Berto Cayarga 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Real Avilés is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Killian Camélé was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and Real Avilés 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.
A season-long audition: Ponferradina still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Real Avilés's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Real Avilés. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutKevin Bautista asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Pablo Álvarez
Valladolid arrived with $4.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Real Avilés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Christian Rivera has gone, the accounts have $4.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 The request is on a desk at Real Avilés, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Algeciras have kept their man, and Real Avilés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Javi Cueto and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Gete 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. Real Avilés will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Avilés lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have supported clubs like this one. I know what a bad Saturday feels like here.” The new man starts with nothing behind him and everything in front of him.
“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 Real Avilés, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Real Avilés have done the hard part with Ponferradina, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ivo Cortabarria is living that version at Real Avilés, and it tends to show in the first month.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Real Avilés lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Andrés Torres has, at Real Avilés, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alejandro Salas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Darlinson Murillo arrives at Real Avilés with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Avilés lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 19 and 36 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Avilés can pretend not to have heard.
Berto Cayarga 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Álvaro Gete 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 last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 36 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Two goals and a mark of 8.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Berto Cayarga 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Real Avilés and Arenas Club in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom17 May 2027
93% of the income goes out in wages at Real Avilés
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadJulio Rodríguez falls out with a teammate over standards
3‑0, and Javi Cueto took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Real Avilés tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings10 May 2027
A brace, and Javi Cueto takes the afternoon — 8.56
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Javi Cueto provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Real Avilés, and it is not being withdrawn.
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Avilés can pretend not to have heard.
“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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Real Avilés are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Real Avilés is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Avilés can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Javi Cueto 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.
Javi Cueto 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luis Alcalde trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pol Cabrera was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Real Avilés dressing room was either.
7.31, 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.
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.
Jean-Sylvain Babin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Álvaro Fernández, and the manager let it.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
Nobody left the Real Avilés dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Pol Cabrera to a room that had heard them before.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Real Avilés can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Real Avilés can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Real Avilés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Fernández 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 Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.84, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Real Avilés pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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 Real Avilés, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Real Avilés
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Real Avilés is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Berto Cayarga 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 Guzmán and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Edu Campabadal’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Real Avilés needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Javi Cueto 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Gete was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Real Avilés pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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 the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Real Avilés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Gete is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Real Avilés 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Edu Cortina has his answer from Real Avilés; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Real Madrid Castilla defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Luis Solignac and Real Avilés agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Real Avilés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Fernández 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.
A 1‑0 win over Bilbao Athletic, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 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.” Pol Cabrera kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Avilés can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Real Avilés
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.86 for the rest of it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Real Avilés can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Javi Cueto 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.
In brief
Player ratingsRaúl Rubio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.88 on the card, and the Real Avilés support went home talking about one name.
Boardroom22 Feb 2027
90% of the income goes out in wages at Real Avilés
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pol Cabrera was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Real Avilés dressing room was either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Gete was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 combined actions and 6.86. 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pol Cabrera after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christian Rivera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Javi Cueto is on 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.
“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 Real Avilés, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
1 for Christian Rivera, marked 7.85, 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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Real Avilés know now that the thought has arrived.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Real Avilés ran out of time with Mérida. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Ibiza arrived with $560.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Álvaro Santamaría has gone, the accounts have $560.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Real Avilés close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 2 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.
Berto Cayarga 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Álvaro Santamaría will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Real Avilés the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Real Avilés had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Real Sociedad, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The phone has started ringing about Carmona again, and this time the name on the line is Alcorcón. Real Avilés are listening politely and promising nothing.
Mario Osuna 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.
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.
Mérida have accepted the money. What Real Avilés do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Avilés can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Three points for Real Avilés, 1‑0 the final word against Arenas Club in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Real Avilés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean-Sylvain Babin 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Real Avilés people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Real Avilés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Real Avilés, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Antequera is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Osasuna have kept their man, and Real Avilés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Avilés can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Racing Santander is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Real Avilés are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 40, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Real Avilés are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
153% of the income goes out in wages at Real Avilés
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Minute 89, against Ponferradina, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Berto Cayarga 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christian Rivera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Benjamin Dibrani and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean-Sylvain Babin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Pol Cabrera was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Real Avilés dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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 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.
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.
Tenerife held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Real Avilés answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, 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 Barakaldo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Mario Osuna and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean-Sylvain Babin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 1‑2 Pol Cabrera left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Real Avilés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés 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 Jean-Sylvain Babin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
0‑3 to Real Madrid Castilla, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Alejandro Salas 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 here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom23 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Real Avilés dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout23 Nov 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Pol Cabrera to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Viti and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Celta Fortuna next, and one man in the Real Avilés dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Alejandro Salas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Real Avilés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean-Sylvain Babin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Real Avilés will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He 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 Alejandro Salas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It finished 1-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
6 goals in one match, Javi Cueto on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Real Avilés and Atlético Madrid.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Benjamin Dibrani 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.
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Luis Alcalde was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Raúl Rubio was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
Minute 87, against Zamora, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Benjamin Dibrani and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
7 new faces, and Real Avilés 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.
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.
Benjamin Dibrani 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pol Cabrera after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Real Avilés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean-Sylvain Babin 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 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Real Avilés. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés 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 Jean-Sylvain Babin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
Nobody at Real Avilés 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.
At 31 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Real Avilés have a decision that made itself.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Real Avilés. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Real Avilés is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Unionistas next, and one man in the Real Avilés dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Real Avilés, another week without a signature from Ricardo Grigore.
185% of the income goes out in wages at Real Avilés
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A point taken on 94 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 35 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.
Alejandro Salas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean-Sylvain Babin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Real Avilés will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
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.
Real Avilés asked and Betis 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Pol Cabrera after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
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.
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.
That is the business done at Real Avilés 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.
Real Avilés had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rosario Central, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal that would have taken Álvaro Santamaría to Algeciras has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Real Avilés with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Avilés can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Real Avilés have done the hard part with Mérida, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Real Avilés asked and Tenerife said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Pablo Álvarez 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 loan enquiry to Rosario Central: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Real Avilés had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Villarreal, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Madrid have kept their man, and Real Avilés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Pablo Álvarez 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 loan enquiry to Athletic Bilbao: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Real Avilés would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luca Falabella is living that version at Real Avilés, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Betis have kept their man, and Real Avilés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Real Avilés have made the call to Villarreal. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Real Avilés are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Álvaro Gete was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing about this will be in a press release. A plan went upstairs, came back rejected, and the version of the club that would have existed in three years' time just quietly stopped being possible.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Real Avilés has been clear about where Julio Rodríguez stands, which is more than many ever get.
The deal with Boca Juniors is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Argentinos Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Rodrigo Gimeno is living that version at Real Avilés, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Real Avilés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Markel León is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marc Molina 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. Héctor Ramos 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. Leo Ruiz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Alejandro Salas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Christian Rivera and Real Avilés agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Avilés 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 Real Avilés, another week without a signature from Luis Alcalde.
A loan enquiry to Argentinos Juniors: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
A loan enquiry to Juventud Torremolinos: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.