Taigy Dugard

Central Defender - Free Agent
26 Feb 2031
Wednesday
Process

Marked for Taigy Dugard

229 Edition

The Leones Gazette

16 Dec 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for José Lloreda

119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leones lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Market

Frank Ruiz asks to leave Leones

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Only the photograph left for Taigy Dugard

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Taigy Dugard will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leones the goodbyes have quietly begun.

The dugout

Nezareth Segura says Leones went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Transfer targets

Brayan Moreno due for a Leones medical

Everything agreed with Santa Fe, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Squad

Words exchanged at Leones

Exequiel Mereles 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.

Squad

Words at Leones training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Ángel Arboleda 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Jaime Alvarado

Leones asked and Millonarios said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

Leones ask about Alexandro Licona

A loan enquiry to Deportivo Pereira: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.

In brief

Back issues
226 Edition

The Leones Gazette

25 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: José Lloreda out for 140 days

140 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Leones lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

The terraces

The mood at Leones 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.

Market

Santiago Montoya 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 Leones can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Glen Masava is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leones is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

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Squad

A falling-out at Leones

Exequiel Mereles and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Leones

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Ángel Arboleda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Leyner Palacios 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 Leyner Palacios is on it.

The dugout

Juan Diego Arboleda gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

225 Edition

The Leones Gazette

18 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

José Lloreda damages knee ligaments — 147 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 147 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.

Market

Frank Ruiz asks to leave Leones

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Taigy Dugard has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leones they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A row about effort at Leones

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Mosquera Marmolejo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Jerónimo Echeverri 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 Leones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Germán Meneses

“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 dugout

When it matters, Miguel Ángel Arboleda plays

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.

Market

The clock does Germán Meneses’s negotiating for him

3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Leones could ask drops and the wages Germán Meneses can ask rise.

The dugout

Jerónimo Echeverri 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.

In brief

224 Edition

The Leones Gazette

11 Nov 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Words at Leones training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Meneses 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Leones

Jerónimo Echeverri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

The dugout

Santiago Montoya has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Leones 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 dugout

Exequiel Mereles 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.

Market

Still no ink between Leones and Taigy Dugard

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leones, another week without a signature from Taigy Dugard.

The dugout

Thiago Pacheco gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

222 Edition

The Leones Gazette

28 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

The mood at Leones 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.

Market

Santiago Montoya puts it in writing

“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 Leones, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Glen Masava is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leones is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

The dugout

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Squad

A falling-out at Leones

Exequiel Mereles and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

A row about effort at Leones

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miguel Ángel Arboleda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

Leyner Palacios has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Leones 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 dugout

The manager makes an example of Juan Diego Arboleda

“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 dugout

Frank Ruiz 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.

In brief

221 Edition

The Leones Gazette

21 Oct 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Julián Alfonso asks to leave Leones

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Market

Taigy Dugard has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leones they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

A falling-out at Leones

Exequiel Mereles and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Words at Leones training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Ángel Arboleda 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.

Squad

Joseph Timi wants to go home

“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Leones know it.

The dugout

When it matters, Miguel Ángel Arboleda plays

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 dugout

Carlos Mosquera Marmolejo 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.

Market

Germán Meneses runs his contract down

4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Leones money.

Market

The Jerónimo Echeverri talk will not go away

Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Leones know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.

In brief

217 Edition

The Leones Gazette

23 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

Chastening afternoon for Leones

A 0‑3 beating by Alianza Petrolera was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Market

Julián Alfonso 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 Leones can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Taigy Dugard has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leones they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

6 saves: Santiago Mondragón was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Squad

Tempers go at Leones

Jerónimo Echeverri 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 dugout

No hiding place for Santiago Mondragón

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Mondragón, and the manager let it.

Squad

Joseph Timi 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.

Looking ahead

A six-pointer for Leones

Real Cartagena next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.

Boardroom

Inquest at Leones

The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.

In brief

215 Edition

The Leones Gazette

9 Sep 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Player ratings

Exequiel Mereles runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

22 days out for Camilo Gonzalez after a fracture

A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leones will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.

Market

Joseph Timi asks to leave Leones

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Squad

Tempers go at Leones

Exequiel Mereles 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.

Squad

Words at Leones training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Ángel Arboleda 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.

Looking ahead

A six-pointer for Leones

Barranquilla next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Gustavo Cordoba was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Leones dressing room was either.

Market

Still no ink between Leones and Taigy Dugard

“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leones, another week without a signature from Taigy Dugard.

The dugout

Leyner Palacios has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Leones 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

213 Edition

The Leones Gazette

26 Aug 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

14 matches without a win for Leones

The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Leones are no longer polite ones.

Market

Only the photograph left for Taigy Dugard

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Taigy Dugard will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leones the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Match

Leones cannot find the net

6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.

Market

Camilo Cuadrado puts it in writing

“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 Leones, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings

Exequiel Mereles runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

A falling-out at Leones

Exequiel Mereles and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Miguel Ángel Arboleda 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.

Match

Leones come up short against Junior

Junior left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

The dugout

Santiago Mondragón gets it from the manager

“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.

In brief

209 Edition

The Leones Gazette

29 Jul 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Leones's wait for a win

10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Leones has to find a result from somewhere.

Market

Taigy Dugard is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leones is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Exequiel Mereles

Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Camilo Cuadrado 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 Leones can pretend not to have heard.

Boardroom

Taigy Dugard has agreed to leave Leones for nothing

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.

Squad

Words at Leones training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Ángel Arboleda 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.

Transfer targets

Atletico Nacional tell Leones: Mateo Mendia is not for sale

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.

Squad

Frank Ruiz 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 Leones this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Deportivo Pasto take the points off Leones

Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

In brief

199 Edition

The Leones Gazette

20 May 2030
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

At last: Leones win one

13 matches without a win, and then this, against Real Cartagena. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Leyner Palacios

Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Leones

Exequiel Mereles 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.

Squad

Miguel Ángel Arboleda 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 terraces

Leones supporters have found a favourite in Santiago Montoya

There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Santiago Montoya 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.

Match

Santiago Montoya the difference as Leones beat Real Cartagena

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Santiago Montoya. 2‑0 against Real Cartagena, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

The dugout

Taigy Dugard gets it from the manager

“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.

Player ratings

Exequiel Mereles takes the honours

Marked 7.96 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Leones had the best player on the pitch.

The dugout

A satisfied Gustavo Cordoba

“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Gustavo Cordoba could afford to be generous.

In brief

197 Edition

The Leones Gazette

6 May 2030
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

No end in sight to Leones's wait for a win

11 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Leones has to find a result from somewhere.

Squad

Words at Leones training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Manuel Jorge 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.

Match

Barranquilla take the points off Leones

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Squad

Tempers go at Leones

Jerónimo Echeverri 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.

Player ratings

Leyner Palacios runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Player ratings

Juan Sebastián Peña was the difference for Leones

Marked 7.87. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

The dugout

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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Gustavo Cordoba to a room that had heard them before.

The dugout

No hiding place for Diego Ramos

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego Ramos, and the manager let it.

Squad

Joseph Timi slips down the pecking order

The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Joseph Timi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.

In brief

181 Edition

The Leones Gazette

14 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Miguel Ángel Arboleda 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Juan Esteban Gallego

Leones asked and Millonarios said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

A falling-out at Leones

Frank Ruiz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Taigy Dugard is a square peg at Leones

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.

The dugout

No hiding place for José Lloreda

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to José Lloreda, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Exequiel Mereles knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Exequiel Mereles trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

Leones and Taigy Dugard are talking past each other

“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.

Squad

A season on the outside for Taigy Dugard

He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Leones has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.

The dugout

The manager makes Glen Masava a promise

Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Leones. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.

In brief

180 Edition

The Leones Gazette

7 Jan 2030
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Julián Alfonso says Leones went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Market

Leones say no — this time

The offer from Deportivo Pereira for Juan Diego Arboleda 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.

Squad

A falling-out at Leones

Exequiel Mereles and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Glen Masava gets the move he always wanted

Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Glen Masava has just signed for Leones, and for once the answer mattered.

Squad

Juan Manuel Jorge 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.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Juan Bobba

Leones asked and Atletico Nacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

A step back for Santiago Montoya at Leones

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.

The dugout

Leones keep their word to Taigy Dugard

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.

The dugout

When it matters, Miguel Ángel Arboleda plays

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.

In brief