The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Minnesota United FC is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Ojeda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Harry Toffolo 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.
Nobody at Minnesota United FC will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined 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 The request is on a desk at Minnesota United FC, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Minnesota United FC have had the benefit of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ștefan Chirilă will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Minnesota United FC the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Ho-yeon Jung 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.
Julian Gressel 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.
Nobody at Minnesota United FC will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
0 appearances, 0 clean sheets, and a goalkeeper no further forward than the day he left. Whether that belongs to him, to the club that borrowed him or to the people who arranged it is the argument Minnesota United FC will have this month.
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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Bode Hidalgo was one of the reasons people came, and $3.5M does not replace that by itself.
The chase for Anthony Markanich ended with $1.9M changing hands and Minnesota United FC out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Minnesota United FC paid $2.7M and CF Montreal took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The offer from Sporting Kansas City for Matty Longstaff 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.
Daniel Pereira 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: 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.
CF Montreal asked and PAOK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The fee is $3.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. CF Montreal drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The fee is $1.4M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Charlotte Football Club drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“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 Minnesota United FC know it.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $3.5M for Bode Hidalgo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Dallas have kept their man, and Minnesota United FC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matai Akinmboni 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Minnesota United FC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Minnesota United FC people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
$3.5M settles it between the clubs for Bode Hidalgo
CF Montreal have accepted the money. What Minnesota United FC do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Minnesota United FC have gone to Charlotte Football Club 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 mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Minnesota United FC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Minnesota United FC asked and Atlanta United FC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Matai Akinmboni 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.
0‑3 to Toronto FC, 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.
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.
$4.4M on the table at FC Dallas. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 CF Montreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
$2.0M on the table at LA Galaxy. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
CF Montreal have gone to Colorado Rapids 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.
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.
Dagur Dan Þórhallsson 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.
12 combined actions and 6.56. 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.
65 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CF Montreal lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 CF Montreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. CF Montreal have done the hard part with DC United, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs have shaken hands with New England Revolution; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $568.8K — a club that wants Kosi Thompson enough to be asked twice.
$520.0K on the table at Colorado Rapids. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Atlanta United FC wanted more than $300.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
In brief
SquadWords at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
SquadPrince Owusu left off the list on the foreign quota
The words a physio says slowly. 96 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.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luca Petrasso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CF Montreal know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and CF Montreal have no good answer.
67 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.
This is not rotation. Victor Loturi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at CF Montreal is pretending otherwise.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Petrasso 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CF Montreal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. CF Montreal know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at CF Montreal and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Bode Hidalgo
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at CF Montreal
This is not rotation. Victor Loturi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at CF Montreal is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Jalen Neal 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at CF Montreal, 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 CF Montreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at CF Montreal
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jalen Neal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. CF Montreal told Matheus Nascimento something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CF Montreal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Dagur Dan Þórhallsson 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 Bode Hidalgo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at CF Montreal the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
MatchNothing left to play for but pride at CF Montreal
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.
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bode Hidalgo 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.
7 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.
“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 dugout4 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Brenden Moore chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against New England Revolution? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dagur Dan Þórhallsson signs something — a contract at CF Montreal or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Christopher Cupps is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Daniel Pereira 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.
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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Matheus Nascimento’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to CF Montreal.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Bode Hidalgo 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
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.” Brenden Moore kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Dagur Dan Þórhallsson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Bode Hidalgo 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.
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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Henry Kessler 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dagur Dan Þórhallsson signs something — a contract at CF Montreal or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 CF Montreal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
At 23 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Brenden Moore after 0‑2, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CF Montreal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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; CF Montreal are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dante Sealy 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 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CF Montreal can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
Deadline passes with 9 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at CF Montreal 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Brayan Ceballos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. New York City have kept their man, and CF Montreal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bode Hidalgo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.