The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Juan Méndez was one of the reasons people came, and $650.0K does not replace that by itself.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco Uviedo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mineros de Guayana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mineros de Guayana had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Carabobo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mineros de Guayana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aldo Sanabria is living that version at Mineros de Guayana, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mineros de Guayana can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Portuguesa is saying, and nobody at Mineros de Guayana is enjoying the guessing.
A conversation is coming this week. Mineros de Guayana will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad13 Dec 2032
José Pinto 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mineros de Guayana they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Zamora 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.
Gustavo Lozano 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 José Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Deportivo Lara 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.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Jorge Romero 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.
Squad29 Nov 2032
Edixon Mena 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.
Nobody at Mineros de Guayana 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Mineros de Guayana. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mineros de Guayana 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 José Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jorge Romero 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jorge Romero
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mineros de Guayana can pretend not to have heard.
José Pinto 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.
“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.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Maiker Rivas 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 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 table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Mineros de Guayana says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mineros de Guayana lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Mineros de Guayana can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Mineros de Guayana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alejandro Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Mineros de Guayana the goodbyes have quietly begun.
José Pinto 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 Edixon Mena was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
Jorge Romero loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Jorge Romero's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
The table has started to be checked before the results are in, and that is always the tell. Nobody at Mineros de Guayana says the word out loud, and everybody in the building is thinking it.
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 Mineros de Guayana, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gustavo Lozano 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. Edixon Mena 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 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.
65 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. José Castellano has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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 Mineros de Guayana, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mineros de Guayana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2032
José Pinto 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 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.
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.
65 graduates from an academy now rated 11 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and José Pinto 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 Mineros de Guayana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Gianfabrizio González may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Pereira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mineros de Guayana know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on José Pinto
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.
9 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2032
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Mineros de Guayana until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The deal with Deportivo Tachira 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Metropolitanos is saying, and nobody at Mineros de Guayana is enjoying the guessing.
The deal that would have taken Gianfabrizio González to Llaneros has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Mineros de Guayana with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Gustavo Lozano 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.
Mineros de Guayana asked and Zamora said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mineros de Guayana will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Oscar Ferraresi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego Castillo and Mineros de Guayana agree another 2 years.
Gustavo Lozano 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. José Pinto 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 squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Lucas Márquez is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mineros de Guayana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Gustavo Lozano 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 Yohandry Lacruz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Out, 1‑1 to Estudiantes de Merida, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Gustavo Lozano 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 José Pinto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Mineros de Guayana has been clear about where Emmanuel Chacón stands, which is more than many ever get.