$16.8M settles it between the clubs for Hugo Rincón
Athletic Bilbao have accepted the money. What Sevilla do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $40.4M has been paid because Thiago Almada is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $4.4M has been paid because Etienne Eto'o is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
$5.8M was the most the club would pay and Eibar 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Thiago Almada has, at Sevilla, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Sevilla asked and Eibar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
Transfer targetsAn offer of $930.0K for Óscar Sielva
Sevilla have gone to Como with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Sevilla have gone to River Plate with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Sevilla have gone to Athletic Bilbao with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Sevilla have gone to Eibar with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Sevilla will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.18 — 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.
Position 5, 39 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.00 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Youssouf Fofana 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.
Youssouf Fofana was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I 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 Sevilla hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Felipe Garrido has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Marked 8.62 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Roberto Blanco on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
8 goals in 16 games at Aris Thessaloniki — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sevilla updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“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 Sevilla hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rubén Vargas. 2‑0 against Rayo Vallecano, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.68 — 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.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
0‑3 to Real Madrid, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout30 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 Roberto Blanco to a room that had heard them 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.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
Youssouf Fofana 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 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 José Ángel Carmona is on it.
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 Blanco kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.98 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Youssouf Fofana 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 0‑0 win over Elche, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Isaac Romero takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Isaac Romero provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Isaac Romero in the middle of it, and Girona unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Atlético Madrid left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout2 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Roberto Blanco to a room that had heard them before.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Neal Maupay 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
5 new faces, and Sevilla 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The 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.
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 Félix Correia is on it.
Youssouf Fofana 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 Sevilla 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 7.98 for the rest of it.
Youssouf Fofana 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.
He is 14 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Sevilla can tell you which week it ends in.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ignacio Navarro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Roberto Blanco after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
9 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Roberto Blanco chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Félix Correia is on it.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Léo Baptistão
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Celta in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Youssouf Fofana 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 Sevilla 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.
“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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Betis defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon ran through Isaac Romero
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Oviedo had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Sevilla did not stop to explain themselves.
Youssouf Fofana 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Betis on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Roberto Blanco on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Sevilla have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevilla 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 Sevilla hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pablo Ríos has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Francisco Rojas has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The 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 Blanco, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Sevilla close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
0‑1 to Villarreal, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad7 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Sevilla 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 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Isaac Romero is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
$2.2M was the most the club would pay and Real Madrid were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Léo Baptistão has just signed for Sevilla, and for once the answer mattered.
Youssouf Fofana and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: José Ángel Carmona. 2‑0 against Osasuna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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 deal with Almería 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.
He is going to Almería, the club has $24.4M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Youssouf Fofana 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.
Sevilla asked and Cádiz 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 offer went to Galatasaray 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. River Plate have kept their man, and Sevilla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Las Palmas for Peque 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.
$2.2M on the table at Real Madrid. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sevilla this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The ground is getting bigger
The plans are signed off at a capacity of 49378. Decisions like this are judged twenty years later, by people who were not in the room when they were taken.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sevilla has been clear about where Fábio Cardoso stands, which is more than many ever get.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Alavés in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Chidera Ejuke has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
$27.7M was the most the club would pay and Real Madrid were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tottenham have kept their man, and Sevilla go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lucas Acosta is living that version at Sevilla, and it tends to show in the first month.
Youssouf Fofana 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 is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Juan Fernández has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Guerrero is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Sevilla asked and Real Sociedad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Sevilla have gone to Ferro Carril Oeste with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
$340.0K on the table at Aldosivi. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.