Marked for Fernando Dos Santos
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Mbekezeli Mbokazi 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Manuel Ramirez 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Match14 Nov 2026
0‑4 to Toluca, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad16 Nov 2026
José Joaquín Martínez 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Antonio Portales, and the manager let it.
Boardroom16 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Gerardo Guardado 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Veracruz lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Veracruz know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 9. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.