Álvaro Rodríguez commits to Elche for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Elche and Pedro Bigas are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Nobody at Elche has picked up the phone to Marc Aguado
48 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” David Affengruber and Elche agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Elche
Álvaro 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Elche training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Valera 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.