Marked for Daniel Ramirez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Aug 2027
4 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Santos Laguna know exactly what they have.
Market2 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Franco Pardo 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 Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market2 Aug 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Daniel 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Dallas have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad2 Aug 2027
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 4 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Market2 Aug 2027
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Anthony Lozano has his answer from Santos Laguna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Jul 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Santos Laguna and Monterrey have settled on $280.0K. 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market26 Jul 2027
The offer from Nashville SC for Tahiel Jiménez was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lanús is saying, and nobody at Santos Laguna is enjoying the guessing.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Franco Pardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jul 2027
19 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Santos Laguna
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Ramirez 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Jul 2027
“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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market12 Jul 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The paperwork begins on Magrão
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Santos Laguna have done the hard part with Fortaleza, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Franco Pardo 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Ramirez 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.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bruno Amione, and the manager let it.
Market12 Jul 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at Santos Laguna
9 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jul 2027
Only the photograph left for Jaír González
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jaír González will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market5 Jul 2027
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.
Market5 Jul 2027
The chase for Miguel Paul ended with $320.0K changing hands and Pumas UNAM out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Carlos Gruezo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Ramirez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market5 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Club America have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Diego González. The answer from Santos Laguna has not changed — yet.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Diego González has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Kevin Balanta commits to Santos Laguna for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 May 2027
The knee: Kevin Picón out for 40 days
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santos Laguna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad24 May 2027
A fracture rules Luis Gómez out for 59 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santos Laguna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad24 May 2027
Franco Pardo 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Cáseres 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 dugout24 May 2027
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.
Market24 May 2027
The name of Daniel Ramirez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Santos Laguna say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
Franco Pardo 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Cáseres 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
Diego Medina gets picked when it counts
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 Diego Medina is on it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Bruno Amione 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 Bruno Amione trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Apr 2027
The name of Daniel Ramirez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Santos Laguna say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Carlos Gruezo 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Ramiro Árciga
“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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Cervantes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Something was said to Alex Valencia and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match13 Mar 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 6‑1 against Chiapas, and it could have been more.
Squad15 Mar 2027
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Diogo Bagüí: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santos Laguna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Franco Pardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match13 Mar 2027
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Santos Laguna and Chiapas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Marked 9.66 — 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Facundo Cáseres 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 ratings15 Mar 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match6 Mar 2027
It had gone 8 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Franco Pardo 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 Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match6 Mar 2027
Morelia made Santos Laguna work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Daniel Ramirez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
The team sheet said everything about Lucas Di Yorio
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Lucas Di Yorio.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Market8 Mar 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Santos Laguna, another week without a signature from José Javier Abella.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Cervantes 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Jan 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Franco Pardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Jan 2027
Tigres left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Cáseres 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
Bruno Amione 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Santos Laguna told Daniel Ramirez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Leon 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Santos Laguna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market4 Jan 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Franco Pardo 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Los Angeles Football Club have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
Franco Pardo 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.
Match2 Jan 2027
0‑2 to Club America, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Javier Abella 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Efraín Orona and Santos Laguna agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Franco Pardo 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Facundo Cáseres 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
19 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match26 Dec 2026
A goal on 93 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Match26 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Lucas Di Yorio dropped after a run of poor form
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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Oribe Montes chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomás Abdelnur, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Dec 2026
The offer from Deportivo Pasto for Tahiel Jiménez was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad21 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Cáseres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.00 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Haret Ortega 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oribe Montes after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
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 dugout21 Dec 2026
Kevin Palacios has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Santos Laguna 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market7 Dec 2026
The offer from Jaguares for Alberto Ocejo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Franco Pardo 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Cáseres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alberto Ocejo, and the manager let it.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Sergio Barajas
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Sergio Barajas has come out of that comparison in the side, and Santos Laguna have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Diego González is no longer first choice
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Lucas Di Yorio
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
Franco Pardo 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.
Market30 Nov 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Ramirez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match28 Nov 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
53 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Oribe Montes to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anthony Lozano, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Lucas Di Yorio dropped after a run of poor form
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Nov 2026
Franco Pardo 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 Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match14 Nov 2026
Three points for Santos Laguna, 2‑0 the final word against Chiapas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Cáseres 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Ramiro Sordo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.37. 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.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Fran Villalba at his very best
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Santos Laguna.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Oribe Montes on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego González, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.94, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Franco Pardo 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Aldo López commits to Santos Laguna for another 3 years.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Ramirez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match7 Nov 2026
Three points for Santos Laguna, 2‑0 the final word against Morelia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Defensive actions: 17, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Efraín Orona
“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 dugout9 Nov 2026
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.” Oribe Montes kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Facundo Cáseres 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 ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Diego Medina
“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.
Match24 Oct 2026
It needed Daniel Ramirez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Puebla, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oribe Montes after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
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.
Looking ahead26 Oct 2026
A test against the best for Santos Laguna
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 Pachuca.
Squad26 Oct 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Santos Laguna have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Carlos Gruezo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Ramirez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Carlos Gruezo
7.34, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Santos Laguna had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Oribe Montes was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Santos Laguna dressing room was either.
Squad19 Oct 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Tomás Abdelnur
“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 dugout19 Oct 2026
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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Tijuana came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Franco Pardo pops up at the right end — 7.57
7.57, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Franco Pardo 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.
Match10 Oct 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Alberto Ocejo 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Haret Ortega 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Enrique Cedillo commits to Santos Laguna for another 3 years.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Sep 2026
6 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Facundo Cáseres pops up at the right end — 7.72
7.72, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Franco Pardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market28 Sep 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Ramirez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Ramiro Sordo beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Bruno Amione
“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 dugout28 Sep 2026
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 1‑3 Oribe Montes left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Santos Laguna
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Santos Laguna are no longer polite ones.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Franco Pardo 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 Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match19 Sep 2026
3 matches without a goal for Santos Laguna
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alberto Ocejo 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marked 7.51. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Daniel Ramirez knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Santos Laguna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Oribe Montes chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
The deal that would have taken Bruno Amione to Guadalajara has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Santos Laguna with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Santos Laguna offered $4.6M; Club America 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Santos Laguna
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Santos Laguna are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Franco Pardo 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 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Haret Ortega and Santos Laguna agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Cáseres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.30. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The formation has left Ramiro Árciga behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Santos Laguna will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Santos Laguna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Santos Laguna close the window on a squad of their own making
19 in and 5 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market7 Sep 2026
The paperwork is done: Ramiro Árciga joins from Tijuana in a deal worth $420.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Franco Pardo 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The window shuts on the Alonso Aceves deal
Santos Laguna ran out of time with Monterrey. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Daniel 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Carlos Gruezo, and the manager let it.
Match5 Sep 2026
Club America left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
The chase for Daniel Ramirez ended with $2.7M changing hands and Veracruz out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Franco Pardo and Santos Laguna agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pumas UNAM have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Santiago Ochoa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Christian Ramirez 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Roberto Araujo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Cáseres 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
Dorados will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Veracruz were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market10 Aug 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Efrain Sanchez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 9.78
A mark of 9.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad10 Aug 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Uriel Lozano takes the afternoon — 8.02
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Uriel Lozano provided it, and the 8.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market10 Aug 2026
Daniel Ramirez has left for Santos Laguna in a $2.7M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Christian Araujo and Veracruz agree another 5 years.
Match8 Aug 2026
Efrain Sanchez among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Efrain Sanchez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Veracruz and Dorados.
Squad10 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Veracruz
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jonathan Pineda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
Veracruz say no — this time
The offer from Cagliari for Rodolfo Ochoa was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Pescara have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jesus Alvarez. The answer from Veracruz has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Jonathan Pineda 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
“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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Jesus Alvarez did the work nobody counts — 6.91
10 combined actions and 6.91. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
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 0‑2 Marco Pineda left the room before anybody could ask which.