Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Romain Del Castillo obliged against Huesca. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Osasuna.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Osasuna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Imanol scored, was marked 7.31, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Osasuna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Osasuna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Aimar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not 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.
“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 Osasuna, and 2 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Osasuna. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
28 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
0‑3 against Atlético Madrid, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Osasuna can tell you which week it ends in.
7 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.
“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 Osasuna, and 5 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Héctor Vidal to a room that had heard them before.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
In brief
The dugoutRaúl García asks for a word with the manager
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Osasuna 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 Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Osasuna, another week without a signature from Diego Rico.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Osasuna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadJoão Rijo falls out with a teammate over standards
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Osasuna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rufino Lucero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Osasuna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Aimar 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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 dugout25 Sep 2028
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.” Héctor Vidal chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Osasuna will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Osasuna interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Héctor Vidal keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Osasuna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentin Rosier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Osasuna, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutA fresh start for Ante Budimir under the new man
“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.
Day 41 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentin Rosier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Osasuna asked and Real 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Osasuna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Joselillo 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 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
10 new faces, and Osasuna 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.
Osasuna asked and Gijón 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Osasuna can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 23 arrived, 16 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Osasuna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Osasuna 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.
The shirt still fits. Jesús Areso is back at Osasuna, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Osasuna 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Osasuna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and CE Europa waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee is $5.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Eibar 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. Peru Nolaskoain has, at Osasuna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
13 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Felipe Rojas 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 end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Antonio Cortés clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
The clubs have shaken hands with Eibar; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Athletic Bilbao have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
9 seasons and 533 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“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 Osasuna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Real Avilés waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Espanyol paid $14.6M and Osasuna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The fee is $1.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Eibar 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. Imanol has, at Osasuna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Imanol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Real Sociedad 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.
$11.7M on the table at Almería. 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Osasuna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.6M — a club that wants Julio Alonso enough to be asked twice.
The deal that would have taken Rockson Yeboah to Algeciras has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Osasuna with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sanluqueño waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Add another name to the list: Eibar have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abel Bretones. The answer from Osasuna has not changed — yet.
The offer from Alcorcón for Eneko Jauregi 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $11.5M — a club that wants Javi Llabrés enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Andorra have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 Osasuna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Getafe have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$260.0K was the most the club would pay and Elche 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentin Rosier was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jorge Cestero 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucho García wants continental football; whether Osasuna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arenas Club waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The chase for Enric Franquesa ended with $6.3M changing hands and Leganés out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
$640.0K on the table at Oviedo. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Asier Osambela 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 dugout3 Jul 2028
Ante Budimir loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ante Budimir's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Osasuna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Osasuna have done the hard part with Leganés, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Osasuna asked and Sanluqueño said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Aimar 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Osasuna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Rijo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Osasuna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Eibar moved on, Abel Bretones reports back to Osasuna, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The chase for Jorge Cestero ended with $5.3M changing hands and Real Madrid out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
He is going to Valladolid, the club has $36.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna 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. Barcelona have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
In brief
SquadJoão Rijo falls out with a teammate over standards
SquadJorge Cestero banks a contract that will last him
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Osasuna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Osasuna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to Real Madrid 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.
“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 Osasuna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.0M — a club that wants Horaţiu Moldovan enough to be asked twice.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Las Palmas will make the call about Abel Bretones this week. Osasuna have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Osasuna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Osasuna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to Atlético Madrid 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.
“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 Osasuna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Leandro Alcaraz has, at Osasuna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Add another name to the list: Real Avilés have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Carlos Lumbreras. The answer from Osasuna has not changed — yet.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Osasuna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Rufino Lucero 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dani González trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Rubén García has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
19 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Girona the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Osasuna will enjoy reviewing.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 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. Rufino Lucero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Osasuna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ademola Lookman 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 14 actions, 7.13, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Osasuna has been clear about where Asier Osambela stands, which is more than many ever get.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Osasuna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Antonio Cortés after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Osasuna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Alavés spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Aimar 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.
Something was said to Ademola Lookman and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Romain Del Castillo.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 78 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Something was said to Raúl Moro 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. Osasuna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“The 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Levante in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Rufino Lucero 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Betis scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
“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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jonathan Dubasin signs something — a contract at Osasuna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Aimar had Osasuna level again within 2 minutes, and Oviedo never got to play with a lead at all.
Rufino Lucero 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.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Osasuna prefer.
“I watch every Osasuna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ourense CF runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Romain Del Castillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jonathan Dubasin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Osasuna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Ademola Lookman has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Antonio Cortés could afford to be generous.
“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 Osasuna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
1‑3 to Villarreal, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 Antonio Cortés left the room before anybody could ask which.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jonathan Dubasin signs something — a contract at Osasuna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
5 goals in 26 games at Mirandés — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Osasuna updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ademola Lookman provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
10 seasons and 453 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“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 Osasuna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Rufino Lucero 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Antonio Cortés could afford to be generous.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Osasuna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Atlético Madrid left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
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 Antonio Cortés left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Osasuna is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Marked 4.85. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Osasuna interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Antonio Cortés keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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 Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Ademola Lookman has taken the hint, and Osasuna are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Flavien-Enzo Boyomo may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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 dugout21 Feb 2028
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.” Antonio Cortés chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
A brace, and Raúl García takes the afternoon — 8.69
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Raúl García provided it, and the 8.69 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Farense for Eneko Jauregi 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Málaga moved on, Aitor Fernández reports back to Osasuna, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
13 combined actions and 7.12. 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.
Osasuna asked and Real 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Osasuna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
37 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Santander have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A 1‑0 win over Rayo Vallecano, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Rufino Lucero 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.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Osasuna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑4 against Real Madrid, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sanjoanense waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rufino Lucero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Osasuna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Barcelona is saying, and nobody at Osasuna is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Out, 1‑4 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.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
A cup hiding at Valencia leaves Osasuna explaining themselves
1-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Osasuna can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leeds United have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 7.31, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arenas Club waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The 85th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Jonathan Dubasin decided nobody was going anywhere. Valencia had no time left to answer.
Osasuna asked and Real 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jonathan Dubasin. 1‑0 against Valencia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Rufino Lucero 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 offer from Huesca for Abel Bretones 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Málaga keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
9 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Osasuna asked and Athletic Bilbao said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Osasuna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Pontevedra have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dani González. The answer from Osasuna has not changed — yet.
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Biel Parra leaves with $11.6K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
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.
Rufino Lucero 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Íñigo Arguibide trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Something was said to Rufino Lucero and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
1 for Jon Moncayola, marked 7.67, 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.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Osasuna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ademola Lookman provided it, and the 9.23 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Osasuna 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 Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 31 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Osasuna heard it as anything else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Flavien-Enzo Boyomo and Osasuna agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Íñigo Arguibide 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.
Rufino Lucero 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.
In brief
The dugoutAnte Budimir knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Osasuna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Sevilla held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Osasuna answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Ademola Lookman was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Osasuna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Ourense CF runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Osasuna, another week without a signature from Íñigo Arguibide.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Sergio Herrera'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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Osasuna will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
The dugoutAbel Bretones asks for a word with the manager
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Osasuna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Osasuna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Osasuna and Ibiza in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Osasuna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
Rufino Lucero 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.
Something was said to Ademola Lookman and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout1 Nov 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 Biel Parra left the room before anybody could ask which.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Kike Barja 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 dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Abel Bretones'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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Osasuna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Roberto Arroyo 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Osasuna, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Biel Parra after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Osasuna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rufino Lucero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Osasuna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Kike Barja 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.
“I watch every Osasuna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mirandés runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Osasuna can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Something was said to Diego Rico and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Osasuna has been clear about where Aitor Fernández stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 6.73 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Rufino Lucero 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.
Ademola Lookman and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Osasuna can tell you which week it ends in.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Osasuna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Barja 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.
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.
“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.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Osasuna can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Osasuna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Osasuna 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.
0‑3 to Real Madrid, 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Osasuna will try again when the window opens; Elche may not be selling by then.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Osasuna heard it as anything else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levante have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Rufino Lucero 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.
Osasuna and Elche have settled on $9.8M. 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.
“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 Osasuna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The bid was some way short and Osasuna did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 20 gone
That is the business done at Osasuna 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The deal that would have taken Aitor Fernández to Getafe has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Osasuna with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Racing Ferrol had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
A season-long audition: Juventus still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Osasuna's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
The name of Aitor Fernández has come up in conversations Osasuna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Osasuna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Juventud Torremolinos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer went to Almería 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.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fernando Cruz 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Osasuna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Add another name to the list: Juventud Torremolinos have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rufino Lucero. The answer from Osasuna has not changed — yet.
Osasuna asked and Almería said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Rufino Lucero 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Kike Barja 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 Osasuna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Mirandés runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Osasuna 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.
Zamora paid $2.1M and Osasuna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Osasuna have gone to Almería 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Rockson Yeboah has written the date down.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zamora waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Biel Parra has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The phone has started ringing about Aitor Fernández again, and this time the name on the line is Deportivo La Coruña. Osasuna are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Osasuna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kike Barja 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.
Osasuna have gone to Almería 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.
“I watch every Osasuna game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Marbella 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 Moi Gómez is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The offer from Eldense for Abel Bretones 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.
The chase for Eneko Jauregi ended with $1.3M changing hands and Málaga out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Aimar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almería have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Osasuna, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Osasuna will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Osasuna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Osasuna would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Rubén García
50Edition
The Osasuna Chronicle
12 Jul 2027
From our football correspondentUneasy
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
$1.3M settles it between the clubs for Eneko Jauregi
Málaga have accepted the money. What Osasuna do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Osasuna asked and Zaragoza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Abel Bretones again, and this time the name on the line is Eldense. Osasuna are listening politely and promising nothing.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Osasuna will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Osasuna have gone to Almería 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.
Nobody at Osasuna 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Osasuna. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Biel Parra has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Málaga 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Getafe have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Aitor Fernández again, and this time the name on the line is Deportivo La Coruña. Osasuna are listening politely and promising nothing.
7 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 change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ademola Lookman's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alavés have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Rockson Yeboah trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The offer from Deportivo La Coruña for Aitor Fernández 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.
Osasuna offered $1.2M; Getafe 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna 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. Barcelona have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kike Barja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Osasuna are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
A season-long audition: Atlético Madrid still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Osasuna's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cacereño waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Osasuna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Osasuna have gone to Getafe 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.
“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 Osasuna hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Everything agreed with Atlético Madrid, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Cédric Teguia is living that version at Osasuna, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barcelona have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Biel Parra has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Osasuna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Osasuna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Osasuna heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna 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 Kike Barja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Osasuna told Aimar something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Moi Gómez is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kike Barja trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Endrick 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 ratings24 May 2027
Aimar was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
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.” Biel Parra kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Osasuna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadEndrick, 20, is the weekend’s best young player
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Osasuna can tell you which week it ends in.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 May 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 Biel Parra to a room that had heard them before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Osasuna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Athletic Bilbao next, and one man in the Osasuna dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Osasuna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marked 6.95 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Biel Parra left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Osasuna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
0‑3 to Levante, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Osasuna told Flavien-Enzo Boyomo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Biel Parra after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Aimar 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aimar. 2‑0 against Espanyol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.14 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Biel Parra on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Osasuna told Rufino Lucero something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Rubén García’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Osasuna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Endrick. 2‑1 against Rayo Vallecano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Endrick has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout19 Apr 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.” Biel Parra, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Osasuna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Dani González’s exile
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Osasuna and Real Madrid in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Osasuna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Osasuna told Abel Bretones something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Osasuna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Osasuna know 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 Osasuna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Osasuna can tell you which week it ends in.
Rufino Lucero and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Biel Parra after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Something was said to Endrick and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Biel Parra to a room that had heard them before.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Osasuna would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Biel Parra after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Osasuna know it.
Ante Budimir 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.
Elche held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Osasuna answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Elche; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
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 ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
7.40, 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.
Aimar was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Antequera have kept their man, and Osasuna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Getafe spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Marked 7.68. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
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.” Biel Parra, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugoutMikel García knocks on the manager's door
29Edition
The Osasuna Chronicle
15 Feb 2027
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Endrick, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.24
A mark of 8.24 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Raúl García. 3‑1 against Celta, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Osasuna asked and Ceuta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Raúl García. 1‑0 against Mallorca, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Osasuna ran out of time with Tenerife. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Betis moved on, Ante Budimir reports back to Osasuna, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Aitor Fernández had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Endrick did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Osasuna can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.92 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Osasuna will try again when the window opens; Getafe may not be selling by then.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Osasuna can pretend not to have heard.
Osasuna and Getafe have settled on $1.3M. 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.
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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Osasuna close the window on a squad of their own making
3 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.
“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.
Osasuna 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.
Add another name to the list: Zaragoza have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Aitor Fernández. The answer from Osasuna has not changed — yet.
“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 Osasuna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Betis for Flavien-Enzo Boyomo 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Osasuna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Íñigo Arguibide, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 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.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Facundo Basualdo has, at Osasuna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Osasuna asked and Zaragoza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Gimnàstic paid $5.3M and Osasuna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Osasuna offered $1.2M; Getafe 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Osasuna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Racing Ferrol had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.94 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Alejandro Catena 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Tenerife will make the call about Alejandro Catena this week. Osasuna have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Osasuna asked and Las Palmas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Osasuna can pretend not to have heard.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ante Budimir will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Osasuna escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
The offer from Celta for Raúl Moro 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.
Osasuna 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.
Rubén 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.
“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.
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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Alavés in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Osasuna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Rufino Lucero 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Sergio Herrera'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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
The dugout7 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 0‑5 Biel Parra left the room before anybody could ask which.