The Leones Gazette
Player ratings28 Jan 2036
Cristian Rodríguez, 34, rolls back the years — 8.33
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.33 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market28 Jan 2036
Oscar Giraldo puts it in writing
“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 The request is on a desk at Leones, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Jan 2036
A falling-out at Leones
Luis Lee and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom28 Jan 2036
Leones ask Slávia TU Košice the expensive question
The target is the manager, the approach is real, and the compensation clause is the whole conversation. Clubs deny this kind of story right up until the photograph.
Boardroom28 Jan 2036
Still no name above the door at Leones
Day 8 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Match26 Jan 2036
Cristian Rodríguez sends Leones past Valledupar
It finished 2‑1, and it was Cristian Rodríguez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Leones.
Player ratings28 Jan 2036
Leyner Palacios in the eights
A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Words at Leones training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Alfaro 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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Daniel Murillo signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Murillo and Leones agree another 3 years.
In brief
- The dugout The manager’s verdict
- The dugout No place in the plan for Federico Pedrouzo
- The dugout David Alfaro knocks on the manager's door