75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
369 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
In brief
MarketTomás Avilés wants to know where this is going
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CF Montreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal 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 CF Montreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Oct 2040
Tomás Avilés 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. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jalen Neal 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.
In brief
SquadWords at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
124 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CF Montreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑2, and a season that ran to May has ended inside a fortnight. This is what a playoff is: nine months of work settled by a couple of evenings, and nobody who designed it was thinking about the losing dressing room.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 21 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Jalen Neal 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.
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CF Montreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadTomás Avilés falls out with a teammate over standards
145 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CF Montreal can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CF Montreal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CF Montreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2040
Words at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Owen Graham-Roache 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Owen Graham-Roache provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Jalen Neal 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. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about CF Montreal and New York Red Bulls in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad14 May 2040
Words at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Avilés 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 the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Beaten 4 times, with 2 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CF Montreal can pretend not to have heard.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.39 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
7.94, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Fernando Hernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CF Montreal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jalen Neal 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.
Squad2 Apr 2040
Words at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Avilés 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.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 127 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.