Marked for Jonathan Jimenez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Apr 2028
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Monterrey lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Yael Padilla 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto de la Rosa 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 dugout24 Apr 2028
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 dugout24 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Luis Alberto Cárdenas'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.
Market24 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Diego Rossi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fernando Valenzuela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Óliver 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jonathan Jimenez
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monterrey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market17 Apr 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Monterrey they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market17 Apr 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Monterrey have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Paulinho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Roberto de la Rosa 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
Alonso Aceves has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Monterrey 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 dugout17 Apr 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market17 Apr 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Orbelín Pineda’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Apr 2028
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Monterrey lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match10 Apr 2028
The season ends: position 8 for Monterrey
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 57 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Match8 Apr 2028
6 matches without a win for Monterrey
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Monterrey are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Apr 2028
At 19, Gilberto Mora is already the best thing here
An average of 7.15 in a first team he is several years too young for. Monterrey have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Match8 Apr 2028
The goals have deserted Monterrey
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Monterrey can tell you which week it ends in.
Market10 Apr 2028
“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.
Match8 Apr 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Yael Padilla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Apr 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jonathan Jimenez
46 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monterrey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match1 Apr 2028
No end in sight to Monterrey's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Monterrey has to find a result from somewhere.
Market3 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Óliver in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Apr 2028
4 matches without a goal for Monterrey
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.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match1 Apr 2028
Cruz Azul left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market3 Apr 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Johan Rojas wants continental football; whether Monterrey can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
Jonathan Jimenez damages knee ligaments — 53 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Market27 Mar 2028
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Monterrey
Alonso Aceves 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Monterrey are still strangers to each other
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.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Eliás Montiel gets picked when it counts
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 Eliás Montiel is on it.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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.
Market27 Mar 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Diego Rossi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Cristian Calderón trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
Cruz Azul next, and one man in the Monterrey dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jonathan Jimenez
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monterrey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market20 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market20 Mar 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Sebastián Vegas wants continental football; whether Monterrey can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match18 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Monterrey's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Monterrey has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Cristian Calderón and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match18 Mar 2028
3 matches without a goal for Monterrey
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.
Match18 Mar 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto de la Rosa 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
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Johan Rojas
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The dugout
Esteban Andrada dropped after a run of poor form
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Mar 2028
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Monterrey lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad13 Mar 2028
At 19, Gilberto Mora is already the best thing here
An average of 7.17 in a first team he is several years too young for. Monterrey have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alonso Aceves commits to Monterrey for another 4 years.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Óliver and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match11 Mar 2028
Pumas UNAM left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Esteban Andrada will call it something else in private.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad6 Mar 2028
Jonathan Jimenez damages knee ligaments — 83 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Orbelín Pineda and Monterrey agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Yael Padilla in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Gilberto Mora is the month’s best young player
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Monterrey will try not to make too much of it.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Marked 7.91 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Monterrey had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
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.
Market6 Mar 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jonathan Jimenez
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monterrey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Feb 2028
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Match26 Feb 2028
The run is over for Monterrey
4 matches without defeat, and then Atlas. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto de la Rosa 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 dugout28 Feb 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Carlos Martin after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Eliás Montiel gets picked when it counts
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 Eliás Montiel is on it.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Dylan Guajardo
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jonathan Jimenez
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monterrey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Gilberto Mora, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.27
A mark of 8.27 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Match19 Feb 2028
Monterrey cannot stop winning
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Market21 Feb 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monterrey is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Paulinho and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
The game went through Orbelín Pineda — 6.91
Marked 6.91 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Match19 Feb 2028
Three points for Monterrey, 1‑0 the final word against Santos Laguna in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto de la Rosa 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Too much change too quickly at Monterrey
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jonathan Jimenez
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monterrey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Gilberto Mora, 19, steals the show — 8.12
Marked 8.12 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Age has not caught Stefan Medina yet — 7.89
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A season average of 7.15 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Monterrey know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market14 Feb 2028
So close: Uroš Đurđević’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Club America moved on, Uroš Đurđević reports back to Monterrey, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Match12 Feb 2028
Nobody wants to play Monterrey right now
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Óliver and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Feb 2028
A 3‑2 win over Veracruz, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market14 Feb 2028
The phone has started ringing about Jonathan Corona again, and this time the name on the line is Queretaro. Monterrey are listening politely and promising nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Morelia, and it could have been more.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.60 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market10 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Monterrey did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market10 Aug 2026
The name of Lucas Ocampos has come up in conversations Monterrey were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The deal with Pachuca is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.1M — a club that wants Júnior Tavares enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Víctor Guzmán commits to Monterrey for another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Óliver 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.