Marked for Darwin Ramirez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Nov 2031
Sandro Notaroberto 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.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Darwin Casseres and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
Nobody at Llaneros 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.
Market17 Nov 2031
The Oscar Arango talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Llaneros know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad17 Nov 2031
Oscar Arango called up by his country
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Llaneros that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
The dugout17 Nov 2031
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alejandro Rondon has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market29 Sep 2031
Juan Muñóz hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Llaneros can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Llaneros may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Sandro Notaroberto 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 dugout29 Sep 2031
“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.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Words exchanged at Llaneros
Salomon Castillo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market20 Jan 2031
“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 Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Diogo Cabrera was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Sandro Notaroberto 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.
Transfer targets20 Jan 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo La Guaira have kept their man, and Llaneros go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
Rafael Martinez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Llaneros 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 dugout20 Jan 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Castillo, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead20 Jan 2031
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Carabobo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market20 Jan 2031
“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.
Squad20 Jan 2031
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Oct 2030
A falling-out at Llaneros
Luis Moreno Quero and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Oct 2030
A row about effort at Llaneros
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sandro Notaroberto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
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 dugout28 Oct 2030
Edwin Vargas knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edwin Vargas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Oct 2030
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Boardroom28 Oct 2030
The Llaneros production line keeps running
28 graduates out of an academy now rated 7 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Aug 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Miguel Castillo
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Llaneros lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Aug 2030
A fracture rules Luis Osorio out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Llaneros will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Diogo Cabrera 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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
A move Darwin Ramirez would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Darwin Ramirez is living that version at Llaneros, and it tends to show in the first month.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
The manager makes an example of Junior Machis
“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.
Market26 Aug 2030
He is 18, and nobody at Llaneros signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
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 Francisco Cordova is on it.
Market26 Aug 2030
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Llaneros has been clear about where Alexander Guerra stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Llaneros, and both men came out saying it was fine.