Marked for Mathias Cabrera
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Nov 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at La Luz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Tempers go at La Luz
Lucas Dogliotti 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 Nov 2035
Words at La Luz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Célio Pompeu 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom24 Sep 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at La Luz
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market24 Sep 2035
Clayton puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at La Luz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Sep 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Luz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Célio Pompeu 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Rodríguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad24 Sep 2035
The manager makes an example of Mathias Cabrera
“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
Crisis
Match17 Sep 2035
La Luz are in real trouble now
Position 14, 29 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market17 Sep 2035
“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.
Squad17 Sep 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Luz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Célio Pompeu 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 Sep 2035
The medical room confirms 28 days on the sidelines for Mathias Cabrera, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad17 Sep 2035
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
Squad26 Mar 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom26 Mar 2035
La Luz counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at La Luz now.
Market26 Mar 2035
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at La Luz is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market26 Mar 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what La Luz can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Mar 2035
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” La Luz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match24 Mar 2035
No end in sight to La Luz's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at La Luz has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Mar 2035
Tempers go at La Luz
Célio Pompeu 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 Mar 2035
The manager makes an example of Ramon
“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.
Player ratings26 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 Jan 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 94 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom29 Jan 2035
La Luz counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at La Luz now.
Market29 Jan 2035
Only the photograph left for Victor Thiago
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Victor Thiago will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around La Luz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Tempers go at La Luz
Célio Pompeu 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.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Nicolás Ruiz Paz 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.
Squad29 Jan 2035
Martin Lopez 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 Martin Lopez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Dec 2034
“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.
Squad25 Dec 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Luz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Words at La Luz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Dogliotti 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Oct 2034
“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.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Mathias Cabrera: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” La Luz have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at La Luz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.