There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.13 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Richard Ledezma 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 Otávio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Tiago Pucciarelli 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.
With 4 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Guadalajara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Richard Ledezma 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Guadalajara heard it as anything else.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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 finished 2‑0, and it was Richard Ledezma’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Guadalajara.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Richard Ledezma was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Guadalajara can tell you which week it ends in.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otávio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jorge Corona 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Juan Moreno is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Raul Vega is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Guadalajara heard it as anything else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Guadalajara can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Richard Ledezma 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.
3 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout13 Sep 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 Javier Moreno to a room that had heard them before.
5 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.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 27 gone
That is the business done at Guadalajara 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.
“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 Guadalajara hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Richard Ledezma 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. Cruz Azul have kept their man, and Guadalajara go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Dion Beljo 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.
“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 Guadalajara, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otávio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
At 20 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 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 midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.75, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diogo Bagüí, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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.” Javier Moreno, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Atlas had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Guadalajara did not stop to explain themselves.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Guadalajara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Richard Ledezma 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Dion Beljo 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.
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.
Match14 Aug 2027
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Guadalajara. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
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.
Richard Ledezma 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 Otávio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Dion Beljo had Guadalajara level again within 1 minutes, and Santos Laguna never got to play with a lead at all.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Santiago Sandoval and Guadalajara agree another 5 years.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Javier Moreno after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Dion Beljo is on 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 Guadalajara can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otávio 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 Guadalajara has been clear about where Alan Mozo stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Guadalajara, and it is not being withdrawn.
Richard Ledezma 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.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
6 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Diogo Bagüí
“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 Guadalajara, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.2M was the most the club would pay and Atlas 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Santos Laguna is saying, and nobody at Guadalajara is enjoying the guessing.
“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; Guadalajara are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Richard Ledezma 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 Otávio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Pérez and Guadalajara agree another 4 years.
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.
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Guadalajara lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of 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 Guadalajara can pretend not to have heard.
Guadalajara have gone to Atlas 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Brian Gutiérrez and Guadalajara agree another 5 years.
“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.
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Guadalajara lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Atlético Madrid paid $49.7M and Guadalajara took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Guadalajara people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Efraín Álvarez has gone, the accounts have $49.7M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
$1.9M was the most the club would pay and Pachuca 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 words a physio says slowly. 31 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Guadalajara will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Guadalajara people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Guadalajara can pretend not to have heard.
Guadalajara have gone to Pachuca 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 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 Guadalajara hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Guadalajara will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Richard Ledezma 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Efraín Álvarez 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 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.
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.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Guadalajara will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Richard Ledezma 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 Otávio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Guadalajara, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Guadalajara can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otávio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Richard Ledezma 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 Otávio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Richard Ledezma is on it.
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.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
In brief
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at Guadalajara
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Guadalajara will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Richard Ledezma 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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.
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 Efraín Álvarez is on it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Richard Ledezma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Dion Beljo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutDion Beljo has become a man the manager trusts
Richard Ledezma 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Otávio signs something — a contract at Guadalajara or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Carlos Zepeda has his answer from Guadalajara; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Fernando González has written the date down.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Guadalajara the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
A brace, and Dion Beljo takes the afternoon — 8.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Dion Beljo provided it, and the 8.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Minute 93, against Club America, 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Tiago Pucciarelli did not need any: 8.27, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Guadalajara can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Richard Ledezma 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.
6 goals in one match, Bryan González on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Guadalajara and Leon.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Efraín Álvarez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Tiago Pucciarelli 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.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Guadalajara now know that too.
Richard Ledezma 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Efraín Álvarez. 1‑0 against Toluca, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jonathan Pérez provided it, and the 8.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Guadalajara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guadalajara 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 Otávio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Bryan González 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.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Bryan González was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
Richard Ledezma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Efraín Álvarez 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.
Marked 8.22 — 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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Bryan González 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Ángel Sepúlveda will call it something else in private.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Monterrey paid $2.5M and Guadalajara took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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 Guadalajara hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Richard Ledezma 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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.
Something was said to Luis Romo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Efraín Álvarez had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Guadalajara people have started saying his name in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Otávio wants continental football; whether Guadalajara can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Richard Ledezma 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.
6 goals in one match, Efraín Álvarez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Guadalajara and Puebla.
In brief
SquadWords at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
126 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Guadalajara lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
$17.1M on the table at Dinamo Zagreb. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Guadalajara have gone to Tijuana 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. Santos Laguna have kept their man, and Guadalajara go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Guadalajara have gone to Tijuana 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.
Richard Ledezma 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.
At 20 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.
In brief
SquadOtávio falls out with a teammate over standards
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Richard Ledezma 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.
0‑1 to Pumas UNAM, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Bryan González'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 dugout28 Dec 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Javier Moreno to a room that had heard them before.
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 Ricardo Marín is on it.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Monterrey.
1‑4 to Tigres, 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Guadalajara will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Guadalajara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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 8.02 — 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.
Tigres held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Guadalajara answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with 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 Guadalajara heard it as anything else.
Richard Ledezma 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Efraín Álvarez 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Guadalajara can tell you which week it ends in.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Brandon Brocksom and Guadalajara agree another 3 years.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Guadalajara have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Richard Ledezma 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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. Guadalajara told Otávio something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Javier Moreno was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Guadalajara dressing room was either.
“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 Guadalajara, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Otávio wants continental football; whether Guadalajara 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 Guadalajara this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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.
28 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Javier Moreno was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Guadalajara dressing room was either.
A performance of 10.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Efraín Álvarez 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.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Efraín Álvarez in the middle of it, and Dorados unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Marked 8.36 — 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.
Richard Ledezma 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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 did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Omar Govea has his answer from Guadalajara; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Guadalajara told Ricardo Marín 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 Luis Romo is on it.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Guadalajara scored in the 112th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
A mark of 8.14 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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.93 for the rest of it.
Richard Ledezma 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Tiago Pucciarelli 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.
Marked 9.78 — 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miguel Ángel Tapias, and the manager let it.
The dugout19 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.” Javier Moreno kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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 Guadalajara know it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Brian Gutiérrez and Guadalajara agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Richard Ledezma 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 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.
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.
Three points for Guadalajara, 1‑0 the final word against Morelia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Efraín Álvarez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Javier Moreno on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guadalajara 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 finished 3‑1, and it was Ricardo Marín’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Guadalajara.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
José Castillo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Otávio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.40 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Javier Moreno on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
$2.5M was the most the club would pay and Santos Laguna 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.
Richard Ledezma 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 Efraín Álvarez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 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.
11 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.
The offer went to Santos Laguna 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.
The bid was some way short and Guadalajara did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Guadalajara close the window on a squad of their own making
15 in and 3 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 win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Guadalajara hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Richard Ledezma 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Otávio 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.
Add another name to the list: Pumas UNAM have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hugo Camberos. The answer from Guadalajara has not changed — yet.
Two goals and a mark of 9.84 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 kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Julián Quiñones provided it, and the 9.25 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tijjani Reijnders provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer went to Al-Fayha 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $7.3M has been paid because Otávio is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
TSG Hoffenheim pay $9.0M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
The offer went to Leon 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Guadalajara 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 Ángel Sepúlveda 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.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and Guadalajara are still learning each other
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Al-Ittihad have kept their man, and Al-Qadisiyah go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Al-Qadisiyah heard it as anything else.
Koen Casteels 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Qadisiyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nacho 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. Ibrahim Al-Qahtani 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. Ali Al-Mutairi 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.
Al-Ra'ed next, and one man in the Al-Qadisiyah dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The clubs have shaken hands with Al-Qadisiyah; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Ricardo Marín scored in the 85th minute, Santos Laguna had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Guadalajara took the lot.
Roberto Alvarado 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.
“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 Al-Qadisiyah hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The name of Julian Weigl has come up in conversations Al-Qadisiyah were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Mateo Retegui and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Al-Qadisiyah training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tijjani Reijnders 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.