New York City arrived with $13.9M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
The chase for Max Kerkvliet ended with $1.5M changing hands and Charlotte Football Club out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Marcel Hartel 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Jorge Romero has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Depor can pretend not to have heard.
Gabriel Eraso 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Depor, another week without a signature from Carlos Restrepo.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yulián Montaño will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Depor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Alejandro Oñate 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Depor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Depor can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yulián Montaño will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Depor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ronaldo Royero 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.
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.
Ronaldo Royero 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.
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Depor can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yulián Montaño will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Depor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Juan Diego Perdomo 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Depor, another week without a signature from Christopher Cano.
Position 10 and 25 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Depor will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Juan Sebastián Herrera 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Sebastián Herrera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.