At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.61 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Universidad Catolica may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
321 appearances across 11 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universidad Catolica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Universidad Catolica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings8 Mar 2038
Ian Ariza was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.78. 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Galo Avendaño wants continental football; whether Universidad Catolica can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
He is going to Universidad Catolica, the club has $3.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Universidad Catolica pay $3.5M, 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
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.
Audax Italiano paid $390.0K and Colo-Colo took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The fee is $3.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Colo-Colo drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Rosen Bozhinov 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Benjamin Mena is living that version at Universidad Catolica, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad21 Dec 2037
Lucas Varaldo 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Colo-Colo have had the benefit of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Santiago Wanderers pay $660.0K, 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Arturo Beausejour again, and this time the name on the line is Cobresal. Colo-Colo are listening politely and promising nothing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamin Mena will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Colo-Colo heard it as anything else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexis Bravo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2037
Benjamin 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Colo-Colo heard it as anything else.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
In brief
SquadWords at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamin Mena will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Colo-Colo hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Colo-Colo and Universidad Catolica, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexis Bravo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Luis Vázquez 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad17 Aug 2037
Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Villagra 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamin Mena will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.47 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2037
Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Parfait Guiagon 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 needed Benjamin Mena to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Union Espanola, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
9 goals in 24 games at Palestino — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Colo-Colo updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Colo-Colo heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2037
Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Villagra 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.
“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.56 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexis Bravo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 20 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.58 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
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.
The phone has started ringing about Jose Sierralta again, and this time the name on the line is Palestino. Colo-Colo are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
23 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad6 Jul 2037
Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Villagra 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.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 2, 35 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.86 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Villagra and Colo-Colo agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and San Luis had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Colo-Colo did not stop to explain themselves.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.62 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Colo-Colo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
San Luis made Colo-Colo work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad1 Jun 2037
Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Varane 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.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 3, 26 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 May 2037
Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Villagra 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.
6 goals in one match, Luis Vázquez on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Colo-Colo and Universidad de Chile.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Benjamin Mena at his very best
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
A 3‑2 win over Union Espanola, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.27 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.83 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.52 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Pablo Reyes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Villagra 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.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.75 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Colo-Colo heard it as anything else.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
26 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 87th, and Cobresal spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.02 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcelo Beausejour will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
145 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colo-Colo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.36 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
27 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gianni Peirano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.55 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad16 Feb 2037
Words at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jonathan Villagra 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.
15 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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colo-Colo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Colo-Colo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Colo-Colo have had the benefit of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colo-Colo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Santiago Wanderers for Benjamin Mena was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colo-Colo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Bruno Unušić 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colo-Colo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
In brief
SquadWords at Colo-Colo training over how hard people work
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamin Mena will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colo-Colo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
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.