A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Pasto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Arema waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo Pasto is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jaider Cortes is living that version at Deportivo Pasto, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Pasto can pretend not to have heard.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jaider Cortes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Depor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Depor can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Oñate 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.
Depor 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.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Depor could ask drops and the wages Marcelo Cabrera can ask rise.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at La Equidad is saying, and nobody at Depor is enjoying the guessing.
Alejandro Oñate 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 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.
Depor 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.
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.
Samuel Copete 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.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Nacional have kept their man, and Depor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Depor has been clear about where Jaider Cortes stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Depor can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Depor have done the hard part with Atletico Bucaramanga, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Alejandro Oñate 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.
Depor asked and Aguilas Doradas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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 dugout18 Jun 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Edwin Gonzalez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Depor dressing room was either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Lema was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel Copete trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A mark of 7.92 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at La Equidad is saying, and nobody at Depor is enjoying the guessing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejandro Oñate was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Depor 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Alejandro Oñate.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Deportes Quindio scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Depor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Alejandro Oñate 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.
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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Eraso. 1‑0 against Valledupar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stiwar Veira 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.
Marked 8.11 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Jaider Cortes.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sebastián Berbesi. 3‑1 against Real Cartagena, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Oñate 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Sebastián Berbesi is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Edwin Gonzalez on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Depor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Alejandro Oñate 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.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Marcelo Cabrera 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaider Cortes 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Samuel Copete 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 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.
Universitario Popayan held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Depor answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Sebastián Guerra knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
Alejandro Oñate 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaider Cortes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Position 3, 19 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
7.86, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Depor had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Edwin Gonzalez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Depor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejandro Oñate was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jorge Puerto is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and David Lopez has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Samuel Copete 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 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 club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Depor this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Christopher Cano did not need any: 7.89, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Depor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Samuel Copete 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Marcelo Cabrera 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.
Three points for Depor, 2‑0 the final word against Deportes Quindio in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Gabriel Eraso was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.19. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaider Cortes 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.
“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 dugout19 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Edwin Gonzalez kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutSamuel Copete knocks on the manager’s door
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Depor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jaider Cortes has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Cristian Mejia 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 7.37, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Oñate 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Depor told Sebastián Berbesi something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo Pasto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Depor will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Jaider Cortes has pre-agreed a move to Deportivo Pasto, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Depor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jaider Cortes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Depor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Oñate 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Edwin Gonzalez left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Looking aheadDepor take on the side everybody is chasing
0‑2 against Independiente Medellin, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Jaider Cortes 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 dugout26 Feb 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Edwin Gonzalez kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Samuel Copete 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Oñate 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sebastián Guerra’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Depor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Depor have no good answer.
“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 Depor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
A mark of 7.61 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.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Three points for Depor, 1‑0 the final word against Bogota in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Jaider Cortes 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Depor will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Samuel Copete 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jaider Cortes 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.
A 2‑0 win over Universitario Popayan, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Edwin Gonzalez could afford to be generous.
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Depor this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Depor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan David Cabezas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Depor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Depor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at La Equidad, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Paternina 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel Copete trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market15 Jan 2029
The window shut and David Paternina is still in the building
Depor spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Depor could ask drops and the wages Jaider Cortes can ask rise.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: America de Cali keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Cristian Mejia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejandro Oñate was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Depor have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Depor have done the hard part with Deportivo Cali, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Depor asked and Deportivo Pasto 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 had been thinking. Stiwar Veira 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 club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Depor this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Depor than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Depor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Depor have done the hard part with Millonarios, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A loan enquiry to Deportivo Pasto: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
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.
“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 Depor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Depor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Depor asked and Independiente Medellin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jaider Cortes has his answer from Depor; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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 Depor, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Depor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Cristian Mejia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaider Cortes 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Depor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Borja has written the date down.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Edwin Gonzalez has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 Depor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Paternina was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Depor is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Alejandro Oñate's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and José Palacios trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Depor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Samuel Copete 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.
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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Jaider Cortes 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Depor is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Depor can pretend not to have heard.
Samuel Copete 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jaider Cortes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel Copete trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Stiwar Veira has written the date down.
Position 12 and 16 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Alejandro Oñate 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Jaider Cortes 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and José Palacios trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Samuel Copete 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Depor, another week without a signature from Jaider Cortes.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Depor has been clear about where Andrés Shmalbach stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan David Cabezas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Depor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Juan David Cabezas has agreed terms with Real Cartagena for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Alejandro Oñate 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaider Cortes 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 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Depor. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Depor will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Agustín Lema trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
The name of Cristian Mejia has come up in conversations Depor were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Depor have done the hard part with Atletico Bucaramanga, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atletico Nacional is saying, and nobody at Depor is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Alex Mosquera 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 deal with Deportivo Pasto 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.
Depor had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Leones, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo Pasto have kept their man, and Depor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at America de Cali is saying, and nobody at Depor is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Depor asked and Deportes Tolima said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Eraso. 2‑0 against Real Santander, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Depor.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Gabriel Eraso was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Depor 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Oñate 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.
“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 dugout22 May 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Edwin Gonzalez to a room that had heard them before.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Depor pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
In brief
The dugoutRonaldo Royero asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Depor can pretend not to have heard.
4 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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Depor can tell you which week it ends in.
Samuel Copete 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alejandro Oñate was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 dugout15 May 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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Edwin Gonzalez to a room that had heard them before.
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.
8 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.
7.40, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejandro Oñate 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.
Something was said to Jaider Cortes and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.