72 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Pachuca did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $22.4M for Moctar Diop, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
$7.9M was the most the club would pay and Queretaro 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.
Add another name to the list: Atletico Nacional have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Branco Salinardi. The answer from Pumas UNAM has not changed — yet.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luiz Borges will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Álvaro Fidalgo 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.
Moctar Diop was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $22.4M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
In brief
SquadWords at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Nathan Silva damages knee ligaments — 100 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 100 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.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Pumas UNAM have had the benefit of it.
Pumas UNAM have gone to Morelia 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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luiz Borges will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pumas UNAM have gone to Tijuana 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.
131 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pumas UNAM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Branco Salinardi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 May 2030
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Fidalgo 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 never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Branco Salinardi 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.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álvaro Fidalgo 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.
“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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Álvaro Fidalgo 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 want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Córdova 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.
8 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Sebastián Córdova has come out of that comparison in the side, and Pumas UNAM have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Álvaro Fidalgo 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 at Pumas UNAM 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.
Pumas UNAM will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luiz Borges 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pumas UNAM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 55 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Richard Ledezma and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at Guadalajara training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Fernández Mercau 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.
Pumas UNAM will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Luiz Borges has pre-agreed a move to Guadalajara, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Position 2 on 67 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.
Position 2, 67 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luiz Borges will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Álvaro Fidalgo 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 rules permit it and it stings anyway. Luiz Borges has agreed terms with Guadalajara for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastián Córdova 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. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
14 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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 Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Ignacio Duma will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Sebastián Córdova 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
The goal that put Santos Laguna ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Pumas UNAM equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 10 gone
That is the business done at Pumas UNAM until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nathan Silva 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.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Luiz Borges 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.
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 César Huerta is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM 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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sebastián Córdova 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 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.
$49.0K was the most the club would pay and Tigres 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.
“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; Pumas UNAM are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gaddi Aguirre has just signed for Pumas UNAM, and for once the answer mattered.
4 matches without defeat, and then Toluca. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout13 Aug 2029
Pablo Lara is still being punished for one mistake
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Veracruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Veracruz have done the hard part with Morelia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Rodriguez 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.
Pumas UNAM paid $55.0K and Veracruz took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Morelia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Uriel Ochoa 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.
$7.0K was the most the club would pay and Morelia 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Rodriguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kenneth Jaime, and the manager let it.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Jakos 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.
“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 Veracruz will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Javier Ramirez signs something — a contract at Veracruz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Position 18 and 10 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.
Uriel Ochoa 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.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Irving Zurita 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Veracruz has been clear about where Tomás Jakos stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel Rodriguez signs something — a contract at Veracruz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Veracruz that is a harder question to answer.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Francisco González wants continental football; whether Veracruz can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Veracruz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Uriel Ochoa 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 Daniel Rodriguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel Rodriguez signs something — a contract at Veracruz or anywhere else — this column belongs to 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 Veracruz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Veracruz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Veracruz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Uriel Ochoa 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 Daniel Rodriguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Veracruz told Santiago Márquez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Veracruz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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. Veracruz will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Veracruz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Francisco González wants continental football; whether Veracruz can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Uriel Ochoa 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Rodriguez 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 Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Rodriguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Day 10 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luiz Borges and Veracruz agree another 1 years.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
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.
37 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gerardo Gómez has just signed for Veracruz, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Rodriguez 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Pedro Martínez has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Veracruz have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Uriel Ochoa 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 Daniel Rodriguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Sebastian Herrera after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Veracruz will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
32 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 139 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veracruz can pretend not to have heard.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Veracruz and Puebla, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.