Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A brace, and Jorge Pascual takes the afternoon — 8.84
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jorge Pascual provided it, and the 8.84 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 Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benedikt Gimber 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Izei Castillo 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 95 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Granada will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The match ball belongs to Jorge Pascual, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Granada close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
David Alaba 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. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Granada go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Granada will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 2, 48 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Granada have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Sebastián Driussi 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Granada will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.73 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benedikt Gimber 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Granada asked and Girona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Granada will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Everything agreed with Real Madrid, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
José Arnáiz 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. KAA Gent have kept their man, and Granada go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mario Garrido 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. José Cortés 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.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Granada will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Granada had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Everything agreed with Deportivo La Coruña, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Sergio Rodelas has his answer from Granada; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benedikt Gimber is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorge Pascual 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Álex Domínguez, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Ivor Pandur
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.
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.” Ismael Peña kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
0‑3 to Leganés, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Izei Ortega 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álex Domínguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Sebastián Driussi 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Ivor Pandur 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.
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benedikt Gimber 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Deportivo La Coruña scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Granada are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Néstor Albiach
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.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
José Arnáiz 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Kader Bamba 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.
Deportivo La Coruña next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Albacete scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
José Arnáiz 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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Granada and Real Sociedad B in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Raúl Lizoáin: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sebastián Driussi. 2‑1 against Valladolid, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ibai García is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baïla Diallo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sebastián Driussi 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 Kader Bamba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Granada have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Granada will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Granada know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutAlan Pérez asks for a word with the manager
Successful dribbles: 37. 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benedikt Gimber was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 3‑1 win over Cultural Leonesa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Jorge Pascual had Granada level again within 2 minutes, and Cultural Leonesa never got to play with a lead at all.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ivor Pandur
A brace, and Jorge Pascual takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jorge Pascual provided it, and the 8.86 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 Granada this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 23 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Jorge Pascual’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Granada.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Baïla Diallo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kader Bamba, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
14 new faces, and Granada 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.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Sergio Rodelas, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Ivor Pandur 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Tomás Ramírez 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leo Rodríguez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Kader Bamba 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.
1‑4 to Almería, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada 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.
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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Granada can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
José Arnáiz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego Hormigo, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ismael Peña, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Granada scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
José Arnáiz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jorge Pascual 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jorge Pascual. 1‑0 against Córdoba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kader Bamba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alejandro Marqués provided it, and the 9.04 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Sebastián Driussi 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.
Marked 8.92 — 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.
14 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Granada 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.
Sebastián Driussi 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 Benedikt Gimber was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 95, against Racing Santander, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Granada lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Granada found something the first half had given no notice of, and Gijón could not hold what they had.
Granada had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lokomotiv Moscow, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Diego Pampín 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jorge Pascual. 3‑2 against Gijón, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 9.47 — 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.
In brief
SquadKader Bamba falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Granada asked and Charlotte Football Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Granada had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cesena, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Sebastián Driussi from River Plate for $7.8M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Granada training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Pampín 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.
He is 23 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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Granada lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Granada have gone to River Plate with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Granada offered $760.0K; Real Madrid 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Pampín 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 Granada are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Granada lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Agustín Allione is living that version at Granada, and it tends to show in the first month.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Granada have done the hard part with Hull City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
José Arnáiz was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Biel Morales 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. Andrés Martín has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Antonio Camacho has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The offer from Fehervar for José Arnáiz 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.
Granada asked and Las Palmas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Granada 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 Diego Pampín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Granada, another week without a signature from Diego Pampín.
Granada have made the call to La Equidad. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.