Marked for Diego Ramirez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Nov 2035
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo La Guaira they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Rojas 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
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hayden Henry was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
Rojas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Deportivo La Guaira 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 dugout26 Nov 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportivo La Guaira, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market26 Nov 2035
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Deportivo La Guaira, another week without a signature from Victor Moreno.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
“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 Nov 2035
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Deportivo La Guaira money.
Market26 Nov 2035
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Frannaicel Sinza may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Oct 2035
Carlos Aravena 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.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Hayden Henry 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.
Squad22 Oct 2035
32 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout22 Oct 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Estiven Sánchez, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Oct 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.
Market22 Oct 2035
Still no signature from Luis Franco
2 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Deportivo La Guaira could get for him.
The dugout22 Oct 2035
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 Daniel Moreno has written the date down.
Boardroom22 Oct 2035
101 graduates from an academy now rated 9 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout24 Sep 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Deportivo La Guaira may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Rojas 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
60 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Hayden Henry 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
Oscar Savarino pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
“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.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportivo La Guaira, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market24 Sep 2035
Luis Franco runs his contract down
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Deportivo La Guaira money.