Two goals and a mark of 8.69 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
$1.1M settles it between the clubs for Lucas Beltrán
Deportivo La Coruña have accepted the money. What Las Palmas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Sebastián Cáceres 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 32 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.
1 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Las Palmas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Las Palmas 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.
Raúl García 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 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.
“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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Guille Rosas 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.
Add another name to the list: Ceuta have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mateo Aćimović. The answer from Las Palmas has not changed — yet.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Las Palmas heard it as anything else.
At 23 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.
Guille Rosas 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 Enrique Clemente was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Jorge Zules Caicedo arrives at 36 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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 Las Palmas 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 Las Palmas 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 Guille Rosas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Las Palmas would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Sebastián Cáceres 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guille Rosas 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Las Palmas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at Las Palmas will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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 Jonathan Viera has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Las Palmas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $12.1M has been paid because Raúl García is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
The offer from Willem II for Jefté Betancor 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Las Palmas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Raúl García 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.
Raúl García was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $12.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jesé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jesé is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Las Palmas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Las Palmas have no good answer.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Las Palmas have done the hard part with Osasuna, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Las Palmas can give him that is a question about the club, not about 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 Las Palmas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guille Rosas 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rubén González 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. Julen Solís 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. Enzo Gallardo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Las Palmas can pretend not to have heard.
At 23 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.
“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 Las Palmas hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Sebastián Cáceres was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Marvin Park has improved at 27, which nobody expected
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Noë Misumi has, at Las Palmas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
39 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Las Palmas now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Something was said to Manu Fuster and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Juanma Herzog is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Las Palmas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces28 Jun 2027
Las Palmas spend $9.5M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $9.5M for Sebastián Cáceres, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Sergio Barcia 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Saba Sazonov has improved at 25, which nobody expected
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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Manuel Castillo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutNicholas Opoku asks for a word with the manager
Las Palmas and Celta have settled on $9.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The chase for Guille Rosas ended with $12.9M changing hands and Gijón out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Manu Fuster was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime 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 terraces21 Jun 2027
Las Palmas spend $12.9M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $12.9M for Guille Rosas, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“I watch every Las Palmas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Sociedad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jesé is on it.
$12.9M settles it between the clubs for Guille Rosas
Gijón have accepted the money. What Las Palmas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Puebla for Adrián Suárez 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.
Manu Fuster 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 22 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime 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 never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
Position 13 on 56 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.29 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Las Palmas can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
10 goals in one match, Iker Bravo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Las Palmas and Granada.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Sergio Barcia 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.69 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 Las Palmas 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 Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Las Palmas pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
Manu Fuster 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime 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 Las Palmas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Sociedad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ismael Alonso was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Las Palmas dressing room was either.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Jesé is on it.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Iván Jaime will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Las Palmas escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Jefté Betancor 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 Sergio Barcia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Manu Fuster and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Iván Jaime falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Biel Lorenzo 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Iker Bravo is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Las Palmas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Las Palmas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Iker Bravo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Manu Fuster 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Barcia 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 Las Palmas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Sociedad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
Manu Fuster was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime 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.
Nobody at Las Palmas will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Las Palmas 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 Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alberto Méndez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Javier Fuentes 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.
13 goals and a season average of 7.28 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Sergio Barcia falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Iker Bravo 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.
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.
“I watch every Las Palmas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Valladolid runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A brace, and Iván Jaime takes the afternoon — 8.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iván Jaime provided it, and the 8.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Sergio Barcia 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 Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Andorra had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“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 Las Palmas, and 7 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ismael Alonso after the 3‑3 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Manu Fuster 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 Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nicholas Opoku has his answer from Las Palmas; 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 Las Palmas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Las Palmas and Gijón in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Las Palmas did not have in the autumn.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergio Barcia 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ismael Alonso on a 4‑3 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcos Muñoz 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.
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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ismael Alonso was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Las Palmas dressing room was either.
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.
In brief
The dugoutJesé has become a man the manager trusts
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Iván Jaime decided nobody was going anywhere. Albacete had no time left to answer.
Manu Fuster 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 Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Las Palmas can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Las Palmas told Enrique Clemente something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Manu Fuster 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Sergio Barcia 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Málaga had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Las Palmas 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 Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Manu Fuster. 2‑0 against Mirandés, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.15 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Iker Bravo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
“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 dugout15 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ismael Alonso, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Iker Bravo is on it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Iván Jaime’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Las Palmas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Jefté Betancor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos Castillo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Santiago Montes 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.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Ismael Alonso after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Grêmio keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Manu Fuster 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Sergio Barcia falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Las Palmas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I watch every Las Palmas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Sociedad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
Player ratingsManu Fuster beats them one at a time
A brace, and Gastón Verón takes the afternoon — 9.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gastón Verón provided it, and the 9.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Manu Fuster 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.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Las Palmas and Castellón in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Castellón have kept their man, and Las Palmas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The clubs have shaken hands with Andorra; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Las Palmas 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. César Galíndez has, at Las Palmas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Las Palmas have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at Las Palmas will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The chase for Luis López ended with $1.6M changing hands and Eibar out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$1.4M on the table at Andorra. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Half the programme played, position 13, 27 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Manu Fuster 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 phone has started ringing about Ale García again, and this time the name on the line is Zaragoza. Las Palmas are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime 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. Las Palmas told Sergio Ruiz something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
In brief
Player ratingsGastón Verón beats them one at a time
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.12, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Manu Fuster was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime 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 Las Palmas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Sociedad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad28 Dec 2026
6 new faces, and Las Palmas 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.
6 goals in one match, Gastón Verón on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Las Palmas and Eibar.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Viti Rozada, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑4 Ismael Alonso left the room before anybody could ask which.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Valentín Senatore and Las Palmas agree another 3 years.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Iker Bravo did not need any: 8.21, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Manu Fuster and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 21 he 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jorge Santiago 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.
Manu Fuster 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Iván Jaime falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ismael Alonso after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Saúl Del Cerro'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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Manu Fuster was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Las Palmas know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Iván Jaime falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Huesca scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“I watch every Las Palmas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Sociedad runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Las Palmas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Iván Jaime falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout23 Nov 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 Alonso, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.58 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
2‑3 to Cádiz, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Iván Jaime 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.
11 combined actions and 7.00. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Out, 1‑3 to Valencia, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Iker Bravo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.87
A mark of 7.87 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.
Manu Fuster 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Iván Jaime falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Santiago Torres 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. Tomás Castillo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Las Palmas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Jefté Betancor was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Las Palmas know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime 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 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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Las Palmas 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 Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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.
Manu Fuster and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime 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.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Iker Bravo is on it.
Manu Fuster 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 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luis Iglesias is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I did not go to Valladolid to sit and watch. I want to come back to Las Palmas and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout12 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.” Ismael Alonso kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Álex Suárez
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.
1‑4 to Albacete, 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.
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.
Manu Fuster 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 Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Las Palmas 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Sergio Ruiz'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.
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 1‑4 Ismael Alonso left the room before anybody could ask which.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Nicholas Opoku has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Two goals and a mark of 9.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Iker Bravo did not need any: 8.27, and he looked the most comfortable man 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 Las Palmas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Las Palmas and Málaga, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Iván Jaime falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Iker Bravo 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.
A 2‑0 win over Mirandés, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Iker Bravo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.22
A mark of 8.22 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.
16 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.
Las Palmas ran out of time with Castellón. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Adrián Suárez is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Jaime 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 Las Palmas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Viti Rozada
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 offer went to Castellón 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Las Palmas 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Jaime 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.
Sergio Barcia 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.
Las Palmas asked and Club America 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 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.
Castellón will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Las Palmas were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Argentinos Juniors did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.2M for Gastón Verón, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Guadalajara paid $4.0M and Las Palmas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all 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 Las Palmas 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. Deportivo Riestra have kept their man, and Las Palmas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Iker Bravo 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Las Palmas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Las Palmas asked and Rosario Central said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Iván Jaime falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ismael Alonso after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Las Palmas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The offer went to Argentinos Juniors 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Enrique Clemente 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 easiest signature of my career.” Saba Sazonov and Las Palmas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Iván Jaime 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Las Palmas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Betis have kept their man, and Las Palmas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Las Palmas had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Mouscron, 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 Las Palmas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Roberto Solís 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. Julen 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vicente Vázquez 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. Diego Domínguez 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 Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Jaime was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Still no offer on the table, and Jefté Betancor’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Las Palmas 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.