“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 The request is on a desk at Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nestor Dos Santos 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.
Pachuca left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alfonso 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Simón Almeida has his answer from Dorados; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Castro 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 The request is on a desk at Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Jhon Acurio, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.37
A mark of 8.37 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Nestor Dos Santos 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mateo Levy. 3‑2 against Puebla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Mateo Levy in the middle of it, and Puebla unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alfonso Sánchez 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. Nicolás Castro wants continental football; whether Dorados can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alex Castro and Dorados agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Campos 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 20 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.
Simón Almeida 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.
8 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutIgnacio Bessone is still being punished for one mistake
“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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pumas UNAM have kept their man, and Dorados go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alexis Jimenez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Osuna 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Dorados 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alfonso Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dorados, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nestor Dos Santos 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pachuca have kept their man, and Dorados go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Nicolás Muscio 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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Ignacio Bessone knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alexis Jimenez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Position 16 and 17 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $270.0K — a club that wants Magnus Lopez enough to be asked twice.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dorados have done the hard part with Tigres, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$250.0K on the table at Santos Laguna. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The chase for Luis Rosales ended with $190.0K changing hands and Santos Laguna out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ignacio Bessone has his answer from Dorados; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 name of Leonardo Vargas has come up in conversations Dorados were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $360.0K — a club that wants Santiago Sandoval enough to be asked twice.
Dorados have gone to Guadalajara 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados 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 Nicolás Muscio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alfonso 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.
Iván Regules 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ignacio Bessone 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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Iván Regules 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 Alfonso Sánchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ignacio Bessone 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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Dorados is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dorados 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.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Iván Regules 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.
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.
A brace, and Alex Castro takes the afternoon — 8.79
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Alex Castro provided it, and the 8.79 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dorados can pretend not to have heard.
Simón Almeida 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Muscio 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Alex Castro had Dorados level again within 1 minutes, and Toluca never got to play with a lead at all.
In brief
The dugoutIgnacio Bessone is still being punished for one mistake
“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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dylan Guajardo scored, was marked 7.73, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados 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.
He is 20 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 8 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Iván Regules 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Muscio 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Carlos Galicia 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 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 Dorados know it.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Iván Regules 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 Carlos Galicia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Ignacio Bessone.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
0‑7 to Monterrey, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Dorados close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 0 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.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Iván Regules 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Dorados and Monterrey, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Galicia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Veracruz for Leonardo Vargas 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.
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.
0‑3 to Atlas, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dorados can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Pumas UNAM; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Add another name to the list: Veracruz have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Leonardo Vargas. The answer from Dorados has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Galicia 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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Guillermo Lainez did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dorados have done the hard part with Pumas UNAM, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Iván Regules 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.
A 2‑1 win over Santos Laguna, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dorados can pretend not to have heard.
Simón Almeida 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 Nicolás Muscio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 combined actions and 6.63. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Iván Regules 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 medical room confirms 67 days on the sidelines for Miguel Guzmán, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Galicia 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.
13 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.
0‑3 to Toluca, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Alfonso Sánchez, marked 7.41, 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.
Nicolás Muscio 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.
8 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Ignacio Bessone's mistake
Iván Regules 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.
22 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Something was said to Guillermo Lainez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dorados will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dorados, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Simón Almeida, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Jhon Acurio 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout28 Sep 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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Alexis Jimenez to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 19 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Iván Regules 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Manuel Montes is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Eduardo Rodriguez 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jhon Acurio 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. Cruz Azul have kept their man, and Dorados go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The deal with Pachuca 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Tucumán is saying, and nobody at Dorados is enjoying the guessing.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.