4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportivo La Guaira has to find a result from somewhere.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Guaira this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Deportivo La Guaira and Caracas, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Deportivo La Guaira is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hayden Henry 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 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 dugout20 Feb 2034
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 3‑5 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
“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 dugout13 Feb 2034
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Roberto Gallese and Deportivo La Guaira agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Roberth López has his answer from Deportivo La Guaira; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Deportivo La Guaira 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportivo La Guaira, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Deportivo La Guaira, another week without a signature from José Useche.
“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 Deportivo La Guaira, and it is not being withdrawn.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Junior Gonzalez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alejandro Rincon has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rafael Otero is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Deportivo La Guaira will try again when the window opens; Anzoátegui may not be selling by then.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hayden Henry 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.
“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 Deportes Concepción, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 3, 29 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes Concepción they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yerko Leiva and Deportes Concepción agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Matías Cavalleri 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.
Deportes Concepción asked and Universidad Catolica 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. Raimundo Rebolledo 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.
Unión San Felipe will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Deportes Concepción were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes Concepción can pretend not to have heard.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportes Concepción have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.66 for the rest of it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Useche will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Concepción the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Deportes Concepción and Unión San Felipe in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Concepción this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raimundo Rebolledo 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 dugout25 Apr 2033
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Useche will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Concepción the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mirko Bruno 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.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout11 Apr 2033
The manager has not finished forgetting Renzo Uriburu's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Union La Calera will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Deportes Concepción were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 7.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Useche will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Concepción the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Valentín Sienra 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 Raimundo Rebolledo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Matías Cavalleri 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Brandon Molina is living that version at Deportes Concepción, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raimundo Rebolledo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Deportes Limache left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Feb 2033
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Kevin Rodríguez and Deportes Concepción agree another 3 years.
Marco Wolff is 36 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Deportes Santa Cruz in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
1 for Nicolás Rojas, marked 7.60, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Useche will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Concepción the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. José Useche 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.
Matías Cavalleri 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Valentín Sienra is a Deportes Concepción player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
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.
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.
Raimundo Rebolledo 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Mirko Bruno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Tomás Tolosa is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportes Concepción lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes Concepción can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportes Concepción have done the hard part with San Lorenzo, 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 Deportes Concepción this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2032
Mirko Bruno 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Deportes Concepción go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Audax Italiano have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
“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 Deportes Concepción, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes Concepción they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nadir Zeineddin 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Raimundo Rebolledo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Agustín Ramos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Hinestroza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Concepción the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nadir Zeineddin 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. Raimundo Rebolledo 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. José Useche is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes Concepción, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Clemente González is on it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Concepción this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raimundo Rebolledo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportes Concepción have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes Concepción they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mirko Bruno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raimundo Rebolledo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Concepción this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 José Useche has written the date down.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Deportes Concepción could ask drops and the wages Jhon Castillo can ask rise.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes Concepción, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Nadir Zeineddin’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
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.
“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 Deportes Concepción, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Hinestroza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Concepción the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Damián Tello and Deportes Concepción agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nadir Zeineddin 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.
“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 dugout6 Sep 2032
Mirko Bruno is still being punished for one mistake
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.
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 Clemente González is on it.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Nadir Zeineddin 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 had been thinking. Raimundo Rebolledo 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Santiago Morning had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 3‑3, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutJosé Useche knocks on the manager's door
MarketThe clock does Jhon Castillo’s negotiating for him
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.04 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Hinestroza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Concepción the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marked 7.70. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raimundo Rebolledo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.