“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 La Guaira can pretend not to have heard.
“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 La Guaira, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 La Guaira can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo La Guaira have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 La Guaira, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo La Guaira have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Deportivo La Guaira, and 0 appearances in 32 say he has earned the hearing.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Deportivo La Guaira can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Deportivo La Guaira pretended it was anything other than a decision about 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 Deportivo La Guaira, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Deportivo La Guaira spent the window trying to move Yackson Rivas on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo La Guaira has to find a result from somewhere.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Llaneros defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ignacio Colombo will call it something else in private.
A new face in his position, and Flabián Londoño suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Deportivo La Guaira have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“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 La Guaira can pretend not to have heard.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Deportivo La Guaira, and 2 appearances in 7 say he has earned the hearing.
“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 La Guaira can pretend not to have heard.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo La Guaira has to find a result from somewhere.
“I did not go to Carabobo to sit and watch. I want to come back to Deportivo La Guaira and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Deportivo La Guaira have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
“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 La Guaira can pretend not to have heard.
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Ignacio Colombo has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
A fortnight of speculation and then nothing at all — no bid, no talks, no move. He is a Deportivo La Guaira player, and the column can go back to the football.
The fee is $880.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Caracas drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportivo La Guaira has been clear about where Brayan Morales stands, which is more than many ever get.
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Carlos Rivero keeps the shirt for now, at Deportivo La Guaira's convenience rather than his own.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 La Guaira, and both men came out saying it was fine.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Ignacio Colombo has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“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 La Guaira, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 La Guaira can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Rivero and Deportivo La Guaira agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.