“The easiest signature of my career.” Miguel Palacios and Universitario Popayan agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than 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 Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Jefferson Sanchez clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Camilo Quintero recited it perfectly.
Miguel Palacios 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 award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Universitario Popayan have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
In brief
SquadJefferson Montero is playing like a man with something to prove
“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 The request is on a desk at Universitario Popayan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Barranquilla for James Bacca 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universitario Popayan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Universitario Popayan, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Miguel Palacios 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.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $38.0K for Jean Carlos Meneses, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Bacca 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.
He is 20, and nobody at Universitario Popayan signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Diego Giraldo 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 deal that would have taken James Bacca to Barranquilla has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Universitario Popayan with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Universitario Popayan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Universitario Popayan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Universitario Popayan, and both men came out saying it was fine.