The deal with Boca Juniors is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it 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 Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Columbus Crew asked and Colorado Rapids said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
8.08. 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.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Columbus Crew had all but put away. Philadelphia Union will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The chase for Kenny Nielsen ended with $900.0K changing hands and Los Angeles Football Club out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The deal with New York Red Bulls is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
$520.0K on the table at Nashville SC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Éric Bailly 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 name of Dylan Chambost has come up in conversations Columbus Crew were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental 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.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Brais Méndez at his very best
The clubs have shaken hands with Charlotte Football Club; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
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.
$1.5M was the most the club would pay and LA Galaxy 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.
$900.0K on the table at Los Angeles Football Club. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Éric Bailly 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.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Wessam Abou Ali and Columbus Crew agree another 5 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Columbus Crew can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
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.
Position 7, 25 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Add another name to the list: Vélez have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Brais Méndez. The answer from Columbus Crew has not changed — yet.
André Gomes 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Max Floriani 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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.
A side in position 11 visits next. The result will not make anybody’s season and it could quietly break the shape of one, which is why the manager has been watching the video since Sunday.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from André Gomes’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Columbus Crew will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Éric Bailly and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Wessam Abou Ali was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.86. 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.
At 23 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Columbus Crew 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 Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cesar Ruvalcaba 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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Nobody at Columbus Crew will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Columbus Crew 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.” Columbus Crew have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Éric Bailly 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 Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Alex Moore after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Chicago Fire? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
7 goals in one match, Gonzalo Tapia on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Columbus Crew and Nashville SC.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout10 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 2‑5 defeat, delivered by Alex Moore to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Columbus Crew asked and San Diego Football Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout3 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Alex Moore chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutWessam Abou Ali has become a man the manager trusts
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Columbus Crew have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to FC Dallas 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.
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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at CF Montreal is saying, and nobody at Columbus Crew is enjoying the guessing.
Éric Bailly 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.
A loan enquiry to Seattle Sounders: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Vancouver Whitecaps paid $4.9M and Columbus Crew took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Dallas have kept their man, and Columbus Crew go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Atlanta United FC keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ricardo Ferreira has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Brandon Pulisic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Columbus Crew will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
San Diego Football Club are out and Columbus Crew go through, 4‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
The name of Sékou Tidiany Bangoura has come up in conversations Columbus Crew were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sporting Kansas City have kept their man, and Columbus Crew go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Marked 8.40. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Columbus Crew.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro 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
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Gonzalo Tapia at his very best
“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 Columbus Crew, and it is not being withdrawn.
Columbus Crew asked and FC Dallas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Éric Bailly 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.
Columbus Crew have made the call to Colorado Rapids. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad22 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Columbus Crew 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.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Columbus Crew asked and FC Cincinnati said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Columbus Crew have more foreign players than the form allows, and he is the one without a place on it. He will train with a side he is not permitted to play for until the next window.
Nobody at Columbus Crew will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The name of André Gomes has come up in conversations Columbus Crew were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer from FC Cincinnati for Dylan Chambost was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Éric Bailly 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.
$230.0K was the most the club would pay and Real Salt Lake 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.
A rule about passports rather than about football has decided he cannot play. Columbus Crew had more of them than the form allows, and somebody had to be the name that did not fit.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Wessam Abou Ali is on it.
$13.6M on the table at Portland Timbers. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
$910.0K was the most the club would pay and Philadelphia Union 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.
Éric Bailly 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.
Sporting Kansas City paid $340.0K and Columbus Crew took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The name of Dylan Chambost has come up in conversations Columbus Crew were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Columbus Crew has been clear about where Rudy Camacho stands, which is more than many ever get.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Position 3, 17 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Portland Timbers have kept their man, and Columbus Crew go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Columbus Crew have gone to Philadelphia Union 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Columbus Crew has been clear about where Amar Sejdic stands, which is more than many ever get.
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Columbus Crew. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Miles Tillman has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Éric Bailly 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Hugo Picard has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Greg Ranjitsingh arrives at 33 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Wessam Abou Ali is on it.
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 Jamal Thiaré has written the date down.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Columbus Crew lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jamal Thiaré had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Éric Bailly 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.
Nobody at Columbus Crew will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Santiago Rodríguez has written the date down.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Brais Méndez’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Quinton Elliot on the training pitch
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Lautaro Giaccone is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Éric Bailly 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Tyler Moore is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Michael Johnson is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Nobody at Columbus Crew will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Columbus Crew. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Éric Bailly 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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 Steven Moreira has written the date down.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Columbus Crew have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Leo Duru arrives at Columbus Crew with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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 Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Wessam Abou Ali. 1‑0 against New England Revolution, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad28 Sep 2026
11 new faces, and Columbus Crew 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Alex Moore could afford to be generous.
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.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
A 2‑1 win over DC United, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Brais Méndez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Gonzalo Tapia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
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.” Alex Moore, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mohamed Farsi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Add another name to the list: Middlesbrough have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Brais Méndez. The answer from Columbus Crew has not changed — yet.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 17 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dylan Sargent has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Josh Sargent is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
SquadWords at Columbus Crew training over how hard people work
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Éric Bailly 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.
7 goals in one match, Gonzalo Tapia on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Columbus Crew and Orlando City.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Add another name to the list: San Jose Earthquakes have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Hugo Picard. The answer from Columbus Crew has not changed — yet.
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.