Getafe interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Jesús Suárez keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Galhardo 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 watch every Getafe game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mallorca runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Borja Mayoral is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Borja Mayoral is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Getafe told Thiago Galhardo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” OH Leuven had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe 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 Coba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
403 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Johan Mojica 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 phone has started ringing about Jorge Sanguina again, and this time the name on the line is OH Leuven. Getafe are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Galhardo 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 watch every Getafe game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rayo Vallecano runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Christantus Uche signs something — a contract at Getafe or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Getafe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Getafe can pretend not to have heard.
Johan Mojica and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Getafe can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiago Galhardo 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 Abdelkabir Abqar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Heracles waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Getafe is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Getafe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
“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 Getafe, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Fernández is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Getafe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Getafe hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The name of Jorge Sanguina has come up in conversations Getafe were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
11 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mateo Montes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Hugo Núñez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
In brief
SquadWords at Getafe training over how hard people work
The dugoutMiguel Baeza asks for a word with the manager
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Getafe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Héctor Martínez recited it perfectly.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Getafe can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Getafe hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Johan Mojica was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gonçalo Silva is living that version at Getafe, and it tends to show in the first month.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Getafe can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Johan Mojica 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés García 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Getafe. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jeremías James trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Position 20 and 14 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Getafe have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Celta had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Córdoba have kept their man, and Getafe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Getafe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jorge Sanguina wants continental football; whether Getafe can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
SquadWords at Getafe training over how hard people work
The dugoutRamón Terrats is still being punished for one mistake
Squad5 new faces, and Getafe are still learning each other
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.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Getafe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Getafe 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 Getafe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Julián Encinas is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Getafe hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The phone has started ringing about Jiří Letáček again, and this time the name on the line is Leganés. Getafe are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nemanja Gudelj 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jiří Letáček
The dugoutDjéné Dakonam knocks on the manager's door
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Àlex Camacho has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Getafe heard it as anything else.
Johan Mojica was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 19 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 Nemanja Gudelj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sebastián Boselli wants continental football; whether Getafe can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
The dugoutBorja Mayoral without the man who signed him
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Getafe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Nicolás Thaller has, at Getafe, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Johan Mojica and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nemanja Gudelj trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
52 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Getafe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Thiago Galhardo arrives at 38 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
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.
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Getafe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Djéné Dakonam, and the manager let it.
Squad17 May 2027
Andrés García 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 conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and David Soria has written the date down.
70 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Getafe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 20 on 14 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
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.
Johan Mojica was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Luka Sánchez 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.
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Romero 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Getafe, and 12 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Getafe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Johan Mojica 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.
Valencia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Romero 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Àlex Camacho after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Getafe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nemanja Gudelj is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 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.
94 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Getafe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
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.
Day 42 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.
Johan Mojica 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 Nemanja Gudelj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The goal that put Elche ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Getafe equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
0‑5 to Athletic Bilbao, 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.
Johan Mojica was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 117 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe 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 Zaid Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 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 2‑3 Santiago Ruiz left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Getafe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.07 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
12 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Mallorca were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
“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 Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Borja Mayoral. 2‑1 against Mallorca, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zaid Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
134 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Getafe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
Johan Mojica 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.
14 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nemanja Gudelj 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 end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Lucas Espinosa clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
11 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 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.
Johan Mojica 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Getafe heard it as anything else.
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.
Position 20 and 10 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.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
A brace, and Borja Mayoral takes the afternoon — 9.02
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Borja Mayoral provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Getafe hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Facundo Basualdo has, at Getafe, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nemanja Gudelj is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; David Soria will call it something else in private.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Getafe can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Getafe can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Getafe and Villarreal in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
1 for Ramón Terrats, marked 7.77, 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.
Johan Mojica and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boca Juniors have kept their man, and Getafe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sebastián Boselli wants continental football; whether Getafe can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Zaid Romero 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 has had enough of the noise. Whether Getafe can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Abdelkabir Abqar's mistake
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Rubén Rochina
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Lucas Espinosa has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Enes Ünal will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Getafe escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
7.12, 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.
Johan Mojica 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 9.43 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Getafe have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Las Palmas had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Getafe can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Getafe go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 Getafe, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Leganés for Zaid Romero 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.
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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Getafe can tell you which week it ends in.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Getafe have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Johan Mojica 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Getafe can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Tucumán have kept their man, and Getafe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Getafe will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Zaid Romero 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutDjéné Dakonam knocks on the manager's door
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Getafe people have started saying his name in the past tense.
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.
Johan Mojica 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Getafe can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lucas Espinosa after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 17 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastiano Nava is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match2 Jan 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Getafe and Real Madrid in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 against Real Sociedad, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Position 20, 8 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ramón Terrats wants continental football; whether Getafe can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Johan Mojica 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 18 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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Valencia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Enes Ünal. 1‑0 against Valencia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Getafe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Johan Mojica 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Getafe heard it as anything else.
3 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Martín Lozano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Héctor Ríos 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.
0‑5 against Atlético Madrid, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Getafe will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Getafe can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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 Getafe will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Julián Encinas has just signed for Getafe, and for once the answer mattered.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Johan Mojica 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 Zaid Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ramón Terrats signs something — a contract at Getafe or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Getafe will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
David Soria 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.
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Romero is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Getafe told Rubén Rochina something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 20 and 5 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Getafe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Rayo Vallecano the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Getafe will enjoy reviewing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
11 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Marcos Ferreira 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 Zaid Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Getafe will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 10 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Johan Mojica and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
A goal on 91 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zaid Romero 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 77 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
David Soria 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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Getafe and Sevilla in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
1‑5 against Villarreal, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastiano Nava is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Getafe and Villarreal in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Getafe can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Martín Satriano wants continental football; whether Getafe can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nemanja Gudelj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Lucas Espinosa left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
David Soria and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Getafe can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
18 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lucas Espinosa after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
10 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
0‑5 to Barcelona, 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.
David Soria 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juanmi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Lucas Espinosa after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 7.42 for the rest of it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Getafe heard it as anything else.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcos Lorenzo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ibai Santiago is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
A point taken on 90 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.
Marcos Ferreira 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.
Cádiz wanted more than $3.8M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 25 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Getafe 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.
Dean Huijsen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Getafe heard it as anything else.
Getafe asked and Defensor Sporting 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 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.
The offer went to Cádiz 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.
David Soria 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.
Marcos Ferreira is 20, and Getafe 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.
A season-long audition: Real Madrid still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Getafe's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juanmi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ramón Terrats'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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
16 new faces, and Getafe 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.
0‑5 to Real Madrid, 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.
Miramar Misiones have accepted the money. What Getafe do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deal with Real Madrid is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Johan Mojica 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.
Getafe asked and Málaga 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Getafe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juanmi 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 dugout24 Aug 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 0‑5 Lucas Espinosa left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Orel Mangala
$34.7M was the most the club would pay and Girona 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 offer from Sevilla for Djéné Dakonam 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.
Getafe had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Real Madrid, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Getafe 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. Athletic Bilbao have kept their man, and Getafe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Real Madrid in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Getafe, another week without a signature from Miguel Baeza.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Getafe would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletic Bilbao have kept their man, and Getafe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Miguel Baeza is living that version at Getafe, and it tends to show in the first month.
The phone has started ringing about Djéné Dakonam again, and this time the name on the line is Sevilla. Getafe are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Elche is saying, and nobody at Getafe is enjoying the guessing.
David Soria and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Raúl Sánchez 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Ríos 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergio García 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.
In brief
SquadJuanmi falls out with a teammate over standards
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cortulua have kept their man, and Getafe go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Getafe can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Getafe, another week without a signature from David Soria.
12 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.