Marked for Joaquín Cruz
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Aug 2028
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Queretaro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
Diego Reyes: 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.” Queretaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market21 Aug 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Queretaro people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market21 Aug 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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Queretaro — 7.79
1 for Michael Carcelén, marked 7.79, 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Diego Reyes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Joaquín Cruz is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Aug 2028
A row about effort at Queretaro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramón Juárez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
Queretaro asked and Monterrey said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Aug 2028
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Queretaro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market7 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Luis Chávez 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 Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Queretaro asked and Monterrey said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match5 Aug 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
The manager makes an example of Diego Reyes
“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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Queretaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bayron Duarte 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 dugout7 Aug 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Jose Lozano to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Guillermo Allison
92 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Queretaro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market31 Jul 2028
Puebla come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Queretaro did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Jul 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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Diego Reyes 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 Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets31 Jul 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.
The terraces31 Jul 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Edison Gruezo 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.
Match29 Jul 2028
A 2‑0 win over Dorados, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Queretaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bayron Duarte 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
Steady
Squad24 Jul 2028
Guillermo Allison damages knee ligaments — 99 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 99 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.
Match22 Jul 2028
Chastening afternoon for Queretaro
A 0‑3 beating by Guadalajara was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
Diego Reyes: 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.” Queretaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market24 Jul 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Queretaro have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market24 Jul 2028
“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 Queretaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Michael Carcelén 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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
5 academy graduates step up at Queretaro
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.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monterrey have kept their man, and Queretaro go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market24 Jul 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Javier Jimenez 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
At 21 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.
Squad22 May 2028
A row about effort at Queretaro
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Chávez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 May 2028
Diego Reyes 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 Diego Reyes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market22 May 2028
The Iker Benito talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Queretaro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch22 May 2028
33 starts now, an average of 6.99, and the team sheet at Cruz Azul has stopped being a question. Exactly what everybody signed up for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market6 Mar 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Queretaro can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Diego Reyes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Mar 2028
At 21 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Luis Chávez 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 dugout6 Mar 2028
No place for Diego Reyes on the big day
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Queretaro pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
92% of the income goes out in wages at Queretaro
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.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Marked 7.51 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Queretaro had the best player on the pitch.
Squad6 Mar 2028
A place in the month's best eleven for Edison Gruezo
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Edison Gruezo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Queretaro have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Santiago Trigos
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Queretaro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
A defender's goal wins it for Queretaro — 7.94
1 for Michael Carcelén, marked 7.94, 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Queretaro
Diego 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Juan López is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The dugout13 Dec 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.
Match11 Dec 2027
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Michael Carcelén had Queretaro level again within 2 minutes, and Guadalajara never got to play with a lead at all.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad13 Dec 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joaquín Cruz and Queretaro agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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.