“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Felipe Andrade commits to Houston Dynamo for another 4 years.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Houston Dynamo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Andrade 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Duncan McGuire signs something — a contract at Houston Dynamo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Houston Dynamo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The mood at Houston Dynamo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
$400.0K on the table at Seattle Sounders. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
$420.0K on the table at San Jose Earthquakes. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The phone has started ringing about Luka Prpa again, and this time the name on the line is Columbus Crew. Houston Dynamo are listening politely and promising nothing.
Houston Dynamo have made the call to New York City. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Matai Akinmboni'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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Houston Dynamo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Prpa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Houston Dynamo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Diadié Samassékou has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The offer went to Austin FC this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
CF Montreal paid $410.0K and Houston Dynamo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
St. Louis CITY SC pay $230.0K, 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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Houston Dynamo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Andrade 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
22 games, 5 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Houston Dynamo now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Houston Dynamo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Felipe Andrade 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.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Houston Dynamo know now that the thought has arrived.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Houston Dynamo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Houston Dynamo told Lucas Halter something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Guilherme has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ibrahim Aliyu trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.