Balague: The Voice of Spanish Football Coverage

The last week hasn’t been the finest in the career of Guillem Balague.

For years he gained credibility through Sky Sports’ coverage of La Liga, someone knowledgeable and enthusiastic presenting and explaining the mechanics of a game where few folk knew anything of beyond Barcelona and Real Madrid.

A magical league emerged, full of characters and colour, great attacking football with the background stories emerging from a variety of clubs.

Barcelona and Pep Guadiola were the big story but there was other areas of interest that Balague added to such as the rise of Europa League specialists Sevilla and the bad guys of Atletico Madrid under panto villain Diego Simeone.

Balague’s passion came over easily, he was the real deal, the man to bridge UK viewers with the magic of the Spanish game.

And then came the business with Dave Ancelotti, so clearly orchestrated from those close to his Dad as they tried to place young Dave into management without having to relocate to Brazil and falling out of view.

The Ibrox vacancy was a useful one to be linked with but things went way too far, growing arms and legs thanks to the excited puppy reaction to the prospect among the Scottish media.

They were all over a surname, similar to the arrival of Ianis Hagi five years earlier, there are a massive number of Carlo stories to call on, insert young Dave and it made easy copy for days on end.

There are no bigger fan-boys of the Ibrox club than the Sports Desk at BBC Scotland- how could it be anything else with the combined know-how of Kenny Macintyre, Tom English and Alasdair Lamont under the same roof?

When they contacted Balague there was only one purpose- get a big name to link with following Dave to Ibrox and it was mission accomplished.

When Balague, possibly as a complete throw-away, a joke said ‘Modric hasn’t said no’ the cheers from BBC Scotland could be heard all the way over to Ibrox.

Balague had to go onto Twitter/X to retract the ‘story’.

Rather than take a step back he was on Sportsound with Macintyre and English on Saturday, giving it large for Dave as the Ancelotti camp tried to flush out interest in the Italian Beale, the master of laying out cones and bibs.

Tonight the Daily Record and Rangers Review/Herald have as good as confirmed Fabrizio Romano’s Tuesday tweet- it WON’T be Dave Ancelotti.

Rangers have to decide between Russell Martin and Davide Ancelotti. They both like very much the idea. That is the latest I am hearing. Logically the decision should be soon, it would make sense that it takes not longer than the end of the week
Meanwhile, this is YOU taking… https://t.co/ROC5WABRh2
— Guillem Balague (@GuillemBalague) June 4, 2025

Balague couldn’t keep away from the story, it has achieved its purpose, young Dave has had his profile raised with Como, Basel and Deportivo Lacoruna all reportedly interested in the former Real Madrid assistant.

Almost a week on Balague was still working on the story when it is very clear that Russell Martin is very much the choice of the club for the job.

The social media backlash has been fierce, the true nature of the Ibrox support has come to the surface- a Neil Warnock or Sean Dyche type character is what they crave.

Dave Ancelotti and his advisors should take note and learn lessons- Como, Basel and Deportivo surely don’t have the same levels of toxicity lurking among their supporters.