From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match10 Jul 2027
19 matches without a win for Real Cartagena
The run now stands at 19, and the questions being asked around Real Cartagena are no longer polite ones.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Marcel Vergara: 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.” Real Cartagena have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
11 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“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.
Match10 Jul 2027
1-1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Jun 2027
14 matches without a win for Real Cartagena
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Real Cartagena are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Pressure builds in the Real Cartagena boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Manuel Mejia has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Real Cartagena can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match7 Jun 2027
Position 19, 14 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match5 Jun 2027
2-3 to Deportes Tolima, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market7 Jun 2027
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Real Cartagena has been clear about where Cristian Graciano stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Luis Guevara 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.
Squad7 Jun 2027
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Real Cartagena have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Real Cartagena pull $52.4K back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 May 2027
13 matches without a win for Real Cartagena
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Real Cartagena are no longer polite ones.
Market31 May 2027
“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.
Squad31 May 2027
“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.
Match29 May 2027
0-1 to Deportivo Pasto, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces31 May 2027
Everybody has an opinion about Jeremías Castro
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Squad31 May 2027
Luis Guevara knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Real Cartagena, and both men came out saying it was fine.