“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.
Jeremy Toljan 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 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” David Montes on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
9 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aníbal Chalá 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.
Francisco Funes 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.
“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 dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” David Montes was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Levante dressing room was either.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Sevilla? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Gerard Martín and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Aníbal Chalá 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Levante, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 Levante hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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; Levante are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Villarreal next, and one man in the Levante dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Levante have no good answer.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Levante heard it as anything else.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aníbal Chalá 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 Levante this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Levante can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Atlético Madrid left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aníbal Chalá 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.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” David Montes after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Aïssa Mandi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“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 Levante, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” David Montes after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Roger Brugué trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutAdrián Núñez has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Mathew Ryan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 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.
6 goals in one match, Roger Brugué on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Levante and Getafe.
Levante asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aníbal Chalá 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 offer from Osasuna for Xavi Grande 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Levante close the window on a squad of their own making
18 in and 8 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aníbal Chalá 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 Levante this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Levante have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Levante had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Barcelona, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Joaquín Ochoa Giménez is living that version at Levante, and it tends to show in the first month.
Levante offered $27.0K; Elche 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Levante go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
10 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.
The chase for Gerard Martín ended with $16.4M changing hands and Barcelona out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$390.0K was the most the club would pay and Alcorcón were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Uriel Perpetto has just signed for Levante, and for once the answer mattered.
5 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.
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: Gerard Martín from Barcelona for $16.4M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Jorge Cabello 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.
SquadWords at Levante training over how hard people work
55Edition
The Levante Courier
16 Aug 2027
From our football correspondentSteady
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
$16.4M settles it between the clubs for Gerard Martín
Barcelona have accepted the money. What Levante do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
$390.0K on the table at Alcorcón. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Levante asked and Real Sociedad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Rayo Vallecano next, and one man in the Levante dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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 Adrián Núñez is on it.
Adrián De la Fuente 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.
Add another name to the list: Vasas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Agustín Cortez. The answer from Levante has not changed — yet.
“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; Levante are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Levante, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Levante. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Levante. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The offer from Zaragoza for Xavi Grande was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levante this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Levante asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
José Martínez 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.
10 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The 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.
The phone has started ringing about Xavi Grande again, and this time the name on the line is Zaragoza. Levante are listening politely and promising nothing.
Levante asked and Atlético Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Cabello trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Levante asked and Atlético Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Levante are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Levante that is a harder question to answer.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Levante, another week without a signature from Josep Cerdà.
“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 Levante, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee is $1.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Mallorca drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Eduardo Sepúlveda has, at Levante, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Levante will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Barcelona drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“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.
Add another name to the list: Sevilla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jorge Cabello. The answer from Levante has not changed — yet.
Jorge Cabello 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 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
José Martínez 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 offer went to Barcelona 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and José Martínez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer from Sevilla for Jorge Cabello 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Levante has been clear about where Aïssa Mandi stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Levante told Aïssa Mandi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iván Romero signs something — a contract at Levante or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levante can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Mathew Ryan 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.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Levante, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Xavi Grande has his answer from Levante; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The clubs have shaken hands with Ceuta; 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 Levante this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
José Martínez 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Levante can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Manu Sánchez has moved up it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Víctor García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levante the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Fabricio Da Rosa is living that version at Levante, and it tends to show in the first month.
Manu Sánchez 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.
18 appearances and 2 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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.
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 Axel Tape is on 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.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 39 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
José Luis Morales was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Dominik Livaković.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A 1‑0 win over Sevilla, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad17 May 2027
José Martínez 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
0‑1 to Villarreal, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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 Levante this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Dani Requena is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Levante, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
Player ratingsHugo Sotelo beats them one at a time
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levante will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.78 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Víctor García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levante the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Levante heard it as anything else.
José Martínez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
At 23 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.
In brief
Player ratingsKarl Etta Eyong was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Levante will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
José Luis Morales was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 David Montes left the room before anybody could ask which.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Tiziano Dornell.
Something was said to Adrián De la Fuente and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levante will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
José Luis Morales was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
José Martínez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A point taken on 87 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Levante, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A 1‑1 draw with Barcelona leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” David Montes chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Levante can tell you which week it ends in.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 16 combined actions and a mark of 6.48, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Manu Sánchez 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.
“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; Levante are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by David Montes to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutMathew Ryan asks for a word with the manager
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Levante lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levante will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Víctor García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levante the goodbyes have quietly begun.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Levante can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 Levante hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Levante lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Levante will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad29 Mar 2027
José Martínez 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Levante 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.
Something was said to Hugo Bueno and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
0‑1 to Real Madrid, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Levante pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
The dugoutIván Romero knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levante will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Víctor García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levante the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Levante will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
José Luis Morales and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Levante told Iván Romero something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by David Montes to a room that had heard them before.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levante will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It finished 1‑0, and it was José Luis Morales’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Levante.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout22 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.” David Montes, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutMathew Ryan asks for a word with the manager
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levante will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levante this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Levante 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.
“I watch every Levante game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Avilés runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
At 23 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.
Marked 8.49 — 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levante will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Víctor García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Levante the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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 Martínez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ceuta have kept their man, and Levante go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Levante close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 3 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.
Levante asked and Sevilla said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Levante know it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dominik Livaković trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Levante, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Agustín Cortez has just signed for Levante, and for once the answer mattered.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Levante can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Levante asked and CSKA Sofia 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 season-long look at somebody else’s player: Hugo Bueno arrives from Wolverhampton with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
He is 19, and nobody at Levante signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Víctor García falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ourense CF waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Levante is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Levante have done the hard part with Vélez, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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 Levante this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Levante have made the call to Wolverhampton. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Levante people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.41 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The name of Víctor García has come up in conversations Levante were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Levante asked and Elche said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Hugo Sotelo 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Levante heard it as anything else.
Everything agreed with Barcelona, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The name of Jon Ander Olasagasti has come up in conversations Levante were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levante 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. Ceuta have kept their man, and Levante go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Petar Ratkov, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Axel Tape 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.
Atlético Madrid have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
José Luis Morales was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad28 Dec 2026
José Martínez 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 dugout28 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 1‑2 David Montes left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
Nobody at Levante 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Sevilla in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ifeanyi Ndukwe is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 23 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.
Three points for Levante, 1‑0 the final word against Alavés in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad21 Dec 2026
José Martínez 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.
Marked 8.19 — 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 ratings21 Dec 2026
Karl Etta Eyong was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
José Martínez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Víctor García falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout14 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 0‑1 David Montes left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
1 for Oriol Rey, marked 7.93, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Marked 7.63 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” David Montes, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Levante told Jon Ander Olasagasti something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
A 1‑0 win over Espanyol, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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.
Marked 8.01 — 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Levante can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levante this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Víctor García falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Levante game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Avilés runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Rayo Vallecano defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
In brief
Player ratingsHugo Sotelo beats them one at a time
Manu Sánchez 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
José Martínez 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Levante has been clear about where Adrián De la Fuente stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Levante, and both men came out saying it was fine.
José Luis Morales and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Real Murcia tried to reorganise, Levante did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
7.95, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
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.
1‑2 to Real Sociedad, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Víctor García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
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.
At 39 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.26, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad26 Oct 2026
José Martínez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Real Sociedad in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
0‑1 to Girona, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by David Montes to a room that had heard them before.
Valencia next, and one man in the Levante dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Asked to play a role that is not his, or taken off before the hour once too often — Hugo Sotelo has let it be known that he does not like the way Levante are using him. Managers hear this long before the press does.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Levante, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levante 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 Víctor García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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.
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 Pablo Campos has written the date down.
“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.
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.
José Luis Morales was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
0‑1 to Atlético Madrid, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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 have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Levante know it.
“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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Elche spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.70, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Manu Sánchez 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: Roger Brugué. 2‑1 against Elche, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Thiago Fernández 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.
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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.
8.00. 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.
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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Getafe scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
A 1‑1 draw with Getafe leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Xavi Grande 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.
$5.7M was the most the club would pay and Córdoba were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Levante ran out of time with Zaragoza. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Levante will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout14 Sep 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 1‑3 David Montes left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Levante are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Petar Ratkov
Levante and Zaragoza have settled on $3.4M. 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.
$5.7M on the table at Córdoba. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $5.9M — a club that wants Iker Álvarez enough to be asked twice.
$290.0K was the most the club would pay and Las Palmas were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. José Martínez wants continental football; whether Levante can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almería have kept their man, and Levante go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
SquadWords at Levante training over how hard people work
The offer went to Las Palmas 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.
José Martínez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Víctor García is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Levante asked and Mirandés said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Levante have gone to Real Sociedad with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Álvaro Odriozola enough to be asked twice.
Marked 6.81 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Martínez 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. Betis have kept their man, and Levante go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Levante offered $15.6M; Valencia 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.
José Luis Morales and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Camilo Salamanca has, at Levante, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The fee is $230.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Boca Juniors drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The phone has started ringing about Camilo Salamanca again, and this time the name on the line is Real Avilés. Levante are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Levante training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Martínez 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 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.
Levante have gone to Betis 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Valencia have kept their man, and Levante go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Boca Juniors; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $40.0M — a club that wants Antony enough to be asked twice.
Manu Sánchez 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rubén Sánchez 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. Nicolás Torres is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
José Luis Morales was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Levante have gone to Boca Juniors 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.
Levante asked and Cruz Azul said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.