Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 17 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Ramirez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Queretaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Queretaro and Chiapas in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad30 Oct 2045
George Booth 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.
Erick Aguilar 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Queretaro is running low.
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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 7 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.74 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Queretaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 112 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
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.
1‑3 to Pumas UNAM, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Sep 2045
Words at Queretaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George Booth 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 119 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Marten Blind will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Queretaro escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Ramirez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Queretaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Erick Aguilar 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.
Player ratings4 Sep 2045
Raul Pineda was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 147 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Queretaro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Queretaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Queretaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
“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 Queretaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Ramirez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Queretaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
George Booth 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Mark Robinson has just signed for Queretaro, and for once the answer mattered.
The terraces12 Jun 2045
Queretaro spend $1.7M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $1.7M for Jorge Gallardo, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Hugo Araujo has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Queretaro have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
The words a physio says slowly. 125 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Queretaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ayden Romo 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Queretaro training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 153 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Queretaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
In brief
SquadWords at Queretaro training over how hard people work
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Queretaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ayden Romo 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.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Queretaro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Queretaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Queretaro are no longer polite ones.
Squad20 Feb 2045
Words at Queretaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George Booth 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 35 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 9 goals between Queretaro and Tijuana, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Ramirez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Queretaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Queretaro and Monterrey, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Queretaro will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ángel Romero and Queretaro agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Jan 2045
George Booth 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.
Erick Aguilar 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 words a physio says slowly. 77 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 Queretaro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Ramirez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Queretaro 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 Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Guadalajara the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Queretaro will enjoy reviewing.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.74 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Queretaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Guadalajara left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad21 Nov 2044
George Booth 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.
Erick Aguilar 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.
In brief
The terracesThe spotlight tightens on Ángel Romero
The mood at Queretaro 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 112 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A brace, and Marten Blind takes the afternoon — 8.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marten Blind provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Queretaro 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Marten Blind trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Queretaro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Queretaro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Queretaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
8 goals in one match, Dylan McKennie on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Queretaro and Cruz Azul.
Squad26 Sep 2044
Words at Queretaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George Booth 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Queretaro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Queretaro can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Queretaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Queretaro has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad29 Aug 2044
Words at Queretaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George Booth 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Queretaro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
2‑5 against Santos Laguna, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7 goals in one match, Marten Blind on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Queretaro and Santos Laguna.
Erick Aguilar 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.
Whether it was the goalkeeper or the ten in front of him is the argument that will fill every conversation in town this week. 3 saves does not settle it either way.
In brief
SquadLuis Ramirez has become a man the manager trusts
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Queretaro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Ramirez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Queretaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
George Booth 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.
6 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Queretaro has been clear about where Raul Pineda stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Yohan Orozco is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Queretaro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Ramirez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Queretaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Squad4 Jul 2044
Words at Queretaro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. George Booth 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Queretaro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Queretaro they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
In brief
SquadWords at Queretaro training over how hard people work
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Queretaro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Queretaro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Queretaro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Queretaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Erick Aguilar 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. Jose Pineda will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Queretaro the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Queretaro is running low.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Queretaro 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.” Queretaro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Queretaro is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michael Zeppieri and Queretaro agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad22 Feb 2044
George Booth 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.