16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Newell's Old Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newell's Old Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 The request is on a desk at Newell's Old Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 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.
Thiago Rojas 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 Thiago Silvero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newell's Old Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Silvero 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 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newell's Old Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiago Silvero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Thiago Rojas and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Exequiel Mereles has his answer from Newell's Old Boys; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Newell's Old Boys 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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Newell's Old Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Newell's Old Boys they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marked 7.84. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
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.
Jorge Morinigo 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.
13 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 manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lucas Morales
Player ratingsThe chances came and went for Aaron Silva
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomás Perri will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Newell's Old Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Thiago Rojas 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 Thiago Silvero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dylan Salvo. 1‑0 against Central Córdoba SdE, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agustín Villalobos, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Mar 2036
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.” Interim Coach, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
51 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Newell's Old Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Newell's Old Boys they have already started talking about him 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 Newell's Old Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Thiago Rojas 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 had been thinking. Thiago Silvero 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.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
58 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Newell's Old Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elías Machuca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Newell's Old Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Thiago Silvero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Lopes. 2‑0 against Lanús, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nicolás Varela and Newell's Old Boys agree another 5 years.
The words a physio says slowly. 65 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.
“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 Newell's Old Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nehemías Portillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Newell's Old Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newell's Old Boys 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.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
79 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Newell's Old Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Newell's Old Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alan Torterolo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Newell's Old Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cristiano De Paoli has just signed for Newell's Old Boys, and for once the answer mattered.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Newell's Old Boys has to find a result from somewhere.
Thiago Rojas 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 Thiago Silvero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Flandria will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Cristiano De Paoli has pre-agreed a move to Newell's Old Boys, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
1‑0 against Cerro Porteno, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Joaquín Panichelli was at the centre of the description.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atletico Nacional have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Atletico Nacional have paid $13.1M for Cole Campbell, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
“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 Atletico Nacional, and it is not being withdrawn.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $4.5M of what Atletico Nacional paid for Joaquín Panichelli is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Freddy Montero has just signed for Atletico Nacional, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Junior have kept their man, and Atletico Nacional go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Deportivo Municipal waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atletico Nacional is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Envigado had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Junior did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $5.5M for David Martínez, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“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 Atletico Nacional, and it is not being withdrawn.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $1.0M of what Atletico Nacional paid for Pedro Lima is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. David Martínez has just signed for Atletico Nacional, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Millonarios have kept their man, and Atletico Nacional go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Joaquín Panichelli 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atletico Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alexander Aravena 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Amin Boudri 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 new man at Atletico Nacional has worked with Emilio Aristizábal before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atletico Nacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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.
17 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atletico Nacional they have already started talking about him 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 Atletico Nacional can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Saba Kharebashvili scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
1‑1 against Universitario, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Noah Sahsah was at the centre of the description.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atletico Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Atletico Nacional, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Mateo Mejia 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.
Junior next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
“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 Atletico Nacional, and it is not being withdrawn.
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daouda Guindo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atletico Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Joaquín Panichelli 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.
8 matches without defeat, and then Independiente Medellin. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Equi Fernández will call it something else in private.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Gustavo Charrupi wants continental football; whether Atletico Nacional can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joaquín Panichelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atletico Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
7 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.
The offer from FC Nordsjaelland for Pedro Lima 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Joaquín Panichelli provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atletico Nacional can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” St. Louis CITY SC had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Atletico Nacional, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atletico Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Joaquín Panichelli 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Santiago Cena has agreed terms with Independiente Medellin for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Atletico Nacional have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
The deal that would have taken Ciro Armoa to Deportivo Cali has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Atletico Nacional with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Felipe Sánchez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mateo Caballero has, at Atletico Nacional, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atletico Nacional can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Aguilas Doradas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atletico Nacional is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Joaquín Panichelli 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.
$250.0K was the most the club would pay and Junior 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mateus Lusuardi is living that version at Atletico Nacional, and it tends to show in the first month.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.86, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simón García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atletico Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
The name of Juan Martín Moreno has come up in conversations Atletico Nacional were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Joaquín Panichelli. 2‑1 against Union Magdalena, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atletico Nacional can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atletico Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Atletico Nacional, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Victor Hugo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atletico Nacional 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 Joaquín Panichelli 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. Thiago Silvero wants continental football; whether Atletico Nacional can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Santa Fe; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atletico Nacional can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jeremy Sarmiento will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atletico Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pedro Lima 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 had been thinking. Joaquín Panichelli 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.
“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.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Atletico Nacional expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Tomás Avilés.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atletico Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Felipe Sánchez has just signed for Atletico Nacional, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Quintero 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 a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Atletico Nacional can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
19 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atletico Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pedro Lima 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 win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atletico Nacional hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeremy Sarmiento 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 goals in 31 games at Union Magdalena — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Atletico Nacional updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Position 3, 72 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atletico Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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; Atletico Nacional are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Quintero 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 Atletico Nacional this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Jhon Solís is on 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 Atletico Nacional, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Lauro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atletico Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Emiliano Martínez 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
“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 Atletico Nacional hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Lauro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atletico Nacional the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Emiliano Martínez 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Valentín Fenoglio has agreed terms with Santa Fe for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Atletico Nacional can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joaquín Molina has just signed for Atletico Nacional, and for once the answer mattered.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Atletico Nacional, and 4 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Tomás Palacios
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atletico Nacional people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Nothing signed, nothing denied, and a lot of people suddenly very careful about their wording. Supporters who have been through one of these know the quiet part lasts months.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atletico Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Louey Ben Farhat 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 had been thinking. Jeremy Sarmiento 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.
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.