The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho Capixaba 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.
Santa Fe 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.
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.
In brief
BoardroomThe Santa Fe production line keeps running
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho Capixaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Santa Fe. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Santa Fe will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1 for Yílmar Velásquez, marked 7.90, 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“I watch every Santa Fe game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Real Santander runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
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.” Jesus Herrera chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Julian Angulo
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Santander 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 Juan Pablo Habib was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Real Santander lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Santiago Ahumada 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.
In brief
The dugoutKevin Villada knocks on the manager’s door
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Real Santander lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Camilo Durán 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Kevin Villada 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.
4 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juninho Capixaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Santa Fe told Richard Muriel something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Santa Fe, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Real Santander lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Rafael Herrera clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
“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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juninho Capixaba 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.
At 22 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Real Santander have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 2 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Real Santander have gone to Tigres with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cortulua have kept their man, and Real Santander go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Junior García and Real Santander agree another 4 years.
José Torres 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Real Santander training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Villada 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 dugout24 Jul 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Dilan Tapia'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.