Marked for Nicolás Ramírez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Nov 2032
Diego Cabrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Nov 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Rossetto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Nov 2032
The manager makes an example of Nicolás Ramírez
“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.
Market15 Nov 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Deportes La Serena, another week without a signature from Agustín Melano.
The dugout15 Nov 2032
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes La Serena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market15 Nov 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Agustín Melano’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout15 Nov 2032
Francisco has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Deportes La Serena 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.
Squad15 Nov 2032
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Deportes La Serena says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
Market15 Nov 2032
7 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Deportes La Serena could get for him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Nov 2032
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Deportes La Serena can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Nov 2032
Felipe Ortiz has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportes La Serena they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 Nov 2032
Lucas Soto 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.
Squad8 Nov 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes La Serena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
“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.
Market8 Nov 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
Agustín Melano asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
The manager's exit leaves Nicolás Ramírez exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Nicolás Ramírez is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout8 Nov 2032
Luiz Yano has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Deportes La Serena 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces1 Nov 2032
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.
Market1 Nov 2032
Diego Cabrera hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes La Serena can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Nov 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes La Serena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Lucas Soto 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 dugout1 Nov 2032
The manager makes an example of Javier Vallejos
“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.
The dugout1 Nov 2032
This is not rotation. Gustavo Ávila has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Deportes La Serena is pretending otherwise.
Market1 Nov 2032
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad1 Nov 2032
7 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2032
Agustín Melano knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes La Serena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Oct 2032
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match25 Oct 2032
Position 14, 27 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market25 Oct 2032
“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 Deportes La Serena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Oct 2032
Only the photograph left for Luiz Yano
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luiz Yano will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes La Serena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market25 Oct 2032
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Melano wants continental football; whether Deportes La Serena can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Nicolás Ramírez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2032
Matheus Rossetto 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 dugout25 Oct 2032
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Deportes La Serena, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout25 Oct 2032
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout18 Oct 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad18 Oct 2032
Nicolás Ramírez 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.
Squad18 Oct 2032
Words at Deportes La Serena training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Soto 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.
The dugout18 Oct 2032
The manager makes an example of Nicolás Ramírez
“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.
The dugout18 Oct 2032
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market18 Oct 2032
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportes La Serena has been clear about where Juan Sebastián Serrano stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market18 Oct 2032
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Agustín Melano’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout18 Oct 2032
When it matters, Francisco plays
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.
Market18 Oct 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Oct 2032
“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 Deportes La Serena, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market11 Oct 2032
Only the photograph left for Felipe Ortiz
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Felipe Ortiz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes La Serena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Nicolás Ramírez 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.
Squad11 Oct 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Soto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Oct 2032
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.
Market11 Oct 2032
Francisco told to find a new club
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Francisco has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Deportes La Serena.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
The manager makes an example of Santiago Blanco
“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.
The dugout11 Oct 2032
When it matters, Luiz Yano plays
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Sep 2032
27 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Market20 Sep 2032
“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 Deportes La Serena, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match18 Sep 2032
8 matches without a win, and then this, against Huachipato. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
Luiz Yano runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Lucas Soto 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.
Squad20 Sep 2032
Diego Cabrera and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match18 Sep 2032
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Agustín Melano. 2‑0 against Huachipato, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout20 Sep 2032
“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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2032
Marked 7.84. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 Sep 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes La Serena can pretend not to have heard.
Match11 Sep 2032
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportes La Serena has to find a result from somewhere.
Market13 Sep 2032
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportes La Serena is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Juan Cruz Arno gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Juan Cruz Arno has just signed for Deportes La Serena, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Nicolás Ramírez 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 dugout13 Sep 2032
“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.
Squad13 Sep 2032
Matheus Rossetto 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.
Match11 Sep 2032
Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Deportes La Serena had all but put away. Coquimbo Unido will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Market13 Sep 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Deportes La Serena, another week without a signature from Agustín Melano.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Sep 2032
Supporters organise against the Deportes La Serena board
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.
Squad6 Sep 2032
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportes La Serena lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom6 Sep 2032
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.
Market6 Sep 2032
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportes La Serena can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Sep 2032
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fernando Ospina will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes La Serena the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad6 Sep 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes La Serena this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Sep 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Soto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market6 Sep 2032
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportes La Serena has been clear about where Sebastián Pereira stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market6 Sep 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Dec 2030
“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 Universidad de Chile, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market23 Dec 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Universidad de Chile is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market23 Dec 2030
The name of Cristián Riquelme has come up in conversations Universidad de Chile were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets23 Dec 2030
Universidad de Chile asked and Ñublense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Dec 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universidad de Chile this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom23 Dec 2030
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.
Market23 Dec 2030
O'Higgins are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Universidad de Chile will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bianneider Tamayo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets23 Dec 2030
Universidad de Chile have made the call to Rosario Central. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.