“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Santander can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aritz Aldasoro 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.
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.
Luan Freire 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 goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
The dugout1 Nov 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Roberto Álvarez to a room that had heard them before.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Racing Santander has been clear about where Giorgi Guliashvili stands, which is more than many ever get.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Oviedo were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Iván Martín 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Roberto Álvarez could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Carlos Arana trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Something was said to Mario García and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Manu Hernando is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sevilla left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout18 Oct 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 Roberto Álvarez to a room that had heard them before.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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. Racing Santander told Pablo García something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
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.
Sergio Canales 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 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 Racing Santander hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aritz Aldasoro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iván Martín signs something — a contract at Racing Santander or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christantus Uche trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Racing Santander will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Maguette Guèye has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Racing Santander have no good answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Santander have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Racing Santander hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Martín is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Racing Santander are no longer polite ones.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Iván Martín 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 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 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 Manu Hernando is on it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Villarreal next, and one man in the Racing Santander dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aritz Aldasoro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Racing Santander will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Racing Santander hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Carlos Arana and Racing Santander agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Santander will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Racing Santander, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 27 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Racing Santander 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Racing Santander will try again when the window opens; Real Murcia may not be selling by then.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
$12.3M was the most the club would pay and Rayo Vallecano 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.
Real Murcia have accepted the money. What Racing Santander do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
1 for Pablo Ramón, marked 7.89, 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Racing Santander will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aritz Aldasoro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Santander this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A brace, and Andrés Martín takes the afternoon — 8.72
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrés Martín provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Roberto Vega is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Carlos Suárez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The offer went to Blau-Weiß Linz this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit have kept their man, and Racing Santander 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 Racing Santander, and it is not being withdrawn.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Iván Martín falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every 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 Jorge Salinas is on it.
Celta next, and one man in the Racing Santander dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Racing Santander know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Albacete have kept their man, and Racing Santander go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aritz Aldasoro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Santander this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
12 new faces, and Racing Santander 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Racing Santander hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The fee is $990.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Teruel drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Racing Santander have done the hard part with Castellón, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Carlos Vigaray is living that version at Racing Santander, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Martín 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Murcia have kept their man, and Racing Santander go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Jokin Ezkieta has come up in conversations Racing Santander were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The clubs have shaken hands with Teruel; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Santander can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aritz Aldasoro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mateo Gallardo and Racing Santander agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about 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.
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 Juan Carlos Arana has written the date down.
$5.3M was the most the club would pay and Zaragoza 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 had been thinking. Aritz Aldasoro 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.
Luan Freire 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.
Nobody at Racing Santander 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Racing Santander. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The offer went to Zaragoza 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Pacos de Ferreira had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Santander heard it as anything else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barcelona have kept their man, and Racing Santander go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Markel Vera has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luka Moya is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad12 Jul 2027
11 new faces, and Racing Santander 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.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Santander 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 Racing Santander this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Racing Santander hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
18 games, 3 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Racing Santander now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Burgos have kept their man, and Racing Santander go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Manu Hernando is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sevilla had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Juan Carlos Arana wants continental football; whether Racing Santander can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Martín 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.
20 games, 3 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Racing Santander now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guilherme Fernandes and Racing Santander agree another 4 years.
Nobody at Racing Santander 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Racing Santander, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 2, 82 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The fee is $2.7M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Córdoba drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The name of Iván Martín has come up in conversations Racing Santander were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barcelona have kept their man, and Racing Santander go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pablo García and Racing Santander agree another 5 years.
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 Neco Celorio is on it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” St. Pauli had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Racing Santander have had the benefit of it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Santander heard it as anything else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barcelona have kept their man, and Racing Santander go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at Racing Santander will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Racing Santander people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Teruel have accepted the money. What Racing Santander do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Manex Lozano did not need any: 7.80, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Santander heard it as anything else.
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Iván Martín 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.
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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
Position 2, 76 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.27 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christantus Uche, and the manager let it.
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.” Roberto Álvarez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.33 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Sergio Canales was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Martín is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.48 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings17 May 2027
André Almeida was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑0, Roberto Álvarez could afford to be generous.
Manex Lozano scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Almería, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
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 1‑2 Roberto Álvarez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Racing Santander 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.
Manex Lozano is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Carlos Arana trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Martín 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.
Luan Freire 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.
Something was said to Christantus Uche and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout26 Apr 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.” Roberto Álvarez kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.95 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Luan Freire 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 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.” Roberto Álvarez, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.19 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Up for the corner, and Pablo Ramón delivers — 7.69
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Pablo Ramón scored, was marked 7.69, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Christantus Uche wants continental football; whether Racing Santander can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Santander have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Yassir Zabiri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Iván Martín 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“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 Racing Santander know it.
The dugout5 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.” Roberto Álvarez, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Sergio Canales was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mirsad Ali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Racing Santander know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mirsad Ali trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Racing Santander. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Martín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Roberto Álvarez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Racing Santander dressing room was either.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iván Martín signs something — a contract at Racing Santander or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Las Palmas defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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 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.
57 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Racing Santander. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 92th minute. Málaga will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Martín is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 20 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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Racing Santander told Juan Carlos Arana 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 Julen Agirrezabala is on it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Roberto Álvarez on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sergio Canales and Racing Santander agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Mirandés had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Santander this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 2‑2 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.11 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Martín is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Yassir Zabiri 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.
Marked 8.04. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Racing Santander.
The dugout1 Mar 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.” Roberto Álvarez kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jesús García has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Racing Santander can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Iván Martín 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.
Luan Freire 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Jesús García
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iván Martín signs something — a contract at Racing Santander or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Racing Santander, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on André Almeida
Yassir Zabiri 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Santander heard it as anything else.
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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Roberto Álvarez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Santander 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 Racing Santander this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Andrés Martín on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Racing Santander and Granada.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luan Freire has just signed for Racing Santander, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Martín 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.
Racing Santander asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Real Sociedad B will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Racing Santander were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“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.
6 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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Santander heard it as anything else.
Racing Santander offered $150.0K; Las Palmas 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.
5 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
$150.0K on the table at Las Palmas. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Racing Santander know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Getafe have accepted the money. What Racing Santander do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
1 for Iván Martín, marked 7.96, 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.
Position 2, 42 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Reggiana will make the call about Simon Eriksson this week. Racing Santander have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Racing Santander people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Match9 Jan 2027
Sergio Canales wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Sergio Canales found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Cultural Leonesa went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sergio Canales provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Eupen for Manu Hernando 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.
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sergio Canales. 2‑1 against Cultural Leonesa, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Sergio Canales wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Sergio Canales found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Burgos went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.21 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The bid was some way short and Racing Santander did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Up for the corner, and Pablo Ramón delivers — 7.71
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Pablo Ramón scored, was marked 7.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Racing Santander asked and Argentinos Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Roberto Álvarez after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Nobody at Racing Santander 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
Supporters make their feelings known about Iván Martín
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Racing Santander would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
Up for the corner, and Iván Martín delivers — 7.79
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Iván Martín scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Manex Lozano and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Manu Hernando is on it.
Nobody at Racing Santander 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.
Successful dribbles: 8. 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.41 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Jeanuël Belocian, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 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.
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. 9 actions, 6.60, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Roberto Álvarez on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yassir Zabiri did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
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 Racing Santander prefer.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Roberto Álvarez could afford to be generous.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Íñigo Vicente decided nobody was going anywhere. Albacete had no time left to answer.
4 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Yassir Zabiri 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Racing Santander scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Iván Martín. 2‑1 against Gijón, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The 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.” Roberto Álvarez kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Santander have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Racing Santander, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Santander this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Neco Celorio has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I 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.
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Racing Santander had all but put away. Las Palmas will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jeanuël Belocian is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“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.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Yassir Zabiri, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.74
A mark of 7.74 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Mirandés spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
20 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Guliashvili, and the manager let it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Roberto Álvarez, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Yassir Zabiri, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.63
A mark of 7.63 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jorge Salinas is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Roberto Álvarez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Racing Santander have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Mirandés in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Racing Santander 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 Racing Santander. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
They sit in position 20 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Sergio Canales scored in the 86th minute, Leganés had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Racing Santander took the lot.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sergio Canales provided it, and the 8.41 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sergio Canales. 2‑1 against Leganés, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Yassir Zabiri is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Roberto Álvarez could afford to be generous.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Jeanuël Belocian has moved up it.
20 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Leganés.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pablo García and Racing Santander agree another 5 years.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Roberto Álvarez after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Racing Santander have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Guliashvili, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Roberto Álvarez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Deportivo La Coruña.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Racing Santander know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Racing Santander 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.
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
That is the business done at Racing Santander 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Álvaro Odriozola enough to be asked twice.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jeanuël Belocian is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Granada.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Álvaro Odriozola enough to be asked twice.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Barcelona keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
A mark of 7.88, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad31 Aug 2026
20 new faces, and Racing Santander 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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Roberto Álvarez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Íñigo Vicente
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Roberto Álvarez to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
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.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the Racing Santander squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
The offer from Arenteiro for Pedro Felipe 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 $400.0K — a club that wants Mario De Luis enough to be asked twice.
It is the quietest way a club tells you what its ambitions are. The money was asked for, the money was refused, and the people who work there every day now know exactly where they stand.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Racing Santander are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Valladolid in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A new face in his position, and André Almeida suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Racing Santander have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
“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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $225.0K — a club that wants Ezequiel Ávila enough to be asked twice.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andrés Martín and Racing Santander agree another 4 years.
Racing Santander asked and Atlético Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Pedro Felipe has come up in conversations Racing Santander were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Luken Medina has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gabriel 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.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Racing Santander. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Santander heard it as anything else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sergio Canales and Racing Santander agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Still no offer on the table, and Julen Agirrezabala’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.