“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
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.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Columbus Crew could ask drops and the wages Santiago Rodríguez can ask rise.
Position 5 on 43 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caden Glover 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 Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Farsi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Caden Glover 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Santiago Rodríguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Columbus Crew would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Columbus Crew. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
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 Columbus Crew have no good answer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caden Glover 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.
Nobody at Columbus Crew 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Columbus Crew would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tristan Brown trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Columbus Crew lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Columbus Crew had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Mohamed Farsi 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.
Caden Glover 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.
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 Santiago Rodríguez is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 5 on 43 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
The tie is over and the right side of it is theirs. 3‑0 on the night, a dressing room that will not come down for a day and a half, and a next round nobody has thought about yet.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Caden Glover did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
“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 Columbus Crew, and 8 appearances in 28 say he has earned the hearing.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Belal Halbouni, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Luka Prpa 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Farsi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. André Gomes had Columbus Crew level again within 2 minutes, and New York City never got to play with a lead at all.
“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 Columbus Crew, and 5 appearances in 15 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Columbus Crew can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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.
Caden Glover 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.
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 Dylan Chambost is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Columbus Crew 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.
Derek Dodson has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Columbus Crew will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Columbus Crew have done the hard part with FC Cincinnati, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Josh Cohen 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.
Columbus Crew asked and San Diego Football Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mohamed Farsi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Inter Miami CF will make the call about Noel Caliskan this week. Columbus Crew have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Caden Glover and Columbus Crew agree another 4 years.
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 Dylan Chambost is on it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Columbus Crew can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Seattle Sounders, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Josh Cohen 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.
Inter Miami CF left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Paul Reyna to a room that had heard them before.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason St. Louis CITY SC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at St. Louis CITY SC has to find a result from somewhere.
1 for Marcel Hartel, marked 7.71, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The chase for Jamar Ricketts ended with $670.0K changing hands and San Jose Earthquakes out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Columbus Crew pay $640.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Diego Football Club have kept their man, and St. Louis CITY SC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$640.0K settles it between the clubs for Caden Glover
St. Louis CITY SC have accepted the money. What Columbus Crew do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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.
The deal with St. Louis CITY SC is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The fee is $330.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Houston Dynamo drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Inter Miami CF have kept their man, and Columbus Crew go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mohamed Farsi 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 goal that put Charlotte Football Club ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Columbus Crew equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Miles Bradley and Columbus Crew agree another 3 years.