A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Llaneros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Adrián Rivas, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.66
A mark of 7.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Llaneros is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jaider Pérez 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.
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.
Juan Caicedo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yan Mosquera 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Llaneros has been clear about where Dubán Ayala stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Yan Mosquera
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 65 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sebastian Martinez 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. Sebastian Cardona 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Victor Borja 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fabian Falcao 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.
Adrián Rivas 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.
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Llaneros. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Nobody at Llaneros 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.
Mathematically certain, and nobody in this town is going to bed early. Whatever else happened this season, it finishes a division above where it started.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Llaneros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Léider Riascos was one of the reasons people came, and $1.4M does not replace that by itself.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Llaneros had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 97 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Llaneros can pretend not to have heard.
Francisco Meza 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Mateo García 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 Jhildrey Lasso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 111 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Jhojan Escobar is on it.
6 goals in 37 games at Deportivo Cali — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Llaneros updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Llaneros the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Mateo García 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.
Luis Marimón 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.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Dubán Ayala is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Léider Riascos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Jhojan Escobar is on it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Llaneros know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Llaneros. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chania this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Chania training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noam Emeran 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Adrián Rivas, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Noam Emeran was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Efthymios Vlachodimos could afford to be generous.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chania, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Chania, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Étienne Camara, marked 7.99, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noam Emeran was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Étienne Camara. 2‑1 against Athens Kallithea, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dimitris Kaloskamis 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I watch every Llaneros game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Chania runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Llaneros, 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 Jhojan Escobar is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chania have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Noam Emeran 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Dimitris Kaloskamis 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fotios Papadopoulos 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.
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chania lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Dimitris Kaloskamis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Noam Emeran 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Chania, another week without a signature from Rodrigo Borges.
Still no offer on the table, and Stefan Stojanović’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Momo Diaby signs something — a contract at Chania or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mateo García and Llaneros agree another 4 years.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo García 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.
5 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.
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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Llaneros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
12 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
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.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chania lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noam Emeran was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Chania asked and Barranquilla said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Giorgos Kosteas 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Chania know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Llaneros close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 16 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The offer from Aguilas Doradas for Juan David Pertúz was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
The deal that would have taken Adrián Rivas to Barranquilla has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Llaneros with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo García 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Llaneros $430.0K. Luis Miranda left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
The words a physio says slowly. 102 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.
Add another name to the list: Asteras have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Salefu Oche. The answer from Chania has not changed — yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Chania they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Noam Emeran 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.
Fanis Mavrommatis 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Llaneros people have started saying his name 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 Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Juan Caicedo has come up in conversations Llaneros were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Geovan Montes has his answer from Llaneros; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Llaneros are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
In brief
The dugoutGeovan Montes knocks on the manager’s door
The fee is $270.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Universitario Popayan drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Francisco Meza 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 Mateo García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Adrián Rivas again, and this time the name on the line is Villa San Carlos. Llaneros are listening politely and promising nothing.
15 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
5 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.
41 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
A brace, and Luis Marimón takes the afternoon — 8.58
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luis Marimón provided it, and the 8.58 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Llaneros have done the hard part with Universitario Popayan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Llaneros had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Valledupar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Barranquilla waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Llaneros is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Aguilas Doradas paid $320.0K and Llaneros took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Llaneros pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout21 Jun 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jorge Arias, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Llaneros has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Up for the corner, and Mateo García delivers — 7.95
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mateo García scored, was marked 7.95, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Francisco Meza 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 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.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Daniel Mantilla was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
A point taken on 85 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luis Marimón. 3‑1 against Tigres, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Llaneros, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadWords at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo García 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros 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 Léider Riascos 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. Kelvin Osorio is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
The offer from Real Cartagena for Eyder Restrepo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The deal with America de Cali 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Llaneros people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Geovan Montes has his answer from Llaneros; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutYefri Velasco is still being punished for one mistake
BoardroomOpen for business: Llaneros enter the window
The terracesThe stands have heard the Luis Miranda talk too
SquadAdrián Rivas is put on a programme of his own
54 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Llaneros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Llaneros is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Dennys Quintero 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.
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Llaneros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Llaneros will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Llaneros can pretend not to have heard.
104 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Llaneros lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
111 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Llaneros 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 Llaneros can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Llaneros is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Daniel Mantilla wants continental football; whether Llaneros can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Francisco Meza 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Llaneros they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
10 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The goal that put Millonarios ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Llaneros equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
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.