The words a physio says slowly. 114 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 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one FC Dallas will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at FC Dallas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The words a physio says slowly. 121 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. Interim Coach has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Daniel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernard Kamungo 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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Joaquín Valiente is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. FC Dallas know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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 The request is on a desk at FC Dallas, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas 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 Bernard Kamungo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Andrew Brody has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at FC Dallas.
Squad29 Sep 2031
5 new faces, and FC Dallas 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.
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 Samuel Pereda has written the date down.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ricky Louis reports back to FC Dallas with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bernard Kamungo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
FC Dallas interviewed the field and appointed the corridor: Interim Coach keeps the job he had been doing in all but title. Sometimes the safest pair of hands is the one already holding the wheel.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Racing Club is saying, and nobody at FC Dallas is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at FC Dallas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
FC Dallas offered $76.0K; New York City said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad4 Aug 2031
Nolan Norris 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.
FC Dallas have made the call to Racing Club. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad4 Aug 2031
5 new faces, and FC Dallas 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at New York Red Bulls is running low.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at New York Red Bulls has to find a result from somewhere.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at New York Red Bulls can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The deal with Tijuana 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.
FC Dallas paid $400.0K and New York Red Bulls took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Seattle Sounders wanted more than $30.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Position 14 and 13 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.
FC Dallas and New York Red Bulls have settled on $400.0K. 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.
Vancouver Whitecaps wanted more than $1.3M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Daniel 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.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Words at FC Dallas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernard Kamungo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Feyenoord have kept their man, and FC Dallas go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 0‑2 by New York City in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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.
8 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.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at New York Red Bulls can tell you which week it ends in.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Austin FC have kept their man, and New York Red Bulls go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$990.0K was the most the club would pay and CF Montreal 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at New York Red Bulls this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadCameron Harper falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 New York Red Bulls, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tim Parker will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around New York Red Bulls the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ethan Horvath 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 had been thinking. Jorge 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.
Nobody at New York Red Bulls 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Mamadi Jiana’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and New York Red Bulls needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. New York Red Bulls lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at New York Red Bulls this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
8 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.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
Emil Forsberg is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Emil Forsberg is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and the manager clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
60 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. New York Red Bulls lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
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 New York Red Bulls this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Emil Forsberg has taken the hint, and New York Red Bulls are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
67 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. New York Red Bulls lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” New York Red Bulls have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 New York Red Bulls, and it is not being withdrawn.
Robert Voloder 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; New York Red Bulls are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Peyton Miller signs something — a contract at New York Red Bulls or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aiden Hezarkhani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. New York Red Bulls lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 New York Red Bulls this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at New York Red Bulls has been clear about where Thomas Roberts stands, which is more than many ever get.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at New York Red Bulls this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cameron Harper 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at New York Red Bulls has been clear about where Roald Mitchell stands, which is more than many ever get.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Emil Forsberg is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The captaincy has been taken off Emil Forsberg. New York Red Bulls will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
A strip of cloth that decides nothing on the pitch and tells the dressing room whose opinion counts. The manager has made a statement without making 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 New York Red Bulls 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 Jorge Ruvalcaba was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at New York Red Bulls. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Thomas Roberts trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Robert Voloder has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Aidan Stokes on the training pitch
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
New York Red Bulls had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Cruz Azul, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Portland Timbers wanted more than $95.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jorge 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Club Brugge have kept their man, and New York Red Bulls go back to a list with one name crossed off it.