The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Aragua is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everything agreed with Deportivo La Guaira, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Luis Corredor 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 Edixon Mena was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Caracas have kept their man, and Aragua go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Deportivo La Guaira have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aragua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The deal with Deportivo Tachira 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.
Luis Corredor 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 Edixon Mena was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aragua asked and Deportivo Lara 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 words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Luis Corredor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Edixon Mena 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.
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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aragua lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aragua this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Aragua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edixon Mena 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aragua know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Romeo Di Modugno trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Aragua lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Oscar Otero has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aragua they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luis Corredor 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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Words at Aragua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edwards Pereira 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Carlos Rueda is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Luiyi Rincón's mistake
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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.
Luis Corredor 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 Edixon Mena was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
Carlos Rueda loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Carlos Rueda's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
Out, 0‑1 to Deportivo Tachira, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Aragua are no longer polite ones.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Aragua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edixon Mena 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.
José Velásquez 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Oscar Otero after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Aragua lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mineros de Guayana waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Aragua is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Christian Flores and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Aragua training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edixon Mena 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. Deportivo Lara have kept their man, and Aragua go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Aragua have made the call to Deportivo Tachira. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.