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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
20 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.
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.
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 a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Albacete kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Las Palmas will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Enrique Clemente 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.
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.
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Sandro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.58. 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Lorenzo Amatucci is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kirian wants continental football; whether Las Palmas can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Dinko Horkaš'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.
11 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 97th minute. Mirandés will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Juanma Herzog takes the afternoon — 8.75
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juanma Herzog provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Enrique Clemente was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 9.10 — 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ale García 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Ale García was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.32. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sandro. 3‑1 against Ceuta, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.89 — 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Álex Suárez, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Taisei Miyashiro'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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Adrián Suárez reports back to Las Palmas with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Marked 8.96. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Las Palmas.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Kirian had Las Palmas level again within 3 minutes, and Leganés never got to play with a lead at all.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
117% of the income goes out in wages at Las Palmas
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sergio Barcia is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Las Palmas, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Suárez 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Dinko Horkaš'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.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Las Palmas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Enrique Clemente 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Dinko Horkaš knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Las Palmas
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Diego Blanco 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. Juan Serrano 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. Marc Cortés 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
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at Las Palmas
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Hicham Mahou has just signed for Las Palmas, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Las Palmas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juankar 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Palermo will make the call about Jeremía Recoba this week. Las Palmas have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Iñaki González has his answer from Las Palmas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
127 appearances across 8 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“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.
Dinko Horkaš was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The phone has started ringing about Jeremía Recoba again, and this time the name on the line is Palermo. Las Palmas are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.