Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yeison Murillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cádiz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jerónimo Domina 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 had been thinking. Valentín Gómez 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Cádiz, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Cádiz have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Cádiz heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cádiz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Cádiz asked and Pro Vercelli 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Yeison Murillo has agreed terms with Mallorca for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Pasto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Mayer Gil 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: John Méndez. 2‑1 against Llaneros, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Marked 8.34 — 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.
Mayer Gil 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Geovanni Banguera has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“I watch every Deportivo Pasto game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bogota runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
65 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Pasto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Deportivo Pasto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Esneyder Mena 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sebastian Valencia after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo Pasto they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Santiago Jiménez wants continental football; whether Deportivo Pasto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Mayer Gil and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marco Miori. 1‑0 against Independiente Medellin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Esneyder Mena was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 104 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Pasto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo Pasto can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Daniel Mantilla 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.
8 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Yéiner Vargas 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.
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Pasto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal with Leones is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Santiago Jiménez wants continental football; whether Deportivo Pasto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Deportivo Pasto had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Los Angeles Football Club, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Daniel Mantilla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Esneyder Mena falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Pasto can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Charlotte Football Club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Daniel Mantilla 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.
Los Angeles Football Club 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Morales was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportivo Pasto has been clear about where Juan David Cabezas stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Pasto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Daniel Mantilla 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Esneyder Mena falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Patrick Preciado is on 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 Deportivo Pasto, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Geovanni Banguera wants continental football; whether Deportivo Pasto can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Daniel Mantilla 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 Esneyder Mena was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Harrinson Mancilla is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportivo Pasto, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Deportivo Pasto will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
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 Patrick Preciado is on it.