The mood at Andorra has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Andorra will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Andorra people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The fee is $8.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Real Sociedad drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
$5.1M was the most the club would pay and Villarreal 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.
The fee is $3.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Albacete drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Andorra asked and Athletic Bilbao said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Javi López from Real Sociedad for $8.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Andorra offered $11.7M; Almería said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“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 The request is on a desk at Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Real Sociedad 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.
Sergio Molina 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.
Loan watch12 Jun 2028
Jesús Owono’s loan is measured in nothing happening
14 clean sheets from 36 appearances at Hércules. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Belezi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Andorra has been clear about where Aitor Uzkudun stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Andorra can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
$230.0K on the table at Teruel. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$220.0K on the table at Unionistas. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Andorra lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Andorra is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 May 2028
Álex Calvo 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.
Gabriel Furtado and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“There 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Michael Brentan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The mood at Andorra has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Andorra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Martín Vallejos 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.
200 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.
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.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout22 May 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Tomás Santana was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Andorra dressing room was either.
23 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Eldense were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Andorra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 21 and 21 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marash Kumbulla was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch15 May 2028
Jesús Owono’s loan is measured in nothing happening
14 clean sheets from 36 appearances at Hércules. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Andorra can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Andorra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Andorra interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Tomás Santana keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Andorra can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marash Kumbulla was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Andorra lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Mauri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Andorra the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marash Kumbulla 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 run now stands at 20, and the questions being asked around Andorra are no longer polite ones.
The terraces24 Apr 2028
The mood at Andorra has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 16 actions, 6.42, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Álvaro Núñez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
0‑1 to Albacete, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Marash Kumbulla'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.
72 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Andorra lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 22 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Calvo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
31 appearances at Hércules and the goals have stopped going in. Andorra lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thomas Carrique was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Enes Sali and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch10 Apr 2028
Jesús Owono’s loan is measured in nothing happening
11 clean sheets from 30 appearances at Hércules. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Marked 7.32. 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 dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Marcos Núñez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Andorra dressing room was either.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Andorra lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Mauri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Andorra the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Andorra can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Andorra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
11 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.
Loan watch27 Mar 2028
Jesús Owono’s loan is measured in nothing happening
10 clean sheets from 28 appearances at Hércules. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Andorra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.50 for the rest of it.
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thomas Carrique 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.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Andorra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 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 Andorra know it.
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Andorra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Andorra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marash Kumbulla 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 7.01, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Calvo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
13 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.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
27 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Andorra lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
24 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marash Kumbulla 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.
Enes Sali 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Sergio Molina
BoardroomNobody left the Andorra dressing room in a hurry
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Andorra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Andorra can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
10 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Pol Núñez has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
$13.4M on the table at Almería. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Andorra asked and Almería 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 bid was some way short and Andorra did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Andorra 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Andorra can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
In brief
Transfer targetsThe window shuts on the Carlos Abad deal
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Andorra have gone to Barcelona 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.
Everything agreed with Castellón, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The chase for Arnau Rafús ended with $790.0K changing hands and Sanluqueño out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Thomas Carrique 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 shaken hands with Almería; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Andorra can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Sanluqueño, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.80 beside his name.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Andorra and Valladolid, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Andorra have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Andorra asked and Castellón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ibiza paid $770.0K and Andorra took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martí Vilà is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Andorra has been clear about where Sergio Molina stands, which is more than many ever get.
Two goals and a mark of 8.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Andorra asked and Almería said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
7.35, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Andorra and Cultural Leonesa, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
In brief
SquadÁlex Calvo falls out with a teammate over standards
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
0‑3 to Burgos, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Thomas Carrique provided it, and the 8.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
6 goals in one match, Thomas Carrique on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Andorra and Eldense.
The name of Manuel López has come up in conversations Andorra were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
In brief
SquadÁlex Calvo falls out with a teammate over standards
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gael Alonso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Dec 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 Pol Núñez left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 dugout27 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Diego Alende'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
The dugoutArnau Ortiz knocks on the manager’s door
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 12 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.77 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Calvo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gael Alonso 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Álex Calvo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Córdoba were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. José Mauri scored, was marked 7.74, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Álex Calvo 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 watch every Andorra game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fehervar runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Pol Núñez on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutDiego Alende knocks on the manager's door
The mood at Andorra has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gael Alonso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Andorra told Martí Vilà something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pol Núñez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Andorra dressing room was either.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giovanni Bruzzaniti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Pol Núñez to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutMartí Vilà asks for a word with the manager
8 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Andorra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Up for the corner, and Lucas Belezi delivers — 7.93
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Lucas Belezi scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Álvaro Núñez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giovanni Bruzzaniti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martí Vilà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Andorra can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Enes Sali 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Andorra are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I watch every Andorra game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Fehervar runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Franco Aragón has his answer from Andorra; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Andorra know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Andorra has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces8 Nov 2027
Andorra are taken apart by Almería — 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
1‑5 to Málaga, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
0‑4 to Las Palmas, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Andorra and Málaga in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Álex Calvo 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Andorra will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martí Vilà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 combined actions and 7.24. 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.
Minute 88, against Cartagena, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
A 1‑1 draw with Cartagena leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pol Núñez was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Andorra dressing room was either.
Málaga next, and one man in the Andorra dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Calvo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diego Alende trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Cartagena in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not go to Fehervar to sit and watch. I want to come back to Andorra and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Álex Calvo 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Guilherme Sobrino has his answer from Andorra; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Enes Sali 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.
Tenerife left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martí Vilà is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Andorra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Thomas Carrique and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Álex Calvo 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.
“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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Lautaro De León was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.31. 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Álex Calvo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almería have kept their man, and Andorra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal that would have taken Jacob Morales to Mirandés has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Andorra with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Álex Padilla, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Álex Calvo 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.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Álex Calvo has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Andorra.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Álex Padilla 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Álex Padilla knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal that would have taken Théo Le Normand to Cacereño has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Andorra with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Betis have kept their man, and Andorra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
7.90, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Andorra had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Pablo Alza 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.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Andorra may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Andorra 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.
Andorra asked and Alcorcón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Andorra ran out of time with Sabadell. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lautaro De León, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Álex Calvo 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 Andorra can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
0‑3 to Mallorca, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
Andorra asked and Ibiza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Andorra have gone to Sabadell 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.
Thomas Carrique 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.
Cultural Leonesa paid $120.0K and Andorra took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Calvo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I 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 Andorra know it.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Andorra dressing room in a hurry
Andorra and Castellón have settled on $3.0M. 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.
Andorra asked and Almería said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A brace, and Marc Cardona takes the afternoon — 8.09
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marc Cardona provided it, and the 8.09 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Andorra people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Thomas Carrique 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.
$230.0K was the most the club would pay and Sabadell 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.
5 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.
Andorra have gone to Sabadell 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Calvo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Andorra will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Andorra, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Andorra. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Andorra has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Andorra have gone to Castellón 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Andorra can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vladyslav Kopotun has just signed for Andorra, and for once the answer mattered.
The chase for Vladyslav Kopotun ended with $600.0K changing hands and Alcorcón out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Andorra have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Ivan Bašić 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Pol Núñez has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The bid was some way short and Andorra did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Bašić 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.
10 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
$3.1M on the table at Castellón. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lautaro De León and Andorra agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Calvo 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Andorra will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Andorra, and both men came out saying it was fine.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Andorra lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Andorra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Andorra asked and Castellón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$370.0K was the most the club would pay and Albacete 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Georges has just signed for Andorra, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Álex Calvo 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.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Andorra lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Andorra have gone to Albacete 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.
Andorra offered $320.0K; Sabadell said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Add another name to the list: Cádiz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Gael Alonso. The answer from Andorra has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Bašić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
$320.0K on the table at Sabadell. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Thomas Carrique 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: Albacete have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nico Ratti. The answer from Andorra has not changed — yet.
“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 Andorra know it.
Andorra asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Bašić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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 words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletic Bilbao have kept their man, and Andorra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Belezi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Álvaro Núñez 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Andorra, 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Andorra know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Getafe have kept their man, and Andorra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Athletic Bilbao 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lautaro De León trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Andorra that is a harder question to answer.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Guilherme Sobrino may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Andorra can pretend not to have heard.
Andorra had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Celta, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Andorra 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Belezi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aingeru Olabarrieta did not need any: 8.40, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Everything agreed with Athletic Bilbao, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Athletic Bilbao keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.70, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Minsu Kim did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
The dugout31 May 2027
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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Pol Núñez to a room that had heard them before.
Beaten 4 times, with 3 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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 Julian Rijkhoff is on it.
A mark of 8.46 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Aingeru Olabarrieta 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.
Three points for Andorra, 2‑0 the final word against Huesca in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Belezi 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.
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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Minsu Kim did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Andorra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Héctor Fort and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beñat Prados was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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.
Diego Alende 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Beñat Prados 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 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.
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 Lucas Belezi.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Andorra, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Thomas Carrique 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.
“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; Andorra are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
11 combined actions and 6.75. 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Lucas Belezi 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pol Núñez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A season average of 7.07 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Andorra know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Beñat Prados 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.
Racing Santander left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout26 Apr 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 1‑2 Pol Núñez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Albacete in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Beñat Prados and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Belezi 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.
“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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Gijón defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
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. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Belezi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Andorra has been clear about where Jeremías Martinet stands, which is more than many ever get.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Zaragoza defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
In brief
The dugoutMarc Cardona asks for a word with the manager
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ivan Bašić scored in the 87th minute, Las Palmas had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Andorra took the lot.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Aingeru Olabarrieta did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fábio Cardoso 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 Apr 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Beñat Prados 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.
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Andorra will try very hard not to make too much of it.
“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 Andorra, and 8 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Beñat Prados 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marc Cardona’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Andorra needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Andorra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Belezi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Diego Alende.
7 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.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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 Pol Núñez to a room that had heard them before.
Thomas Carrique 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Beñat Prados 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Aingeru Olabarrieta has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Andorra told Héctor Fort something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Pol Núñez on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Thomas Carrique and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beñat Prados was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Andorra game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Valladolid runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pol Núñez was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Andorra dressing room was either.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.04, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“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 Andorra know it.
“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 dugout1 Mar 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 1‑2 Pol Núñez left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Andorra, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beñat Prados was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Andorra, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Fábio Cardoso and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Beñat Prados was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aingeru Olabarrieta. 1‑0 against Deportivo La Coruña, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to José Mauri, and the manager let it.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Pol Núñez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Fábio Cardoso 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.
“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 Andorra, and 2 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Calvo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Beñat Prados trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Andorra can pretend not to have heard.
7.86, 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Andorra close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Deportivo La Coruña moved on, Nico Ratti reports back to Andorra, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Héctor Fort 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.01, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Beñat Prados 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Andorra can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fábio Cardoso is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Pol Núñez to a room that had heard them before.
Thomas Carrique was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Andorra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It finished 2‑1, and it was Manu Nieto’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Andorra.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Lucas Belezi 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.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
Position 15, 25 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Pol Núñez on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Thomas Carrique 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fábio Cardoso is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Juan Sebastián has his answer from Andorra; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The offer from Athletic Bilbao for Pau López was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jastin provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Andorra have done the hard part with Athletic Bilbao, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zaragoza have kept their man, and Andorra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1 for Ivan Bašić, marked 7.85, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Cádiz were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“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; Andorra are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Belezi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 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.” Pol Núñez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fábio Cardoso 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.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Pol Núñez left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diego Alende trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
A mark of 8.01 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Fábio Cardoso was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Belezi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The goal that put Albacete ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Andorra equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
It needed Aingeru Olabarrieta to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Albacete, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Pol Núñez after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“I watch every Andorra game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Étoile Carouge runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
0‑2 to Racing Santander, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Belezi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Pau López is on it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
22 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fábio Cardoso 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.
“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.
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
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Fábio Cardoso
A mark of 8.12 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Thomas Carrique was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 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.
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.
Thomas Carrique and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Belezi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Belezi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Juan Sebastián’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Andorra needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nobody at Andorra 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.
1‑2 against Cádiz, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Julian Rijkhoff, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Fábio Cardoso 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.
A point taken on 88 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.
6 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.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Málaga had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Andorra did not stop to explain themselves.
“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; Andorra are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Manu Nieto. 3‑1 against Mirandés, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marc Cardona. 1‑0 against Málaga, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
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.
Fábio Cardoso 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.05, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Ceuta left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Gael Alonso 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 dugout26 Oct 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 Pol Núñez to a room that had heard them before.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
1‑5 to Leganés, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Andorra have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A mark of 8.03 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Thomas Carrique 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Andorra and Leganés in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Fábio Cardoso 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Aingeru Olabarrieta 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.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Andorra dressing room in a hurry
At 20 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fábio Cardoso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Andorra can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Andorra, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Belezi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑3 to Deportivo La Coruña, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Thomas Carrique 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Fábio Cardoso 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 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.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
Edgar 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Fábio Cardoso 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.
“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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pol Núñez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Andorra dressing room was either.
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.
Nobody at Andorra 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.
“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 Andorra, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Real Sociedad B left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Andorra training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Belezi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I 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 Andorra will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout14 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Pol Núñez to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Andorra close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Andorra this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Fábio Cardoso 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antequera have kept their man, and Andorra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Andorra are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad7 Sep 2026
15 new faces, and Andorra 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.
Thomas Carrique was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 6.83 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
Three points for Andorra, 2‑0 the final word against Valladolid in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Lucas Belezi 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Andorra are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Andorra offered $1.8M; Las Palmas said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletic Bilbao have kept their man, and Andorra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Thomas Carrique 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.
Minute 90, against Eibar, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Álex Calvo 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 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.
$1.8M on the table at Las Palmas. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Andorra 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.9M — a club that wants Iñaki González enough to be asked twice.
Jeremías Martinet is 20, and Andorra have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marc Cardona’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Andorra needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Andorra that is a harder question to answer.
A new face in his position, and Edgar suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Andorra have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
River Plate have accepted the money. What Andorra do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Thomas Carrique was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monza have kept their man, and Andorra go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lucas Rey 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ibai Cabrera 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 Vidal 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Markel Gallardo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pau López trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Andorra have gone to River Plate 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.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
8 new faces, and Andorra 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.