The Flandria Sentinel
Market31 Jan 2028
The unthinkable, invoiced: Matías López sold
Mamelodi Sundowns arrived with $2.3M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Squad31 Jan 2028
111 days out for Franco Costa after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Flandria will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market31 Jan 2028
Valenciennes come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Flandria did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces31 Jan 2028
A $2.3M sale, and a town that did not want it
Matías López has gone, the accounts have $2.3M 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Flandria
Iván Alvariño 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 dugout31 Jan 2028
No hiding place for Franco Costa
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franco Costa, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Flandria
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martín López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Tomás Martínez asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Gastón Silvero has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Flandria 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.
In brief
- The dugout The manager makes Brian Rodríguez a promise
- Squad An empty peg next to Matías Donato