“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Monterrey can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Monterrey people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The phone has started ringing about Erik Florentín again, and this time the name on the line is Villarreal. Monterrey are listening politely and promising nothing.
Boardroom1 Sep 2036
Deadline passes with 26 signed and 19 gone
That is the business done at Monterrey 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 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Monterrey people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alex Valencia had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Matías Daniele 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.
Tigres wanted more than $120.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad18 Aug 2036
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tahiel Jiménez 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tahiel Jiménez. 1‑0 against Chiapas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
The dugoutDiego Reyes back under a manager who knows him
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Monterrey have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Club America; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Monterrey have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
$2.5M was the most the club would pay and Guadalajara 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Add another name to the list: Morelia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Kane Taylor. The answer from Monterrey has not changed — yet.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Monterrey have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alex Valencia had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Monterrey, 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 Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Monterrey know it.
Monterrey asked and Atlas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad21 Jul 2036
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tahiel Jiménez 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.
Boardroom21 Jul 2036
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Monterrey
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.
In brief
The dugoutDiego Reyes back under a manager who knows him
“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 Monterrey, and it is not being withdrawn.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Toluca moved on, Emi Ochoa reports back to Monterrey, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The offer went to Guadalajara 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.
Monterrey 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
$170.0K was the most the club would pay and Cruz Azul 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tahiel Jiménez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Betis waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The fee is $760.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Pachuca drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $180.0K — a club that wants Jérémy Sebas enough to be asked twice.
Monterrey have gone to Atlas 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.
Carlos Guardado 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.
The offer went to Cruz Azul 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.
Monterrey offered $310.0K; Pachuca said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Monterrey 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Monterrey training over how hard people work
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Queretaro had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Monterrey, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer went to Pachuca 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $450.0K — a club that wants Owen González enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pachuca have kept their man, and Monterrey go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Monterrey have had the benefit of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Monterrey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The offer went to Toluca 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.
Monterrey have gone to Cruz Azul 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Monterrey have gone to Guadalajara 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Carlos Guardado 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad26 May 2036
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emi Ochoa 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 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 Kane Taylor is on it.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Monterrey could ask drops and the wages Zach Abbott can ask rise.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Monterrey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Monterrey know it.
Squad19 May 2036
Emi Ochoa 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.
Something was said to Louis Munteanu and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Monterrey, 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 Alex Valencia is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Monterrey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pietro Comuzzo 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Santino Gianini wants continental football; whether Monterrey can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kane Taylor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Erik Florentín trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Santiago Pineda has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Monterrey, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Monterrey heard it as anything else.
Pietro Comuzzo 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emi Ochoa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
João Vasconcelos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Apr 2036
Emi Ochoa 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 Monterrey 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Monterrey could ask drops and the wages Dmytro Bogdanov can ask rise.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roger Hinojo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad7 Apr 2036
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emi Ochoa 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Monterrey, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Mar 2036
Kane Taylor 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Nobody at Monterrey 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.
In brief
The dugoutLouis Munteanu asks for a word with the manager
MarketThe clock does Pietro Comuzzo’s negotiating for him
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Monterrey will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zach Abbott will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Monterrey heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Monterrey can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Santos Laguna waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Monterrey offered $2.0M; Tigres said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
$900.0K on the table at Toluca. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Monterrey hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $400.0K — a club that wants Aldahir Pérez enough to be asked twice.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Queretaro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pietro Comuzzo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
$2.2M was the most the club would pay and Leon 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $400.0K — a club that wants Carlos Salcedo enough to be asked twice.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Monterrey can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Pietro Comuzzo has agreed terms with Tigres for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Carlos Guardado and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Vasconcelos 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.
Guadalajara will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Gael García has pre-agreed a move to Monterrey, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Monterrey will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luke Baartman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Monterrey hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Pietro Comuzzo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Vasconcelos 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.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Monterrey lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Monterrey have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ramiro Árciga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Pietro Comuzzo 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.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ralph Orquin 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 new man at Monterrey has worked with Miguel Guardado before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
In brief
The dugoutCarlos Moreno has become a man the manager trusts
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 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. Ramiro Árciga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Pietro Comuzzo 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.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Vasconcelos 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luke Baartman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The medical room confirms 19 days on the sidelines for Emi Rodriguez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Ralph Orquin 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 6 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Monterrey, another week without a signature from Matías Daniele.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the Monterrey dressing room in a hurry
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Monterrey have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ramiro Árciga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Erik Florentín wants continental football; whether Monterrey can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Ralph Orquin 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Santiago Pineda could afford to be generous.
Two goals and a mark of 8.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Monterrey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Carlos Guardado 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.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ralph Orquin 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dmytro Bogdanov. 2‑0 against Dorados, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Monterrey will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Squad17 Sep 2035
8 new faces, and Monterrey are still learning each other
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Santiago Pineda could afford to be generous.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. João Vasconcelos is living that version at Monterrey, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luke Baartman will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Monterrey are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Emi Ochoa 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 Erik Florentín trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Monterrey can pretend not to have heard.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $125.7K of what Monterrey paid for Jaír González is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alex Valencia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 26 arrived, 19 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Monterrey hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Pietro Comuzzo 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.
15 combined actions and 7.16. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Squad3 Sep 2035
Ralph Orquin 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 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Monterrey will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Morelia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monterrey 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 Monterrey, and it is not being withdrawn.
$1.8M was the most the club would pay and Guadalajara 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Erick Orta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Erik Florentín wants continental football; whether Monterrey can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Ralph Orquin 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Monterrey know it.
In brief
The dugoutJosé Pachuca has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jakov Dedić
The dugoutGabriel Costa asks for a word with the manager
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Monterrey will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Monterrey have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Monterrey have gone to Leon 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Monterrey heard it as anything else.
$390.0K on the table at Cruz Azul. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Monterrey will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Carlos Guardado 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.
Squad21 May 2035
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ralph Orquin 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Monterrey can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gabriel Costa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Monterrey will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alex Valencia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Erik Florentín wants continental football; whether Monterrey can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Louis Munteanu commits to Monterrey for another 3 years.
Squad14 May 2035
Ralph Orquin 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 Monterrey 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 Monterrey, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Monterrey can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Carlos Guardado is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Carlos Guardado 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.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ralph Orquin 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 at Monterrey 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.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monterrey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Monterrey can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad19 Mar 2035
Ralph Orquin 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Monterrey know it.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Club America; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Sebastian Dos Santos has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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 Monterrey can pretend not to have heard.
Carlos Guardado 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Luke Baartman is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monterrey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Santiago López provided it, and the 9.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Tijuana for José Pachuca 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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Hugo Cuypers reports back to Monterrey with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jorge Hernández is a Monterrey player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Monterrey offered $280.0K; Club America said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Monterrey people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $3.0M of what Monterrey paid for Owen González is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Monterrey offered $1.8M; Tigres said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Monterrey can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Monterrey asked and Pumas UNAM said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Tigres paid $580.0K and Monterrey took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Felipe Delgado did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matías Acevedo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monterrey the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Squad16 Oct 2034
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Keenan Cruden 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Monterrey, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Monterrey 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Monterrey told Paulo Ramírez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Monterrey could ask drops and the wages Radek Vítek can ask rise.