“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 The request is on a desk at Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jorge Mora will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dorados the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Carlos Gutiérrez 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 Dorados training over how hard people work
The words a physio says slowly. 24 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 board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Santiago Guardado has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“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 The request is on a desk at Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luis Arcadio García and Dorados agree another 2 years.
Carlos Gutiérrez 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.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dorados lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jorge Mora will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Dorados the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Carlos Gutiérrez 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Jaime Álvarez commits to Dorados for another 3 years.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Mireles 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.
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dorados lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Salvador Reyes wants continental football; whether Dorados can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Carlos Gutiérrez 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Mireles 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.
10 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dorados can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dorados they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rodrigo Parra 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.
“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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Mireles 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
9 new faces, and Dorados are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rodrigo Parra is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Juan Ibarra is living that version at Dorados, and it tends to show in the first month.
Marked 5.78. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dorados 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 Dorados they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jorge Mora has agreed terms with Morelia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Carlos Gutiérrez 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dorados have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Omar Mireles 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.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dorados lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dorados can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Carlos Gutiérrez 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Salvador Reyes’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dorados.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Salvador Reyes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.24. 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.
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 Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Omar Mireles 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
10 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.
10 points and a position everybody in the ground can do the arithmetic on. The songs have stopped being about the team and started being about surviving, which is a different noise entirely.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Edson Gutiérrez, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josué Reyes 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 Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑2 to Chiapas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josué Reyes 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dorados can pretend not to have heard.
Carlos Gutiérrez 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Geonathan Barrera is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Dorados, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dorados, another week without a signature from Shyon Omrani.
1‑4 to Tigres, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Out, 0‑1 to Morelia, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 15 of the 38 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
“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 Dorados, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Carlos Gutiérrez 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Norberto Bedolla is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jhon Acurio. 1‑0 against Atlas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
16 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dorados can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Shyon Omrani has just signed for Dorados, and for once the answer mattered.
Carlos Gutiérrez 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 chase for Francisco Vivas ended with $110.0K changing hands and Morelia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Kevin Borges has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Dorados have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Dorados has been clear about where Jorge Mora stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dorados have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Jonathan Vaal has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
19 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.
In brief
SquadGullit Peña falls out with a teammate over standards
15 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dorados can pretend not to have heard.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Carlos Gutiérrez 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 Nov 2026
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gullit Peña 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 Dorados this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Dorados training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge Mora 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dorados told Josué Reyes something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.