The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout1 Sep 2036
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
The captaincy has been taken off Edwin Echeverría. Deportes Quindio will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Santiago Garro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportes Quindio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑4 against Atletico Nacional, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alejandro Gutiérrez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Quindio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Alejandro Gutiérrez has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yani Quintero 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 words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Quindio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 2‑0 win over Union Magdalena, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
8.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Deportes Quindio will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Deportes Quindio, another week without a signature from Raimar.
104 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportes Quindio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Edwin Echeverría 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Nacional have kept their man, and Deportes Quindio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportes Quindio has been clear about where Rafael Martinez stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Deportes Quindio will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutLucho Vásquez asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 111 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.
“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 Deportes Quindio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom21 Jul 2036
Deportes Quindio close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportes Quindio have done the hard part with Atletico Nacional, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Nacional have kept their man, and Deportes Quindio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Duvan Hernandez and Deportes Quindio agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportes Quindio has to find a result from somewhere.
Everything agreed with Deportivo Cali, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Edwin Echeverría 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Deportes Quindio and Atletico Nacional have settled on $70.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atletico Nacional have kept their man, and Deportes Quindio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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.
The dugout23 Jun 2036
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shuaibu Olofu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
SquadFabian Romero is the weekend's best young player
“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 Deportes Quindio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Diego Arnedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Quindio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes Quindio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Everybody at Deportes Quindio saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 33 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.
Patriotas held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Deportes Quindio answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Shuaibu Olofu and Deportes Quindio agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shuaibu Olofu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Junior.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Abdul Nuhu has his answer from Deportes Quindio; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Kevin Muriel 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shuaibu Olofu 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 is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Edwin Echeverría was the best thing in any of them.
Atletico Nacional next, and one man in the Deportes Quindio dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes Quindio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Edwin Echeverría 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.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Union Magdalena tried to reorganise, Deportes Quindio did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
Marked 8.16 — 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
In brief
The dugoutSantiago Garro dropped after a run of poor form
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout17 Mar 2036
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 Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Squad17 Mar 2036
Shuaibu Olofu 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.
Union Magdalena next, and one man in the Deportes Quindio dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Edwin Echeverría signs something — a contract at Deportes Quindio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Deportes Quindio 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.
In brief
The dugoutLuis Ceballos knocks on the manager's door
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yani Quintero. 2‑0 against Jaguares, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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 Deportes Quindio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout18 Feb 2036
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Interim Coach, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yani Quintero and Deportes Quindio agree another 2 years.
Edwin Echeverría 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The target is the manager, the approach is real, and the compensation clause is the whole conversation. Clubs deny this kind of story right up until the photograph.
Day 8 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
A new manager did not pick last season’s side and does not care what it looked like. Yani Quintero has taken that personally, in the best sense, and Deportes Quindio are seeing a version of him the last regime had stopped seeing.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is William Ovalle’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Deportes Quindio needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutLucho Vásquez asks for a word with the manager
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportes Quindio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportes Quindio have done the hard part with Santa Fe, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Juan José Montoya has agreed terms with Atletico Bucaramanga for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. America de Cali have kept their man, and Deportes Quindio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Alfredo Lopez 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 Shuaibu Olofu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Deportes Quindio, and it is not being withdrawn.
$70.0K on the table at Millonarios. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Quindio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Kevin Mosquera has, at Deportes Quindio, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Aguilas Doradas wanted more than $25.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Atletico Bucaramanga will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Hugo Medina has pre-agreed a move to Deportes Quindio, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
“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.
Squad17 Dec 2035
Shuaibu Olofu 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.
In brief
The dugoutLuis Ceballos has become a man the manager trusts
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportes Quindio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alianza Petrolera have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Deportes Quindio are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes Quindio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportes Quindio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportes Quindio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Luca Scarlato 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.
“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; Deportes Quindio are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes Quindio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
17 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportes Quindio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportes Quindio will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Deportes Quindio, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 14 on 39 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Sebastián Covilla will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Quindio the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Juan Sebastián Covilla 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.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Deportes Quindio pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
5 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 dugout8 Oct 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ivan Sokolov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Deportes Quindio dressing room was either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes Quindio can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Quindio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Juan José Montoya and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Deportes Quindio, another week without a signature from Juan José Montoya.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes Quindio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shuaibu Olofu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Edwin Echeverría 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Juan Uribe has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Camilo Montero has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Miguel Cuadrado has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Leonardo Ramirez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
5 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Deportes Quindio told Luis Marimón something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes Quindio can pretend not to have heard.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Freddy Borja and Deportes Quindio agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout27 Aug 2035
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Ivan Sokolov to a room that had heard them before.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Juan Sebastián Covilla 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ivan Sokolov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Luis Ceballos is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Santa Fe in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes Quindio can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Yani Quintero, marked 7.93, 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.
The deal with Junior 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yani Quintero and Deportes Quindio agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
$15.0K on the table at Real Cartagena. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Millonarios 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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Deportivo Cali will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The deal with Deportivo Pasto 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.
Deportes Quindio have gone to Millonarios 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.
Juan Sebastián Covilla 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 Gabriel Uribe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
0‑3 against Independiente Medellin, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportes Quindio have done the hard part with Deportes Tolima, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Edwin Echeverría 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.
Deportes Quindio asked and Leones said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Uribe 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.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Edwin Echeverría provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Deportes Quindio asked and Atletico Nacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Union Magdalena spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Player ratings4 Jun 2035
William Ovalle was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.14. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
In brief
SquadWords at Deportes Quindio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gabriel Uribe 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edwin Cordoba and Deportes Quindio agree another 3 years.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ivan Sokolov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Deportes Quindio, another week without a signature from Juan Esteban Restrepo.
The dugout28 May 2035
Somebody else is better right now than Martín Busto
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Juan Sebastián Covilla 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.
A 1‑0 win over Alianza Petrolera, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.87 on the card, and the Deportes Quindio support went home talking about one name.
The dugout21 May 2035
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ivan Sokolov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes Quindio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad21 May 2035
Shuaibu Olofu 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Deportes Quindio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Quindio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Patriotas left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad14 May 2035
Gabriel Uribe 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Deportes Quindio, another week without a signature from Juan Sebastián Covilla.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Carlos Banguero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Luis Ceballos is on it.
A 1‑0 win over Aguilas Doradas, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gabriel Uribe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 May 2035
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Ivan Sokolov, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Juan Sebastián Covilla 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.
“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; Deportes Quindio are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ivan Sokolov was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Deportes Quindio dressing room was either.
In brief
SquadWords at Deportes Quindio training over how hard people work
Position 19 and 3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Quindio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Santa Fe left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad16 Apr 2035
Gabriel Uribe 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Luis Ceballos is on it.
13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportes Quindio has to find a result from somewhere.
Martín Busto 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.
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.
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.
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Juan Sebastián Covilla 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ivan Sokolov after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aram Barkhudaryan 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 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Juan Sebastián Covilla 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.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Neider Parra 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Edwin Echeverría has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout5 Feb 2035
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 Ivan Sokolov to a room that had heard them before.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Deportes Quindio will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Juan José Montoya has, at Deportes Quindio, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hector Sanchez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Felipe Arias has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fabian Rios 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Juan Moreno is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportes Quindio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Juan Sebastián Covilla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Fallou Faye 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 Juan Sebastián Covilla trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Deportes Quindio will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody at Deportes Quindio 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Edwin Echeverría signs something — a contract at Deportes Quindio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Juan Sebastián Covilla 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 Fallou Faye 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 Juan Sebastián Covilla trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Deportes Quindio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 11 on 49 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportes Quindio will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Juan Sebastián Covilla 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 Gabriel Uribe was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 17 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings23 Oct 2034
Up for the corner, and Fallou Faye delivers — 7.88
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Fallou Faye scored, was marked 7.88, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Juan Sebastián Covilla 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 had been thinking. Fallou Faye 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.
He is 17 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.