Marked for Roberto Arango
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Jul 2027
The bid was some way short and Llaneros did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.97, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Sergio Soteldo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fredy Guerrero and Llaneros agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Gonzalez 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 terraces5 Jul 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Luis Murillo 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.
Player ratings5 Jul 2027
Daniel Moreno was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Llaneros academy
5 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Carlos Gonzalez
28 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Llaneros, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market1 Feb 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Roberto Savarino has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Llaneros.
The terraces1 Feb 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Fernando Herrera 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Fredy Guerrero 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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Victor Ramirez at his very best
Marked 8.05. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Llaneros.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Carlos Gonzalez
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.
Market25 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match23 Jan 2027
7 matches without a win for Llaneros
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Llaneros are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match23 Jan 2027
Llaneros are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Llaneros this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Graduation day at Llaneros
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at Llaneros training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Gonzalez 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.