A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Veracruz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $225.2K — a club that wants Zahid Muñoz enough to be asked twice.
$190.0K on the table at Morelia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Pablo López 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Tomás Migliore has just signed for Veracruz, and for once the answer mattered.
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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ulises Torres 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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Jack Maher has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Veracruz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Veracruz can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Cruz Azul; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Pablo López 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Veracruz will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Israel Luna
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Veracruz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Veracruz can pretend not to have heard.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Veracruz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
4 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Veracruz no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Veracruz will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Pablo López 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.
“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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Magnus Lopez 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Veracruz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Veracruz, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Hirving Arteaga’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
Loan watchVictor Edson watches his loan from the bench
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Veracruz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Veracruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 39 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Veracruz is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Veracruz can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Veracruz will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Veracruz. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 123 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.
Richie Laryea 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.
Day 9 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Christian Arteaga clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
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.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Marco Sanchez recited it perfectly.
“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 Veracruz, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Christian Arteaga leaves with $57.4K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Carlos Harvey 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.
“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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Veracruz training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Israel Luna 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Veracruz are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Chiapas in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veracruz can pretend not to have heard.
Richie Laryea 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.65 on the card, and the Veracruz support went home talking about one name.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Christian Arteaga, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Cesar Marquez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Veracruz the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pablo López 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 39 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Manuel Gallardo signs something — a contract at Veracruz or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
César Fonseca wins it after the whistle should have gone
93 minutes played. César Fonseca found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Monterrey went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Veracruz this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Jesús Corona 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: César Fonseca. 1‑0 against Monterrey, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Luis Ángel Mendoza.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Veracruz will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
7 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 Chiapas can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Chiapas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Everything agreed with CF Montreal, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcelo Olivera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Joaquín Moxica did not need any: 8.03, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chiapas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Joaquín Moxica 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.
29 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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Chiapas can tell you which week it ends in.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Aldahir Pérez is living that version at Chiapas, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chiapas can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 14 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Luis Alfonso Rodríguez 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.
Chiapas asked and Club America said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Chiapas will try again when the window opens; Dorados may not be selling by then.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Ceballos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Chiapas, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Cruz Azul, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Luis Alfonso Rodríguez 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.
Chiapas have gone to Pachuca with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Ceballos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Chiapas asked and Club America said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” César Bernal has his answer from Chiapas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Chiapas and Toluca have settled on $120.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Chiapas can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Chiapas can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Luis Alfonso Rodríguez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chiapas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Chiapas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
$7.0M. No player has ever cost Chiapas more, and expectation arrives with him.
The terraces28 Jun 2027
The mood at Chiapas 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chiapas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer went to Pumas UNAM this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$51.0K was the most the club would pay and Pachuca were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Daniel Moreno from Veracruz for $7.0M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Chiapas asked and Pachuca said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Chiapas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
In brief
SquadPablo López falls out with a teammate over standards
Luis Alfonso Rodríguez 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Chiapas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Néstor Araujo 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.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Chiapas lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
11 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.
The clock did what Monterrey would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Néstor Araujo 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Chiapas pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chiapas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Raul Martin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Miguel Núñez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Luis Alfonso Rodríguez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergio Ceballos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Chiapas told Jesús Espinosa something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
14 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Queretaro were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Chiapas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chiapas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Néstor Araujo 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Position 17 and 4 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.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Chiapas can tell you which week it ends in.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Chiapas 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 Chiapas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Valentín Gauthier and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Pablo López 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Miguel Núñez
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Successful dribbles: 35. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chiapas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Diego Esqueda’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Chiapas needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutDaniel Amador knocks on the manager's door