Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Unionistas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Diego López 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Ricard Artero falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Unionistas, and 4 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Jozhua Vertrouwd and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at Unionistas, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Unionistas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Astra runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ricard Artero. 1‑0 against Celta Fortuna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.46 — 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.
Diego López 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 Ricard Artero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Diego López was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
A 1‑1 draw with Real Avilés leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Vicente Marín was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Unionistas dressing room was either.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.98 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals in one match, Ricard Artero on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Unionistas and Mirandés.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Matías Chiquichano 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.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Unionistas game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Barakaldo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Unionistas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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 Santiago Coronel has written the date down.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos De La Nava and Unionistas agree another 2 years.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Ricard Artero 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.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Unionistas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A brace, and Diego López takes the afternoon — 8.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Diego López provided it, and the 8.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Fran Castillo has, at Unionistas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas 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 Diego López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Diego López 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 at Unionistas saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laureano Puñet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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 Pol Tristán is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The terraces13 Sep 2027
The mood at Unionistas has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Unionistas 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 Ricard Artero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Unionistas 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Unionistas heard it as anything else.
Juan Artola 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 Diego López 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. Unionistas will try again when the window opens; Hércules may not be selling by then.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Unionistas, and 4 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Unionistas
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Leixões waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Unionistas is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego López 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. Arouca have kept their man, and Unionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Felipe Aguilar is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Julen Montero 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. Jesús García is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Nobody at Unionistas 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Raúl Prada 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.
In brief
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at Unionistas
54 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas 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.
The offer from Sampdoria for Lorenzo Gori 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Unionistas is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Diego López 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.
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.
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 Raúl Prada is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Unionistas can pretend not to have heard.
Jozhua Vertrouwd 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Laureano Puñet 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 club from his own country has asked the question, and he has never pretended he did not want to be asked. Unionistas have a conversation ahead of them that they will not win with money.
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 Aleix Gorjón is on it.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Diego López 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.
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Raúl Prada 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.
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Diego López 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Ricard Artero 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 Pol Tristán is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 84 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
“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 Unionistas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Unionistas 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 Ricard Artero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Jota's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The words a physio says slowly. 91 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Juan Artola 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego López is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Unionistas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Aleix Gorjón is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
This is not rotation. Juan Carlos Lescano has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Unionistas is pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego López 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.
Lorenzo Gori 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Joan Martínez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Unionistas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Real Sociedad keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Astra will make the call about Jemiah Umolu this week. Unionistas have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Ricard Artero 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.
Álex Valiño and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is 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.
115 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Unionistas is running low.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Unionistas is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Diego López 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.
Jozhua Vertrouwd 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Unionistas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Ricard Artero falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
5 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Unionistas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Unionistas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Unionistas can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Unionistas, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The deal with Girona 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.
Diego López 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 Aarón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Unionistas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos De La Nava 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 Unionistas 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Unionistas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom24 May 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Unionistas
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego López 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.
Juan Artola 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lorenzo Gori, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Jota's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Unionistas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 17 on 36 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adam Arvelo did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Unionistas are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Diego López 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 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 Unionistas know 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.
A point taken on 93 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vicente Marín after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vicente Marín has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad3 May 2027
Diego López falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Unionistas has been clear about where Juan Carlos Lescano stands, which is more than many ever get.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Unionistas pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Álex Valiño 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 squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Diego López is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
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 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.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Unionistas
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Unionistas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Joan Martínez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Unionistas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Joan Martínez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raúl Prada was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vicente Marín after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Unionistas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Unionistas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Diego López 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Something was said to Juan Carlos Lescano and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
5 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.
Successful dribbles: 43. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Unionistas will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vicente Marín has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Unionistas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego López 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Unionistas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Unionistas is running low.
The offer from IFK Mariehamn for Lorenzo Gori 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Unionistas 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.
In brief
SquadRaúl Prada falls out with a teammate over standards
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Unionistas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Unionistas has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego López is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Unionistas can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Tomás Blanco and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Diego López 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Laureano Puñet is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Unionistas can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Unionistas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vicente Marín has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adam Arvelo did not need any: 7.74, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Minute 88, against Tenerife, 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Juan Carlos Lescano will call it something else in private.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Unionistas 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 Unionistas can pretend not to have heard.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Joan Martínez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Diego López 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 squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Diego López is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugoutPol Tristán has become a man the manager trusts
30Edition
The Unionistas Post
22 Feb 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
A brace, and Hugo Mallo takes the afternoon — 8.18
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hugo Mallo provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Unionistas and Celta Fortuna in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Diego López 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.
Juan Artola 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.
Marked 8.47. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Unionistas.
The dugout22 Feb 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 3‑4 Vicente Marín left the room before anybody could ask which.
Something was said to Carlos De La Nava and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Unionistas asked and Leicester City 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 Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 6.76 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Chances created: 12. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Shots: 19. 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 words a physio says slowly. 14 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Cadete has, at Unionistas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laureano Puñet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Unionistas asked and Atalanta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 18 and 16 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.
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Unionistas close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 0 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas 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 Laureano Puñet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Unionistas asked and Ipswich Town said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Unionistas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Unionistas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Adam Arvelo did not need any: 8.01, 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. 7.85 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Unionistas have gone to Albacete with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The fee is $250.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Barakaldo drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matías Chiquichano provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have shaken hands with Barakaldo; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
$530.0K on the table at Girona. 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 Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lazio have kept their man, and Unionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Guadalajara waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Unionistas is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
7.72, 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Girona have kept their man, and Unionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
At 35, 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.
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.
Position 20 and 11 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.
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.
Everybody at Unionistas saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Unionistas can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Juan Artola 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 name of Marco Coronas has come up in conversations Unionistas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every 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.
“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 Unionistas know it.
Juan Artola 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Hugo Mallo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
Lorenzo Gori 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vicente Marín after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Unionistas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Unionistas can tell you which week it ends in.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Vicente Marín after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
SquadRaúl Prada falls out with a teammate over standards
Position 18 and 9 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Unionistas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Laureano Puñet 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
5 new faces, and Unionistas 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.
Joan Martínez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laureano Puñet 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Unionistas told Juanma Lendínez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A Unionistas teenager takes the young player award
Matías Chiquichano is 19, 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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Talavera defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
A mark of 7.96 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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.” Vicente Marín kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Raúl Prada 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.
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Laureano Puñet 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joan Martínez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Unionistas 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 trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Unionistas has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Unionistas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Juanma Lendínez obliged against Getafe. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Unionistas.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laureano Puñet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Juan Artola 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Juanma Lendínez 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.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Vicente Marín left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Unionistas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Lorenzo Gori has, at Unionistas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 90. Celta Fortuna had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The dugout2 Nov 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 Vicente Marín left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laureano Puñet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Vicente Marín left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Unionistas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matías Chiquichano has just signed for Unionistas, and for once the answer mattered.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
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.
Álvaro 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.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He is 19, and nobody at Unionistas signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Joan Martínez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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.
Hugo Mallo is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Joan Martínez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laureano Puñet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Unionistas saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Adam Arvelo
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Adam Arvelo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Unionistas have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A mark of 7.74, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” Vicente Marín kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Víctor Olmedo 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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ramiro’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Unionistas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Unionistas have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raúl Prada was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vicente Marín after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Raúl Prada’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Unionistas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
11 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Víctor Olmedo
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.
Unionistas had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zaragoza, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laureano Puñet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Unionistas asked and Zaragoza said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Unionistas 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.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Juan Artola
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Raúl Prada
Player ratingsVadik Murria spends the afternoon fouling
6Edition
The Unionistas Post
7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondentSteady
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Unionistas 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Unionistas have done the hard part with Zaragoza, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Laureano Puñet 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. Valladolid have kept their man, and Unionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Vadik Murria is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
$600.0K on the table at Girona. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cortulua keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laureano Puñet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Unionistas asked and Standard Liege said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Santiago Coronel is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Abel Amaya has, at Unionistas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zaragoza have kept their man, and Unionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Unionistas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Joan Martínez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 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.
In brief
BoardroomNo investment in the facilities at Unionistas
The deal with Cortulua 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: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Madrid have kept their man, and Unionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Cristian Vera 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Vicente Navarro 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Julen Navarro 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Pol 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Unionistas know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
In brief
SquadRaúl Prada falls out with a teammate over standards
Juan Artola 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.
Unionistas have made the call to Boca Juniors. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Unionistas have made the call to Real Madrid. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Cortulua have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Víctor Olmedo 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.