19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Valledupar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The phone has started ringing about Francisco Cordoba again, and this time the name on the line is Millonarios. Valledupar are listening politely and promising nothing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Valledupar have done the hard part with Deportes Tolima, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Valledupar have made the call to Deportivo Pasto. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Valledupar can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valledupar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.60, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“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 The request is on a desk at Valledupar, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valledupar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Millonarios have kept their man, and Valledupar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Sanchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Union Magdalena 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.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Valledupar have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
A season-long audition: Envigado still own him, but the shirt and the minutes are Valledupar's to give. A loan is a bet both clubs believe they are winning.
In brief
The dugoutIvan Torres asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Cristhian Valencia 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 words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Francisco Cordoba 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Valledupar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Gustavo Muriel on the training pitch
“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 Valledupar, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Valledupar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Sanchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.