43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CF Montreal 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 The request is on a desk at CF Montreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dagur Dan Þórhallsson 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 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 CF Montreal know it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 92 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matic Ivanšek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CF Montreal lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nashville SC will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. CF Montreal were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CF Montreal can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CF Montreal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Nemanja Milojević 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.
Atlanta United FC paid $140.0K and CF Montreal took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dagur Dan Þórhallsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 May 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Nolan Miller's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“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 dugout26 May 2036
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CF Montreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 May 2036
Words at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Colin Guske 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.
10 combined actions and 6.62. 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.
9 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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 deal with Chicago Fire 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.
Nico Hansen and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LA Galaxy have kept their man, and CF Montreal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Toronto FC tried to reorganise, CF Montreal did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. CF Montreal lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
Dagur Dan Þórhallsson 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.
Squad7 Jan 2036
Words at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Colin Guske 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 squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Will Ostrander was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CF Montreal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Yoel Marchi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Nov 2035
Words at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Colin Guske 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 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around CF Montreal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what CF Montreal can pretend not to have heard.
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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad3 Sep 2035
Words at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Colin Guske 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom30 Jul 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at CF Montreal
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CF Montreal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Yoel Marchi 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dagur Dan Þórhallsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
CF Montreal asked and LA Galaxy said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 7.16, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CF Montreal will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CF Montreal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nico Hansen 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 Dagur Dan Þórhallsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. CF Montreal will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at CF Montreal
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CF Montreal 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 CF Montreal 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 Colin Guske was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every CF Montreal game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Portland Timbers runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CF Montreal 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 Dagur Dan Þórhallsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Cameron Ferreira 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 a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad18 Jun 2035
5 new faces, and CF Montreal 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at CF Montreal is running low.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CF Montreal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matt Aaronson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CF Montreal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Yoel Marchi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at CF Montreal, and 0 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason CF Montreal will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at CF Montreal 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 CF Montreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $96.7K — a club that wants Matt Edwards enough to be asked twice.
$90.0K was the most the club would pay and LA Galaxy 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.
In brief
SquadWords at CF Montreal training over how hard people work
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. CF Montreal lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bautista Agostinelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around CF Montreal the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 CF Montreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dagur Dan Þórhallsson 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Héctor Long commits to CF Montreal for another 4 years.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Colin Guske 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.
“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 CF Montreal, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Colin Guske, marked 7.97, 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” CF Montreal have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dagur Dan Þórhallsson was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at CF Montreal saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at CF Montreal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.