Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Pau Cubarsí and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Arnau Martínez has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Arnaud 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Izei Torres is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Osasuna have kept their man, and Valencia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pau Cubarsí was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yeremay trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 The request is on a desk at Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
39 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pau Cubarsí 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.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia 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 Gabriel Arnaud was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Manuel Martín again, and this time the name on the line is Shirak. Valencia are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Valencia know it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valencia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Still no offer on the table, and Justin de Haas’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
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 Pepelu has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valencia can pretend not to have heard.
Luis Rioja 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pau Cubarsí was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Valencia 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.
Valencia 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adam Jakobsen has just signed for Valencia, and for once the answer mattered.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Álvaro Valles wants continental football; whether Valencia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Cucho Hernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Pau Cubarsí 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.
Valencia asked and Gijón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Valencia have gone to Castellón 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.
“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.
Pau Cubarsí 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 16 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.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 4 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Arnaud 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 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Arnaut Danjuma trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
14 seasons and 425 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Gonzalo Prieto recited it perfectly.
Valencia asked and Eibar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 Valencia, 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.
Cucho Hernández 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 17 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.
The chase for Álvaro Valles ended with $10.8M changing hands and Betis out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
“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 Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Raúl Sánchez ended with $1.7M changing hands and Castellón out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Raúl Sánchez has, at Valencia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Valencia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
SquadJavi Guerra has improved at 24, which nobody expected
47Edition
The Valencia Herald
21 Jun 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
$10.8M settles it between the clubs for Álvaro Valles
Betis have accepted the money. What Valencia do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pau Cubarsí 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from André Almeida’s exile
The dugoutArnau Martínez has become a man the manager trusts
Betis did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $17.1M for Cucho Hernández, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almería have kept their man, and Valencia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$14.0M was the most the club would pay and Granada 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.
The fee is $8.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Huesca drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Zaragoza paid $4.3M and Valencia took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia 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 Pau Cubarsí 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.
Castellón have accepted the money. What Valencia do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valencia can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Almería have kept their man, and Valencia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Cucho Hernández has come up in conversations Valencia were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Valencia heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Arnaud was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Valencia know it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Valencia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Valencia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
SquadIker Córdoba has seen what the next man earns
BoardroomThe Valencia production line keeps running
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valencia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad24 May 2027
Pau Cubarsí 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.
10 goals in 39 games at Racing Santander — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Valencia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
8 goals in 34 games at Valladolid — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Valencia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Pau Cubarsí 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 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 at Valencia will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Ryunosuke Sato is somebody else's player now, and $120.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Iñaki Williams signs something — a contract at Valencia or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Valencia, and both men came out saying it was fine.
5 goals in 15 games at Zaragoza — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Valencia updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.37 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Elche kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Valencia will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnaut Danjuma 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Ignacio Gallardo has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Luis Rioja 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Pau Cubarsí falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Valencia can tell you which week it ends in.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Arnaut Danjuma.
Pau Cubarsí 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 Apr 2027
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnaut Danjuma 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. José Gayà wants continental football; whether Valencia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Something was said to Gabriel Arnaud and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It 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.
Pau Cubarsí 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Arnaud 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Valencia told Pau Cubarsí something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Stole Dimitrievski is on it.
Luis Rioja 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 Apr 2027
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pau Cubarsí 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Isma Ruiz wants continental football; whether Valencia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 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.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Valencia hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Pau Cubarsí
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Pau Cubarsí has come out of that comparison in the side, and Valencia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
Pau Cubarsí 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 Gabriel Arnaud was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Valencia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Ignacio Gallardo to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Valencia 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.
Derby days make names, and Gabriel Arnaud made his against Villarreal. 4‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Valencia supporters have already started telling it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valencia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pau Cubarsí was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. César Tárrega wants continental football; whether Valencia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Villarreal next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
Squad15 Mar 2027
8 new faces, and Valencia 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Pepelu.
“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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnaut Danjuma is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Enrique Torres 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 door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Ignacio Gallardo to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia 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 Pau Cubarsí was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Filip Ugrinić wants continental football; whether Valencia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Valencia pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Pau Cubarsí and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Guido Rodríguez, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Pau Cubarsí'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 ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Valencia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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. Tijuana have kept their man, and Valencia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hugo Duro. 2‑0 against Espanyol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Hugo Duro and Valencia agree another 4 years.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pau Cubarsí 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Isma Ruiz wants continental football; whether Valencia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Jérémy Mellot and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Valencia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
0‑10 against Real Madrid, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 7 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jon Martín has, at Valencia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Pau Cubarsí 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Valencia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match30 Jan 2027
Nobody could stop scoring
10 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Valencia and Real Madrid in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arnaut Danjuma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $29.4M has been paid because Gabriel Arnaud is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Hugo Duro had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Real Sociedad were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Hugo Duro provided it, and the 9.63 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
$14.8M was the most the club would pay and Hull City 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 a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gabriel Arnaud is living that version at Valencia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Pau Cubarsí 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Arnaud 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.
Valencia and Tours have settled on $29.4M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Valencia offered $16.4M; Real Sociedad 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pau Cubarsí has just signed for Valencia, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Granada have kept their man, and Valencia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The fee is $3.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Barcelona drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Stole Dimitrievski 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Pau Cubarsí 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 medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Valencia have done the hard part with Barcelona, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Valencia have gone to Real Sociedad 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.
Valencia asked and Granada said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The fee is $3.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Castellón drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Valencia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Jérémy Mellot has, at Valencia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Valencia have gone to Barcelona 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.
Valencia have gone to Hull City 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Valencia have gone to Castellón 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.
1 for Dimitri Foulquier, marked 7.08, 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.
Valencia offered $1.3M; Real Madrid 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.
Arnaut Danjuma and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Cristian Rivero: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Filip Ugrinić wants continental football; whether Valencia can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arnaut Danjuma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Valencia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Isma Ruiz 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 dugout21 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.” Ignacio Gallardo kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Valencia told Dani Raba something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valencia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valencia can pretend not to have heard.
Stole Dimitrievski 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 José Gayà was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 7.99. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ignacio Gallardo, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 Pablo Maffeo is on it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Valencia heard it as anything else.
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 Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Minute 92, against Mallorca, 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.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Arnaut Danjuma 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hugo Duro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Valencia now.
The dugout30 Nov 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.” Ignacio Gallardo chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Arnaut Danjuma provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Valencia know it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ugrinić 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Ignacio Gallardo could afford to be generous.
Luis Rioja 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 Arnaut Danjuma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Ignacio Gallardo to a room that had heard them before.
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dani Raba provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Arnaut Danjuma 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Santiago Márquez 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Duro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
Minute 89, against Villarreal, 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.53 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yeremay 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Valencia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Valencia will be judged on one thing only.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Gayà 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.
Luis Rioja and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Valencia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The dugout26 Oct 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.” Ignacio Gallardo kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Valencia have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Diego López will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Valencia escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Diego López scored, and precious little else went right: 2‑4 to Barcelona, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Duro 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 dugout19 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 2‑4 Ignacio Gallardo left the room before anybody could ask which.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Valencia rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Levante had no answer to any of it.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Arnaut Danjuma 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 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Martí Ortega 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 Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan Román Zarza is living that version at Valencia, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnaut Danjuma is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 23 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Valencia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Henrique Trevisan has, at Valencia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Duro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑3 against Real Madrid, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ugrinić 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Valencia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The bid was some way short and Valencia did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnaut Danjuma 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Nieto is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Arnaut Danjuma was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Valencia close the window on a squad of their own making
21 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Valencia heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia 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. Almería have kept their man, and Valencia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Pablo Maffeo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The chase for Yeremay ended with $27.8M changing hands and Deportivo La Coruña out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The offer from Real Madrid for Stole Dimitrievski 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Eibar have kept their man, and Valencia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yeremay has just signed for Valencia, and for once the answer mattered.
The phone has started ringing about Diego López again, and this time the name on the line is Real Sociedad. Valencia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Valencia offered $61.8M; West Ham United 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.
$27.8M on the table at Deportivo La Coruña. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Valencia have gone to Córdoba 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Iñaki Williams has, at Valencia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo La Coruña have kept their man, and Valencia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A squad is not eleven players and a wish. Iñaki Williams arrives from Athletic Bilbao to make the number up properly, and the value of that will be argued about in March rather than today.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Arnaut Danjuma was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer went to West Ham United 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.
Valencia have gone to Athletic Bilbao with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Valencia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Arnaut Danjuma 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hugo Duro 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 Martín Vera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
They sit in position 3 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
Valencia asked and Porto 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 Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ismael Serrano 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. Martín Vera has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Eduardo Ruiz 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Ugrinić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Madrid have kept their man, and Valencia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stole Dimitrievski and Valencia agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valencia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Valencia can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Valencia have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Valencia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Arnaut Danjuma 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.