Marked for Luis Navarrete
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout15 May 2028
“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.
Squad15 May 2028
Iván Regules 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 Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo García 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.
Loan watch15 May 2028
“I watch every Dorados game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Pumas UNAM runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad15 May 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Andrés Araujo commits to Dorados for another 4 years.
Squad15 May 2028
No place for Andrés Araujo in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Dorados are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout15 May 2028
“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.
The dugout15 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alfonso Sánchez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 May 2028
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Andrés Araujo arrives at Dorados with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dorados may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market24 Apr 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Dorados can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A row about effort at Dorados
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francisco Rabago, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Dorados will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager makes Alan Pulido a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dorados. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Uriel Dos Santos 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.
Market24 Apr 2028
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Dorados could get for him.
Squad24 Apr 2028
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Feb 2028
21 days out for Hirving Lozano after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Dorados will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dorados may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match19 Feb 2028
The wait goes on for Dorados
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad21 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Campos 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.
Match19 Feb 2028
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad21 Feb 2028
11 new faces, and Dorados are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alexis Jimenez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Nicolás Castro 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market17 Jan 2028
“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.
Market17 Jan 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Dorados have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Jhon Acurio, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Market17 Jan 2028
Puebla come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Dorados did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Dorados — 7.70
1 for Omar Campos, marked 7.70, 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dorados may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
The deal with Morelia 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Iván Regules 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.
Market17 Jan 2028
The paperwork is done: Uriel Dos Santos joins from Veracruz in a deal worth $91.0K. Now comes the harder part.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.76, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Toluca may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market26 Jul 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alessandro Tagle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Toluca the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market26 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and Toluca did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Toluca
Federico Pereira 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.
Match24 Jul 2027
The run at home goes on for Toluca
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Helinho was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Toluca
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.