Marked for Jorge Leyva
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jun 2028
26 days out for Jorn Brondeel after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. FC Eindhoven will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market19 Jun 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Dyon Dorenbosch 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.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
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.
Squad19 Jun 2028
A move Jorge Leyva would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jorge Leyva is living that version at FC Eindhoven, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at FC Eindhoven training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sven Simons 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.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Alto Gjoka has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means FC Eindhoven have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Transfer targets19 Jun 2028
FC Eindhoven have made the call to Feyenoord. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout19 Jun 2028
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
Jorge Leyva: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tigres have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market16 Aug 2027
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Tigres heard it as anything else.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Tigres
Daniel Reyes 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.
Market16 Aug 2027
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.
Market16 Aug 2027
The name of Jorge Berlanga has come up in conversations Tigres were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Fernando Gorriarán 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tijuana have kept their man, and Tigres go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match14 Aug 2027
Leon take the points off Tigres
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tigres can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leon have kept their man, and Tigres go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words exchanged at Tigres
Daniel Reyes 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
A row about effort at Tigres
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Osvaldo Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market12 Jul 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Fernando Gorriarán’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Jorge Leyva gets picked when it counts
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 Jorge Leyva is on it.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
Marco Farfan knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marco Farfan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market12 Jul 2027
Tigres have let the market know Osvaldo Rodríguez can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
$19.3M was the most the club would pay and OGC Nice were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Match28 Jun 2027
Tigres are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 63 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
$12.6M on the table at Udinese. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market28 Jun 2027
Marco Farfan hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tigres can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
The offer went to Santos Laguna this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Tigres asked and Toluca said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom28 Jun 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.5M — a club that wants Tahiel Jiménez enough to be asked twice.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Tigres
Alan Franco 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Tigres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Gorriarán 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market24 May 2027
Marco Farfan hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tigres can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 May 2027
Alan Franco in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Tigres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Gorriarán 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.
Squad24 May 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jorge Leyva and Tigres agree another 3 years.
Market24 May 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tigres know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout24 May 2027
Edgar López asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout10 May 2027
Kenneth Jaime: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tigres have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 May 2027
Words exchanged at Tigres
Alan Franco 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Tigres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Guzmán 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.
Squad10 May 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gustavo Wood and Tigres agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Antonio Carrera
“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.
Market10 May 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Jesús Angulo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Tigres
Alan Franco 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Tigres can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Fernando Gorriarán 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Ozziel Herrera’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Tigres.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.79 on the card, and the Tigres support went home talking about one name.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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 dugout12 Apr 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Eduardo Herrera could afford to be generous.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The plan did not have a place for Joaquim
Nobody at Tigres is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Market12 Apr 2027
The Jesús Angulo talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Tigres know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.