The words a physio says slowly. 99 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: RC Lens keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces2 Aug 2027
Gimnàstic spend $8.0M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $8.0M for Grady Diangana, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“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 The request is on a desk at Gimnàstic, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Penarol keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Gimnàstic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julio González 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gimnàstic, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Villarreal have kept their man, and Gimnàstic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Iván Morales 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.
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 Miguel Morro has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mángel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnàstic lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Gimnàstic asked and Eibar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Iván Morales 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gimnàstic will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Gimnàstic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cristian Ibáñez 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aitor Gelardo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 José Barrios has written the date down.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnàstic 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Gimnàstic will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Marc Montalvo has his answer from Gimnàstic; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
In brief
The dugoutSergio Santos asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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 offer went to Eibar 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.
Jordi Alba 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. Girona have kept their man, and Gimnàstic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnàstic lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Gimnàstic, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gimnàstic asked and Osasuna said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$3.6M was the most the club would pay and Mérida 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $250.3K — a club that wants Iván Del Olmo enough to be asked twice.
The deal with Andorra 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.
$230.0K on the table at Ibiza. 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 words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gimnàstic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Jaume Jardí was one of the reasons people came, and $9.3M does not replace that by itself.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.0M — a club that wants Sigurður Bjartur Hallsson enough to be asked twice.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Jaume Jardí 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 Miguel Morro has written the date down.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gimnàstic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Iván Morales 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 Jaume Jardí was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gimnàstic know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 José Barrios has written the date down.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jaume Jardí’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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 10 on 49 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.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Iván Morales 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.
“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 dugout17 May 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 Tomás Garrido left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutJaume Jardí knocks on the manager’s door
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gimnàstic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jordi Alba 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 2‑1 win over Juventud Torremolinos, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaume Jardí was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Gimnàstic pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Tomás Garrido could afford to be generous.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gimnàstic, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
Sergio Busquets 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Gimnàstic can tell you which week it ends in.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fedor Lapoukhov, and the manager let it.
Squad3 May 2027
Jaume Jardí 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 dugout3 May 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 Tomás Garrido 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 Gimnàstic, and both men came out saying it was fine.
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnàstic lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Nobody 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Mateo Ortale 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 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 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.
Iván Morales 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 Jaume Jardí was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Gimnàstic are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gimnàstic lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 1‑1 draw with Marbella leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Tomás Garrido chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Sergio Santos
Player ratingsAitor Gelardo beats them one at a time
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Jaume Jardí will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Gimnàstic escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.67 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fedor Lapoukhov, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Gimnàstic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julio González 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gimnàstic told Iván Morales something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
5 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.
Iván Morales 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hércules in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Pipe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic 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 Julio González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Tomás Garrido chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Gimnàstic 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.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Gimnàstic that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Sergio Busquets 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.
Iván Morales scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Villarreal B, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Gimnàstic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julio González 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.
Something was said to Fedor Lapoukhov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout15 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 Tomás Garrido left the room before anybody could ask which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Real Murcia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Félix Villacorta will call it something else in private.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Antequera? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Iván Morales and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 9.48 — 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 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Tomás Garrido on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Iván Morales 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 Julio González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Gimnàstic are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Squad22 Feb 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Gimnàstic man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Jaume Jardí was the best thing in any of them.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Julio González
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gimnàstic has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A brace, and Jaume Jardí takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jaume Jardí provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic 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. Cristian Ibáñez has, at Gimnàstic, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“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 Gimnàstic will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Marc Álvarez 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 dugoutJaume Jardí asks for a word with the manager
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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 Gimnàstic hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Sergio Busquets was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Gimnàstic asked and Central Córdoba SdE 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 oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Jordi Alba
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The offer from Real Murcia for Marc Montalvo 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Gimnàstic heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic 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. Tobías Ganduglia has, at Gimnàstic, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Villarreal will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Iker Punzano has pre-agreed a move to Gimnàstic, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Gimnàstic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Estudiantes is saying, and nobody at Gimnàstic is enjoying the guessing.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Gimnàstic asked and Portsmouth 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 phone has started ringing about Marc Montalvo again, and this time the name on the line is Andorra. Gimnàstic are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at River Plate is saying, and nobody at Gimnàstic is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Gimnàstic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Dani Rebollo has come up in conversations Gimnàstic were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julio González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 3, 31 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Alianza Lima 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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Tomás Nasif is in the works
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnàstic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Salernitana have kept their man, and Gimnàstic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Gimnàstic training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julio González 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.
Gimnàstic have made the call to Estudiantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Ferro Carril Oeste: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gimnàstic will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
A brace, and Jaume Jardí takes the afternoon — 8.65
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jaume Jardí provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnàstic can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Gimnàstic will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia La Plata have kept their man, and Gimnàstic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aitor Gelardo 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
8.20. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnàstic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 3, 25 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Aitor Gelardo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
5 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Tomás Garrido could afford to be generous.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gimnàstic will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Gimnàstic will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Sergio Busquets 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 Julio González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout21 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.” Tomás Garrido kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnàstic will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Sergio Busquets had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Marbella were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Tobías Andrada 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 Julio González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Gimnàstic told Álex Jiménez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Pedro Alcalá’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gimnàstic needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Tobías Andrada, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.83
A mark of 7.83 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Tobías Andrada 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.
Sergio Camus 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Tomás Garrido could afford to be generous.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hércules 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 Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Gimnàstic dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad23 Nov 2026
8 new faces, and Gimnàstic 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tomás Garrido after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Óscar Sanz 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Pedro Alcalá’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gimnàstic needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
“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 Gimnàstic, and 2 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Miguel Morro’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gimnàstic needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Gimnàstic. 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 Xiscu Martínez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
They sit in position 4 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jordi Alba’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know 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 Gimnàstic heard it as anything else.
Aitor Gelardo 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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Gimnàstic dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gimnàstic, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Gimnàstic heard it as anything else.
“143 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 38 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Gimnàstic.
He is 20 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: Julio González. 1‑0 against Teruel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Tobías Andrada is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Tobías Andrada 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.
Ibiza left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Gimnàstic are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout26 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 0‑1 Tomás Garrido left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Óscar Sanz 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marcos Baselga’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gimnàstic needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Two goals and a mark of 8.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Tobías Andrada and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 25 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.
“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 Gimnàstic, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Tomás Garrido kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joaquín Camejo has just signed for Gimnàstic, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Everybody at Gimnàstic saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Joaquín Camejo 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.
Jordi Alba is 37 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Xiscu Martínez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Tomás Garrido kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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.
Nobody at Gimnàstic 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tarazona in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
At 19 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sergio Camus. 2‑0 against Betis Deportivo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
9 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 Gimnàstic, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Tomás Garrido could afford to be generous.
“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 Gimnàstic, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Lorenzo have kept their man, and Gimnàstic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
18 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gimnàstic will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gimnàstic, another week without a signature from José Barrios.
Gimnàstic ran out of time with Osasuna. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Gimnàstic asked and Junior said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gimnàstic will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Julio González is 19, and Gimnàstic 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gimnàstic, another week without a signature from Julio González.
Gimnàstic have gone to Osasuna with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.7M — a club that wants Íñigo Arguibide enough to be asked twice.
Independiente Rivadavia 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.
Mérida have accepted the money. What Gimnàstic do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Gimnàstic, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gimnàstic had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Junior, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Gimnàstic asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gimnàstic will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
5 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.
Gimnàstic offered $1.4M; Rayo Vallecano 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Luiz Felipe enough to be asked twice.
Everything agreed with another club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Gimnàstic asked and Deportivo La Coruña said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Xiscu Martínez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
In brief
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at Gimnàstic
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Alcorcón waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Gimnàstic is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Miguel Morro is living that version at Gimnàstic, and it tends to show in the first month.
Gimnàstic offered $1.4M; Deportivo La Coruña 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gimnàstic have done the hard part with Toulouse FC, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnàstic this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Héctor García is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Enrique Ruiz has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Roberto Méndez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Defensores have kept their man, and Gimnàstic go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aitor Gelardo 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 name of Enric Pujol has come up in conversations Gimnàstic were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Gimnàstic have made the call to Antequera. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.