Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dynamo Puerto waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Monagas is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything agreed with Fortaleza, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$250.0K on the table at Barquisimeto. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Felipe Jaramillo 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.
Words at Monagas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sheraldo Becker 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 Monagas has been clear about where Elián Robles stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Monagas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The offer went to UCV 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Academia Puerto Cabello have gone to Monagas 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.
The offer went to Estudiantes de Merida 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.
Andrés Ferro 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jhosniel Beleño is a Academia Puerto Cabello player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The name of Camilo Charris has come up in conversations Academia Puerto Cabello were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The mood at Monagas has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“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 Monagas, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Alejandro Herrera has come up in conversations Monagas were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Junior Paredes 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 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.
“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 Monagas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Monagas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Sheraldo Becker 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.
26 appearances away from home and 17 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Henrry Díaz 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.
Nobody at Monagas 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Elián Robles trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Patricio Tanda has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Joyce Ossa is training like a man with a point to make
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
The mood at Monagas has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Monagas can pretend not to have heard.
Patricio Tanda 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Monagas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Jaramillo 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 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.
Nobody at Monagas 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Monagas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Monagas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Monagas they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Patricio Tanda 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 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.
Felipe Jaramillo 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.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Monagas expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Marcos Maitán.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Monagas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Espínola 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.
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 Junior Paredes is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Monagas have no good answer.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Monagas says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking 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 Monagas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alejandro Herrera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monagas the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Junior Paredes 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 Sheraldo Becker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Monagas 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.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Monagas would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monagas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Monagas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alejandro Herrera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Monagas 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.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Henrry Díaz 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Eric Ramírez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monagas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Bruno Barticciotto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at Monagas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sheraldo Becker 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ricardo Rincones has come out of that comparison in the side, and Monagas have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Monagas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Monagas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1‑4 to Rayo Zuliano, 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.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $54.4K of what Monagas paid for Franyer Oliveros is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Player ratings23 Jul 2029
Up for the corner, and José Espínola delivers — 7.04
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. José Espínola scored, was marked 7.04, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Monagas 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monagas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
“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 Monagas, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Monagas have done the hard part with Newell's Old Boys, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Junior Paredes 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 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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monagas lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monagas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Edward Osorio is a Monagas player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Junior Paredes 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Words at Monagas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sheraldo Becker 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.
Monagas asked and Atletico Nacional said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Monagas have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. UCV kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Monagas will be asked about the last half hour all week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The fee is $170.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Deportivo Tachira drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Monagas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Monagas have done the hard part with Deportivo Tachira, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The fee is $720.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Carabobo drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The fee is $120.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Ureña drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Junior Paredes 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 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.
“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 Monagas, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $900.0K — a club that wants Santiago Rodríguez enough to be asked twice.
$830.0K was the most the club would pay and Deportivo Miranda 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.
Junior Paredes 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 fee is $110.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Angostura drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Felipe Jaramillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Monagas 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 Monagas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Monagas can pretend not to have heard.
Junior Paredes 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 Felipe Jaramillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Eduardo Lima
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
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 Jesús Vargas is on it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Rafael Arango after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Junior Paredes 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 Felipe Jaramillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Junior Paredes 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 Sheraldo Becker was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
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 0‑1 Rafael Arango left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Eduardo Lima
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“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 Monagas, 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 Monagas 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 Felipe Jaramillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Anzoátegui had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Nobody at Monagas 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Rafael Arango after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Junior Paredes 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 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 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.
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.
Nobody at Monagas 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.
Junior Paredes 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 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.
Nobody at Monagas 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.
The enquiry everybody at Monagas was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Henrry Díaz had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Monagas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 Monagas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Junior Paredes 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 shirt still fits. Ricardo Rincones is back at Monagas, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Monagas, another week without a signature from Elián Robles.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Monagas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Monagas will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
In brief
The dugoutSheraldo Becker has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Monagas people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Monagas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Monagas had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marcos Maitán has just signed for Monagas, and for once the answer mattered.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $2.1M has been paid because José Rivas Gamboa is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Add another name to the list: Titanes Guanare have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about José Pinto. The answer from Monagas has not changed — yet.
The shirt still fits. Marcos Maitán is back at Monagas, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Joyce Ossa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Monagas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sheraldo Becker 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of José Pinto
Transfer targetsA loan move for Sebastián Mella is in the works
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Monagas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monagas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monagas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Monagas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Monagas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
54 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Sheraldo Becker 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 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.
Nobody at Monagas 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.
Monagas have gone to Bolívar 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.
The fee is $110.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Trujillanos drove a hard bargain; time will say who won 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 Monagas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Monagas asked and Titanes Guanare said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Diego Prieto has, at Monagas, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Monagas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Jaramillo 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fernando Basante. 1‑0 against Marítimo de La Guaira, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Academia Puerto Cabello arrived with $980.0K and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
13 matches without a win, and then this, against Héroes de Falcón. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Titanes Guanare can pretend not to have heard.
Andres Savarino has gone, the accounts have $980.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
$300.0K settles it between the clubs for José Flores
Zamora have accepted the money. What Titanes Guanare do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Marked 7.66. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Miguel Pernía 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Monagas can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Caracas have kept their man, and Monagas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Monagas have gone to Titanes Guanare 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.
Junior Paredes 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 Felipe Jaramillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑1 win over Deportivo Tachira, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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 offer from Monagas for Andres Savarino 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.
The phone has started ringing about Alejandro Herrera again, and this time the name on the line is Monagas. Titanes Guanare are listening politely and promising nothing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Richard Herrera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Titanes Guanare the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Titanes Guanare this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Titanes Guanare lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Titanes Guanare has to find a result from somewhere.
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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Titanes Guanare is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Titanes Guanare can pretend not to have heard.
Robert Garcés and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 May 2028
Luis Cordova 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.
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Titanes Guanare lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
11 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.
“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 Titanes Guanare, and it is not being withdrawn.
Robert Garcés 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 had been thinking. Andres Otero 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.
9 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Titanes Guanare can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.07 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Titanes Guanare is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leonardo Ortíz and Titanes Guanare agree another 3 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Titanes Guanare this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luis Cordova 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.
Position 15, 9 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
8 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.41, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad1 May 2028
Luis Morgillo 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 dugout1 May 2028
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 1‑2 Richard Murillo left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Titanes Guanare can pretend not to have heard.
Robert Garcés 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 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Luis Cordova 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.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Titanes Guanare lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Titanes Guanare, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Andres Otero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Titanes Guanare 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.
58 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Titanes Guanare lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Titanes Guanare, and it is not being withdrawn.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Miguel Pernía 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Andres Otero 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Leonardo Ortíz has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luis Cordova and Titanes Guanare agree another 3 years.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It needed Andres Otero to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Estudiantes de Merida, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Nobody at Titanes Guanare 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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The words a physio says slowly. 87 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.
“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 Titanes Guanare, and it is not being withdrawn.
8 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.
Robert Garcés 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Titanes Guanare can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Andres Otero 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Richard Murillo after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Titanes Guanare lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Titanes Guanare, 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 Titanes Guanare this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Luis Cordova 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Richard Murillo after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Titanes Guanare lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Titanes Guanare, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andres Otero 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Miguel Pernía has his answer from Titanes Guanare; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sandro Notaroberto is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
4 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.
Robert Garcés 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Uriel Arena is a Titanes Guanare player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Cordova was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Titanes Guanare lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Titanes Guanare, 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 Titanes Guanare 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 Diego Gonzalez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Titanes Guanare know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Florencio Alric trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.