A brace, and Luca Orellano takes the afternoon — 9.05
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Luca Orellano provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Monterrey offered $220.0K; Santos Laguna said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Gerardo Martin 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Guillermo Reyes on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Monterrey man
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Groningen had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Monterrey have paid $4.8M for Gerardo Martin, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Veracruz have kept their man, and Monterrey go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $250.0K — a club that wants Jaziel Martínez enough to be asked twice.
Óliver 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 offer went to Morelia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Veracruz people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $238.9K — a club that wants José Juan Macías enough to be asked twice.
Guilherme Araujo 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.
$210.0K on the table at Pumas UNAM. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.