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.
Lugo have accepted the money. What Unionistas do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
Unionistas had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Albacete, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ignacio Juárez is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Keven Samuel decided nobody was going anywhere. Pontevedra had no time left to answer.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Unionistas had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
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.
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. Charlie Patiño has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The name of Marco Coronas has come up in conversations Unionistas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edu Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Víctor Olmedo 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.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Guadalajara left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Dec 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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Santiago Peña 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.
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.
Something was said to Jota and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Edu Sánchez 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.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Edu Sánchez did not need any: 7.63, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Charlie Patiño 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.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Dec 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.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Santiago Peña kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Unionistas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Charlie Patiño was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Charlie Patiño has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Keven Samuel, and the manager let it.
Squad30 Nov 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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Santiago Peña after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Edu Sánchez 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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Juan Artola and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Edu Sánchez 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
10 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.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Valladolid go through and Unionistas go home, 2‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Zoumana Diallo 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Isack, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 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.
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 Santiago Peña left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Charlie Patiño. 1‑0 against Lugo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edu Sánchez 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Unionistas, another week without a signature from Mirko Kos.
The dugout2 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.” Santiago Peña kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
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 0‑1 Santiago Peña left the room before anybody could ask which.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Oct 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Adam Arvelo
“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.
13 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: 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Víctor Olmedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
Charlie Patiño 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 Edu Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jhonarby Salazar and Unionistas agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
20 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Keven Samuel has, at Unionistas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
1 for Mirko Ladrón de Guevara, marked 7.90, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
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.
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.
It needed Mirko Ladrón de Guevara to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Zamora, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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.” Santiago Peña chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Marked 7.34. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
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.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” Santiago Peña chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Ourense CF? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zamora in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
35 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mirko Ladrón de Guevara scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
7.96, 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.
Tito 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.
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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Charlie Patiño’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Unionistas.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edu Sánchez 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.
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.
42 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Charlie Patiño provided it, and the 8.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Unionistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Unionistas will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
49 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.
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.
Unionistas had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Rosario Central, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Charlie Patiño was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Colón 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jota was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Unionistas asked and Gimnasia y Esgrima said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words at Unionistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edu Sánchez 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.
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.
A loan enquiry to Rosario Central: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Unionistas have paid $1.5M for Edu Sánchez, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Tito 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 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
8 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.
Gimnasia y Esgrima 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.
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Unionistas have gone and got theirs early.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Tito arrives at Unionistas with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
The clubs have shaken hands with Antequera; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Unionistas asked and Burgos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Unionistas offered $1.6M; Alavés said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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 offer went to Antequera 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.
$630.0K was the most the club would pay and Gimnàstic 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alberto 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Julen Delgado 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. Pablo Gil 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. Víctor Peña 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 offer went to Gimnàstic 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. Albacete have kept their man, and Unionistas go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
Unionistas have made the call to Antequera. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.