Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes Tolima they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zé Vitor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over Atletico Bucaramanga, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Neider Parra wants continental football; whether Deportes Tolima can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Moreno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jonathan Silva 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.
15 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 team sheet said everything about Leandro Mamut
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes Tolima can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes Tolima they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportes Tolima have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Miguel Moreno 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 is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportes Tolima can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Franco Pulicastro is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Torino lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Torino people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Foggia moved on, Daniel Mikołajewski reports back to Torino, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The name of Mouhamadou Sarr has come up in conversations Torino were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Rolando Mandragora 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.
In brief
Boardroom18 academy players handed senior numbers at Torino
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Torino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Vicenza waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Torino is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Torino can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jalen Foucan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Torino the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Spezia paid $980.0K and Torino took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Ahmed Sidibé 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Paolo Limon is living that version at Torino, and it tends to show in the first month.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.