Marked for Juan Muñóz
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Jan 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
Juan Muñóz: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tigres have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Jan 2030
Only the photograph left for Joar Bautista
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joar Bautista will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Tigres the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words exchanged at Tigres
Nicolás Lara 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.
Boardroom28 Jan 2030
Tigres still without a manager
8 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
The terraces28 Jan 2030
He is 22 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at Tigres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bastian Tapia 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 dugout28 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateo Cardozo, and the manager let it.
In brief
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The dugout
A fresh start for Nicolás Lara under the new man
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Boardroom
Nobody arrives at Tigres until somebody leaves
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Jan 2030
A falling-out at Tigres
Lucas Cornejo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Tigres
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Felipe Hincapié was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Jaime Mora needs a bigger stage
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Tigres know which stage they are at.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
Bastian Tapia 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 dugout14 Jan 2030
Jhon Rivas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Tigres 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.
Market14 Jan 2030
The clock does Harlem Salas’s negotiating for him
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Tigres could ask drops and the wages Harlem Salas can ask rise.
Market14 Jan 2030
Tigres spent the window trying to move Christian Huérfano on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
Market14 Jan 2030
The shop window has Juan Muñóz in it
Tigres have let the market know Juan Muñóz can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market14 Jan 2030
Harlem Salas's people are making calls
“He needs to be playing at a level that matches him, and we are open to conversations.” Nobody says that by accident, and nobody at Tigres misheard it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Sep 2029
“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 Tigres, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Sep 2029
A season average of 7.20 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Tigres know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Belts tighten at Tigres
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at Tigres
Johan 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Mateo Cardozo slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mateo Cardozo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Squad3 Sep 2029
A row about effort at Tigres
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Johao González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout3 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Joar Bautista
“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 dugout3 Sep 2029
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.
Match3 Sep 2029
Tigres in the hunt for Europe
Position 4, 35 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Jul 2029
“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 Tigres, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Nicolás Lara in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Bastian Tapia gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bastian Tapia has just signed for Tigres, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
“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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Too much change too quickly at Tigres
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad30 Jul 2029
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Tigres are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout30 Jul 2029
Jhon Rivas gets picked when it counts
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 Rivas is on it.
Market30 Jul 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market30 Jul 2029
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Bastian Tapia arrives at Tigres with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
In brief
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Market
Tigres shop where it costs nothing
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The dugout
Juan Muñóz knocks on the manager’s door
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Boardroom
The Tigres production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
Tigres close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 10 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Tigres have done the hard part with Envigado, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Market23 Jul 2029
The shirt still fits. José García is back at Tigres, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Squad23 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Jul 2029
A club back home comes in for José García
The enquiry everybody at Tigres was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad23 Jul 2029
The formation has left José García behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Tigres will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Juan Johao González 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 dugout23 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Juan Muñóz
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Apr 2029
Mateo Parra hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tigres can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Ever Gómez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Tigres
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Johao González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad2 Apr 2029
The captaincy has been taken off Orles Aragón. Tigres will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
Nobody at Tigres 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.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Juan Muñóz
“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.
Looking ahead2 Apr 2029
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Barranquilla in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
$484.1K a year onto the Tigres books
A new partner, a signature and a photograph nobody will remember. It funds a fortnight of wages, which is more than most headlines on this page can say for themselves.
In brief
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The dugout
Johan Martínez knocks on the manager's door
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Boardroom
The Tigres academy earns its keep
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Looking ahead
Home comforts ahead for Tigres
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces1 Jan 2029
The mood at Tigres has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Tigres
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Tigres is running low.
Market1 Jan 2029
Ever Gómez hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tigres can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Jan 2029
Millonarios are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Tigres will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Transfer targets1 Jan 2029
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Millonarios have kept their man, and Tigres go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Jan 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets1 Jan 2029
A loan enquiry to Deportivo Cali: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets1 Jan 2029
A loan move for Cristian Florez is in the works
Tigres have made the call to Atletico Nacional. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Santiago Rátiva
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tigres lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Aug 2028
He is 21, he is averaging 7.05, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Loan watch14 Aug 2028
“I watch every Tigres game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Atletico Bucaramanga runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad14 Aug 2028
A falling-out at Tigres
Johan Martínez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Mateo Parra
“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 dugout14 Aug 2028
Nobody at Tigres 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Tigres are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout14 Aug 2028
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Juan Felipe Hincapié has written the date down.
Market14 Aug 2028
Still no offer on the table, and Nelson Suárez’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Santiago Rátiva
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Tigres lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Aug 2028
“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 Tigres, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Debinson Mateus commits to Tigres for another 4 years.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Tempers go at Tigres
Sebastián Mosquera 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A move Juan Muñóz would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan Muñóz is living that version at Tigres, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Tigres asked and Once Caldas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
96% of the income goes out in wages at Tigres
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
The numbers do not look good at Tigres
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
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 Jeisson Castro is on it.