82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. La Equidad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The match ball belongs to Freddy Arias, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match12 Feb 2028
Freddy Arias wins it after the whistle should have gone
96 minutes played. Freddy Arias found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Leones went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Freddy Arias. 4‑3 against Leones, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether La Equidad can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Ivan Bacca 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.
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. La Equidad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Bacca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Freddy Arias. 1‑0 against Cortulua, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 143 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around La Equidad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
La Equidad ran out of time with Llaneros. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Pablo Hernandez 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 Gustavo Restrepo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nicolas Sinisterra and La Equidad agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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 Leonardo Falcao is on it.
Llaneros have accepted the money. What La Equidad do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Atletico Nacional moved on, Freddy Arias reports back to La Equidad, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. La Equidad will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Manuel Mosquera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around La Equidad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pablo Hernandez 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Santander have kept their man, and La Equidad 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 Ivan Bacca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19, and nobody at La Equidad signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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 Alejandro Varela is on it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around La Equidad people have started saying his name in the past tense.
0‑1 away to the standard of Bahia. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at La Equidad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Santiago Puentes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around La Equidad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around La Equidad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pablo Hernandez 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Restrepo 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Leonardo Palacios 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Alejandro Martinez will call it something else in private.
“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 La Equidad, 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 La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Freddy Arias wants continental football; whether La Equidad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan 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.
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 Alejandro Varela is on 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 La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around La Equidad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pablo Hernandez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan 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.
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.
Position 4 on 67 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at La Equidad that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
0‑0 against Cerro Porteno, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
“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 La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around La Equidad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pablo Hernandez 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kleyman Ochoa has just signed for La Equidad, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Restrepo 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.
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.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Alfredo Rios was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the La Equidad dressing room was either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around La Equidad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pablo Hernandez 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.
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 Leonardo Falcao is on it.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Daniel Restrepo has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alejandro Varela signs something — a contract at La Equidad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
0‑1 against Cerro Porteno. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at La Equidad heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan 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.
“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.
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 Alejandro Varela is on it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Deportivo Cali will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Position 4 on 67 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around La Equidad they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Pablo Hernandez 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Restrepo 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.
“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 La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Manuel Mosquera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around La Equidad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Juan Manuel Mosquera has agreed terms with Aguilas Doradas for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Pablo Hernandez 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Bacca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 30. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad 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 La Equidad 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 Ivan Bacca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Alejandro Varela is on it.
2‑0 against Deportivo La Guaira, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” La Equidad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Santiago Puentes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around La Equidad the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Santiago Puentes has agreed terms with Aguilas Doradas for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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 brace, and Freddy Arias takes the afternoon — 8.96
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Freddy Arias provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Pablo Hernandez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Ivan Bacca 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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. La Equidad 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 La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
22 goals and a season average of 7.45. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
La Equidad close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 0 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.
Leonardo Falcao 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.
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Ivan Bacca 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 words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
A brace, and Freddy Arias takes the afternoon — 8.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Freddy Arias provided it, and the 8.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A mark of 7.99 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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.09, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at La Equidad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The offer from Junior for Leonardo Falcao 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.
Leonardo Falcao 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether La Equidad can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Pablo Hernandez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Level with 94 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon La Equidad had all but put away. Atletico Bucaramanga will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order La Equidad prefer.
Pablo Hernandez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings28 Jun 2027
Freddy Arias was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.96. 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 17-year-old it feels ownership of. Francisco Barrios 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.
“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.
Pablo Hernandez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Ivan Bacca 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
A mark of 7.75 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.
Pablo Hernandez 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.
6 goals in one match, Leonardo Falcao on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of La Equidad and Atletico Nacional.
Marked 9.75 — 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.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was 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 La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Envigado spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadIvan Bacca falls out with a teammate over standards
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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 May 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan 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.
Every paper's favourite story and every manager's least. What happened is being dealt with internally, which is the phrase clubs use when they would rather nobody asked again.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Pablo Hernandez 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.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Leonardo Falcao was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. 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.
“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 La Equidad, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Leonardo Palacios did not need any: 8.12, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Pablo Hernandez 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.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Leonardo Falcao was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.74. 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Ivan Bacca 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 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Leonardo Palacios 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.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Leonardo Falcao decided otherwise. Aguilas Doradas had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Marked 9.75 — 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Ivan Bacca 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.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” La Equidad have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether La Equidad can give him that is a question about the club, not 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 La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Varela, and the manager let it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Restrepo 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
Pablo Hernandez 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan 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.
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 Gustavo Restrepo is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leonardo Falcao provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
Pablo Hernandez 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 Ivan Bacca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Leonardo Falcao in the middle of it, and Santa Fe unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alfredo Rios on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutMiguel Sanchez has become a man the manager trusts
0‑3. Fluminense play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Restrepo 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 95. Millonarios had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether La Equidad can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
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.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Tomás Maya
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Baltika had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Equidad can pretend not to have heard.
6 goals in one match, Leonardo Palacios on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of La Equidad and Alianza Petrolera.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ivan Bacca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Leonardo Palacios 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Leonardo Falcao at his very best
A mark of 7.64 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Ivan Bacca 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leonardo Falcao. 1‑0 against Cortulua, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Pablo Hernandez is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. La Equidad will try again when the window opens; Gimnasia y Esgrima may not be selling by then.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jeifer Nontoa has just signed for La Equidad, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation La Equidad are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. La Equidad would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
Gimnasia y Esgrima have accepted the money. What La Equidad do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. La Equidad had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at La Equidad hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Pablo Hernandez 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
La Equidad offered $17.0K; Patriotas 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toluca have kept their man, and La Equidad go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Sheffield Wednesday this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Louie Barry 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 earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Simon Collins on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sheffield Wednesday know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Remi Walter 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Falcao was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.13 — 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.
“I watch every Sheffield Wednesday game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Accrington Stanley runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Di'Shon Bernard scored, was marked 7.28, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Leonardo Falcao 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Sheffield Wednesday and Southampton, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danny Ward was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
14 goals in 18 games at Crewe Alexandra — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sheffield Wednesday updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The offer from Alianza Petrolera for Carlos Alberto Torres 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.
La Equidad have gone to Cortulua 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether La Equidad can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ivan Bacca 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.
La Equidad have gone to Llaneros 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Palacios 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.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sheffield Wednesday this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Sheffield Wednesday know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Louie Barry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
13 goals in 17 games at Crewe Alexandra — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sheffield Wednesday updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Liam Palmer and Sheffield Wednesday agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I did not go to Accrington Stanley to sit and watch. I want to come back to Sheffield Wednesday and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout7 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.” Simon Collins chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sheffield Wednesday this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑2 win over West Bromwich Albion, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Falcao 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 the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The goal that put West Bromwich Albion ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Sheffield Wednesday equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Leonardo Falcao 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Danny Ward 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.
Something was said to Morgan Whittaker and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout23 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 Simon Collins to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Equidad 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.
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 Ivan Bacca is on it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation La Equidad are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ivan Bacca signs something — a contract at La Equidad or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at La Equidad that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
Danny Ward 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 had been thinking. Louie Barry 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 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 1‑0 win over Charlton Athletic, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Louie Barry was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Simon Collins could afford to be generous.
Louie Barry 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 had been thinking. Leonardo Falcao 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 watch every Sheffield Wednesday game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Accrington Stanley runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Di'Shon Bernard and Sheffield Wednesday agree another 5 years.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Simon Collins after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Danny Ward was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ipswich Town left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Stavros Gavriel was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.00. 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Davide De Marino and Sheffield Wednesday agree another 4 years.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sheffield Wednesday, and 5 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutLouie Barry knocks on the manager’s door
Leonardo Falcao 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 Oct 2026
Louie Barry 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Minute 94, against Middlesbrough, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at La Equidad training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edwin Martinez 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at La Equidad, and both men came out saying it was fine.
10 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.99 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
A brace, and Louie Barry takes the afternoon — 8.17
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Louie Barry provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Remi Walter 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.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sheffield Wednesday has to find a result from somewhere.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Falcao was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Portsmouth left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Louie Barry is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sheffield Wednesday, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Queens Park Rangers the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Sheffield Wednesday will enjoy reviewing.
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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sava Čestić has, at Sheffield Wednesday, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Danny Ward and Sheffield Wednesday agree another 3 years.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sheffield Wednesday has to find a result from somewhere.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonardo Falcao was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Remi Walter, and the manager let it.
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 Simon Collins left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Sheffield Wednesday have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Joe Lumley’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Sheffield Wednesday needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Charlie McNeill’s exile
Leonardo Falcao 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. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Sheffield Wednesday asked and Zurich 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Connal Trueman 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.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Sheffield Wednesday has to find a result from somewhere.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sheffield Wednesday this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Louie Barry 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
12 in and 6 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.
Sheffield Wednesday asked and Rotherham United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sheffield Wednesday 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Mason Burstow has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. La Equidad lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fiorentina paid $37.0M and La Equidad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.43 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ivan Bacca 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about La Equidad and Jaguares in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Leonardo Palacios decided nobody was going anywhere. Once Caldas had no time left to answer.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Southampton had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Levante paid $9.3M and La Equidad took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
A mark of 8.33 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Miguel Sanchez wants continental football; whether La Equidad can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not 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 La Equidad this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
The clubs have shaken hands with Leicester City; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer went to Wrexham 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Louie Barry and Sheffield Wednesday agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bodo/Glimt have kept their man, and Sheffield Wednesday go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nicholas Scott is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Richard Miller is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Richard Mitchell has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.