Marked for Hector Ramirez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Nov 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Depor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Nov 2032
38 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Tempers go at Depor
Mateo Montenegro 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 dugout15 Nov 2032
Jeremías Biani asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout15 Nov 2032
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yolvis Humanes is on it.
The dugout15 Nov 2032
The manager has not finished forgetting Duvan Santos'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.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Leonardo Lopez has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Depor that is a harder question to answer.
Market15 Nov 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Leonardo Lopez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Oct 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sebastián Acosta
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Depor lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market18 Oct 2032
“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 The request is on a desk at Depor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Oct 2032
Luis Miranda is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Boardroom18 Oct 2032
99% of the income goes out in wages at Depor
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad18 Oct 2032
A falling-out at Depor
Julian Gomez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Oct 2032
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.
The dugout18 Oct 2032
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.
The dugout18 Oct 2032
Javier Muriel asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market18 Oct 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Santiago Cuadrado’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Sep 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Depor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Lucas Cuffia in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Words at Depor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jeremías Biani 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.
Boardroom20 Sep 2032
Wages swallow 106% of the Depor income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
Jeremías Biani knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Depor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yolvis Humanes is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2032
A falling-out at Depor
Lucas Cuffia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom13 Sep 2032
No signings allowed at Depor
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Too much change too quickly at Depor
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
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.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
Matheus Pedro 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 Matheus Pedro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout13 Sep 2032
The manager has not finished forgetting Duvan Santos'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.
Market13 Sep 2032
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Depor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market13 Sep 2032
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Depor money.
Market13 Sep 2032
Depor have let the market know Sergio Hernández can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market23 Aug 2032
“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.
Squad23 Aug 2032
Tempers go at Depor
Mateo Montenegro 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.
Squad23 Aug 2032
Daniel Ayala 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.
Boardroom23 Aug 2032
106% of the income goes out in wages at Depor
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad23 Aug 2032
The medical room confirms 14 days on the sidelines for Cristian Valencia, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout23 Aug 2032
Yolvis Humanes has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Depor 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.
Squad23 Aug 2032
Leonardo Lopez has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Depor that is a harder question to answer.
Market23 Aug 2032
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market23 Aug 2032
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Julian Gomez may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jul 2032
Johan Balanta has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Depor they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market26 Jul 2032
“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 Depor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom26 Jul 2032
Window shuts: 3 in, 9 out at Depor
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 9 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Boardroom26 Jul 2032
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Johan Balanta 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.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Lucas Cuffia in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2032
Time is catching up with Luis Miranda
Everybody at Depor saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout26 Jul 2032
The manager makes an example of Yolvis Humanes
“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.
Squad26 Jul 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gabriel Neves and Depor agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom26 Jul 2032
90% of the income goes out in wages at Depor
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces5 Jul 2032
Anger at Depor spills outside the ground
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.
Market5 Jul 2032
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market5 Jul 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Depor can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout5 Jul 2032
Julian Gomez: 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.” Depor have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Jul 2032
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Santino Gallo Boria and Depor agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Jul 2032
Daniel Ayala in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Depor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Jul 2032
$363.2K from the owner keeps Depor afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Once Caldas have kept their man, and Depor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2032
A muscle injury sidelines Jonathan Toledo for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Depor will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Jan 2032
A fracture rules Mateo Montenegro out for 49 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Depor will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Jan 2032
“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 Depor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market5 Jan 2032
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. La Equidad moved on, Ronaldo Royero reports back to Depor, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad5 Jan 2032
A falling-out at Depor
Daniel Ayala and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jan 2032
Leonel Roldán 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.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
The owner puts $341.8K into Depor
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Transfer targets5 Jan 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Junior have kept their man, and Depor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom5 Jan 2032
Depor cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad5 Jan 2032
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Depor know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Nov 2031
95 days out for Mateo Montenegro after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Depor will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The terraces24 Nov 2031
Supporters organise against the Depor board
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.
Market24 Nov 2031
Johan Balanta hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Depor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Tempers go at Depor
Mateo Montenegro 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 dugout24 Nov 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mateo Montenegro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout24 Nov 2031
The manager makes an example of Juan Perez
“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.
Market24 Nov 2031
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Leonardo Lopez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad24 Nov 2031
Juan Perez has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Depor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Market24 Nov 2031
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Alexander Abram leaves Depor the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Jun 2031
The knee: Luis Caicedo out for 16 days
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Depor lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market16 Jun 2031
“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 Depor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match14 Jun 2031
The wait goes on for Depor
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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Tempers go at Depor
Mateo Montenegro 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.
Squad16 Jun 2031
Gonzalo Melgarejo 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.
Transfer targets16 Jun 2031
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.
Match14 Jun 2031
Depor leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Match14 Jun 2031
Deportivo Pereira left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom16 Jun 2031
Depor are $21.3M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Jan 2031
A falling-out at Depor
Mateo Montenegro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market13 Jan 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Duvan Lopez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market13 Jan 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Camilo Garcia has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market13 Jan 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hector Ramirez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market13 Jan 2031
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Manuel Castillo has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad13 Jan 2031
A row about effort at Depor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Johan Balanta was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout13 Jan 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mateo Montenegro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Where he used to play does most of his talking for him at Depor. The room defers to it, the kids study it, and the only thing that can puncture it is a bad month.
Squad13 Jan 2031
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Depor will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Depor academy earns its keep
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The dugout
Duvan Giraldo keeps his manager's vote