“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mineros de Guayana have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mineros de Guayana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2027
José Pinto 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mineros de Guayana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Ángel Peñaranda was one of the reasons people came, and $1.1M does not replace that by itself.
José Pinto 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 Mineros de Guayana can tell you which week it ends in.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mineros de Guayana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mineros de Guayana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
José Pinto 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Pachuca will make the call about Ángel Peñaranda this week. Mineros de Guayana have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Portuguesa defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
12 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mineros de Guayana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Stiven Rentería 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. José Pinto 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mineros de Guayana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1 for Jesús Cortéz, marked 7.52, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mineros de Guayana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
14 combined actions and 6.82. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Jorge Pinto from Aragua for $400.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
At 22 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 manager has not finished forgetting Stiven Rentería's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Mineros de Guayana will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Javier Bravo was one of the reasons people came, and $120.0K does not replace that by itself.
7.74, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Stiven Rentería 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.
Deportivo Lara pay $120.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Pinto 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.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mineros de Guayana has to find a result from somewhere.
Stiven Rentería 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. José Pinto 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mineros de Guayana this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
José Pinto 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 Mineros de Guayana 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 crowd waited for a goal that never came. Portuguesa defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes de Caracas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Mineros de Guayana paid $260.0K and Estudiantes de Caracas took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all 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 Mineros de Guayana, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chase for Rafael Herrera ended with $260.0K changing hands and Estudiantes de Caracas out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The chase for Juan Vegas ended with $46.0K changing hands and Caracas out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Stiven Rentería was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $260.0K for Rafael Herrera, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Pinto 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.
Willian Cunha 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 easiest signature of my career.” Rafael Herrera and Estudiantes de Caracas agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
SquadLuis Arango falls out with a teammate over standards