The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Leandro Angulo has agreed terms with Real Cartagena for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Santa Fe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Edwin Herrera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Santa Fe prefer.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Daniel Torres
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Alejandro Morález wants continental football; whether Santa Fe can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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 easiest signature of my career.” Juan Sebastián Quintero and Santa Fe agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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.
At 22 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.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Daniel Torres
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.
Something was said to Tilman Palacios and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Dmitri Muratov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tilman Palacios provided it, and the 9.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jhon Rentería has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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.
13 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Dmitri Muratov to a room that had heard them before.
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.
In brief
The dugoutNicolás Gil knocks on the manager’s door
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
116 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santa Fe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santa Fe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Santa Fe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Santa Fe can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Llaneros 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yan Carlos Vega will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santa Fe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
In brief
The dugoutEdwin Herrera asks for a word with the manager
“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 Santa Fe, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Santa Fe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yílmar Velásquez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Iván Scarpeta 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Santa Fe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Successful dribbles: 70. 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 last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 48 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Iván Scarpeta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santa Fe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yílmar Velásquez 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 found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Santa Fe pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Daniel Torres
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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Jose Valencia has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santa Fe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Santa Fe they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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.
14 goals in 12 games at Orenburg — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Santa Fe updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Gil wants continental football; whether Santa Fe can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
SquadWords at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager's exit leaves Nahuel Bustos exposed
Christian Mafla 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Bustos 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 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.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santa Fe lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and America de Cali had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Santa Fe did not stop to explain themselves.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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 Nahuel Bustos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Jairo Ditta 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Santa Fe told Daniel Torres something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
In brief
Player ratingsNobody on the pitch touched Jairo Ditta
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santa Fe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces29 Mar 2027
The mood at Santa Fe 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.23 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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 Nahuel Bustos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Yílmar Velásquez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Jose Valencia left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Daniel Torres
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Santa Fe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
100 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santa Fe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santa Fe have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marked 9.82. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Santa Fe.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Nahuel Bustos 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.
Edwin Herrera 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 words a physio says slowly. 108 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Santa Fe can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe 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 Nahuel Bustos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Minute 92, against Junior, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
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.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Bustos 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jose Valencia after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Daniel Torres
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.
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.
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santa Fe lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
A brace, and Nahuel Bustos takes the afternoon — 8.93
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nahuel Bustos provided it, and the 8.93 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Nahuel Bustos 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Atletico Nacional had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Santa Fe can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Leones 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.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Yílmar Velásquez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Santa Fe asked and Fluminense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Santa Fe. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jhojan Torres signs something — a contract at Santa Fe or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Santa Fe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Daniel Torres
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santa Fe will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yílmar Velásquez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Yílmar Velásquez signs something — a contract at Santa Fe or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Santa Fe, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santa Fe will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santa Fe is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santa Fe 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Iván Scarpeta wants continental football; whether Santa Fe can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Nahuel Bustos 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 needed Ángelo Rodríguez to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against America de Cali, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Daniel Torres 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.
100 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Santa Fe training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edwin Mosquera 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Jose Valencia left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Santa Fe will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
In brief
Player ratingsLuis Palacios beats them one at a time
Player ratingsThe one thing Nahuel Bustos could not do
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kilian Toscano scored, was marked 7.35, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Diego Rodríguez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santa Fe the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo 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.
500 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nahuel Bustos 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Julian Bacca is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Oscar Sinisterra 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.
Nahuel Bustos 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santa Fe this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
11 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Jáder Obrian is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Jose Valencia after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andrés Mosquera Marmolejo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Santa Fe needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Luis Palacios 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 97. Deportes Tolima had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
It needed Nahuel Bustos to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Deportes Tolima, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Jáder Obrian
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.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.” Jose Valencia chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jáder Obrian trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Millonarios in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Chances created: 8. Not on the scoresheet and not remotely anonymous — a passing performance that pulled a defence apart without leaving a mark on the column that gets read.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yílmar Velásquez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Depor will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. David Agudelo has pre-agreed a move to Santa Fe, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Jose Valencia left the room before anybody could ask which.