Marked for Lucas Avendaño
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Nov 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Santiago Wanderers will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match13 Nov 2028
Position 14 and 34 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Leandro Díaz 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cristopher Barrera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Enzo Ormeño gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom13 Nov 2028
101% of the income goes out in wages at Santiago Wanderers
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.
Market13 Nov 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Lucas Alarcón 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 Lucas Alarcón trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market13 Nov 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. John Valladares may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Nov 2028
Supporters organise against the Santiago Wanderers board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santiago Wanderers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Alexis Fernandez has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Lucas Alarcón has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Santiago Wanderers is pretending otherwise.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Enzo Ormeño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joaquín Silva, and the manager let it.
Market6 Nov 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Santiago Wanderers, another week without a signature from Kevin González.
The dugout6 Nov 2028
Enzo Ormeño 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 Enzo Ormeño trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Oct 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santiago Wanderers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match16 Oct 2028
34 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Leandro Díaz 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.
Boardroom16 Oct 2028
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad16 Oct 2028
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“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 2028
No place for Mateo Guerra in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Santiago Wanderers are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
Agustin Mora 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 Agustin Mora trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Oct 2028
Santiago Wanderers have let the market know John Valladares can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Oct 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Santiago Wanderers will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Lucas Alarcón has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Santiago Wanderers is pretending otherwise.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Leandro Díaz 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 Santiago Wanderers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Oct 2028
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Santiago Wanderers now.
Market9 Oct 2028
“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.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Leandro Navarro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“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 Santiago Wanderers will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Feb 2028
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santiago Wanderers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
A brace, and Marcos Camarda takes the afternoon — 8.37
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marcos Camarda provided it, and the 8.37 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market21 Feb 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Leandro Díaz 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 Santiago Wanderers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Roble was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Feb 2028
7 new faces, and Santiago Wanderers 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 dugout21 Feb 2028
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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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.” Alexis Fernandez, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.