Marked for Alejandro Murillo
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Apr 2033
14 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.
Squad4 Apr 2033
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings4 Apr 2033
Jeremías Biani pops up at the right end — 7.32
7.32, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The dugout4 Apr 2033
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market4 Apr 2033
“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.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
$244.4K 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.
Squad4 Apr 2033
Words exchanged at Depor
Mateo Montenegro 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.
Squad4 Apr 2033
Jeremías Biani 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.
Match2 Apr 2033
Barranquilla made Depor work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Feb 2033
Age has not caught Vitor Jacaré yet — 8.04
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.04 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings28 Feb 2033
Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market28 Feb 2033
“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.
Squad28 Feb 2033
Words exchanged at Depor
Benito Paklayan 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.
Match26 Feb 2033
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gabriel Neves. 2‑0 against Real Cartagena, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Match26 Feb 2033
At last: Depor win one
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Real Cartagena. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The dugout28 Feb 2033
“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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2033
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.
Squad28 Feb 2033
Words at Depor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitor Jacaré 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
The Depor debt reaches $20.4M
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Depor
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The dugout
Interim Coach: “That is the standard”
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Jan 2033
A hiding for Depor
Beaten 1‑4 by Deportivo Pereira, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
The dugout31 Jan 2033
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Depor may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market31 Jan 2033
“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.
Boardroom31 Jan 2033
Still nobody in the Depor dugout
11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad31 Jan 2033
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.
Squad31 Jan 2033
A row about effort at Depor
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeremías Biani was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Jan 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jeremías Biani, and the manager let it.
Boardroom31 Jan 2033
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.
Boardroom31 Jan 2033
The Depor debt reaches $20.3M
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
In brief
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Depor dressing room in a hurry
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Depor
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The dugout
Interim Coach answers for it