“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tigres can pretend not to have heard.
Tomás Nosei 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.
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.
Marked 8.19 — 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.
Squad19 May 2031
Héctor Solano 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 dugout19 May 2031
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 Edwin Mina to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutDeimer Longas knocks on the manager's door
5 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 Tigres can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres 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.
“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.
The dugout12 May 2031
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 0‑1 Edwin Mina left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Boardroom88% of the income goes out in wages at Tigres
BoardroomNobody arrives at Tigres until somebody leaves
Nicolás Lara 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Words at Tigres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Héctor Solano 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.
15 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Edwin Mina after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Real Cartagena defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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 Tigres 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Edwin Mina after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
In brief
The dugoutFacundo Castro asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tigres can pretend not to have heard.
Santiago Córdoba 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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Words at Tigres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Castro 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.
6 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.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Edwin Mina kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Deimer Longas 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.
6 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Jan 2031
Héctor Solano 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.
“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; Tigres are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
He is 23 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jefferson Medina 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. Juan Caicedo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tigres can pretend not to have heard.
Santiago Córdoba and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Words at Tigres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Héctor Solano 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.
Tigres asked and Cortulua said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Tigres, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Deimer Longas has just signed for Tigres, and for once the answer mattered.
Santiago Córdoba 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.
Tigres asked and Deportes Tolima said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Words at Tigres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Castillo 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.
39 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
In brief
MarketThe window shut and Héctor Solano is still in the building
Brayan Gómez 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 Héctor Solano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tigres asked and Junior said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Tigres know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 139 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 Tigres can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Tigres until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Tigres have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Tigres have done the hard part with Millonarios, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentín Becerra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tigres have made the call to Atletico Bucaramanga. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“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 Tigres, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 39 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Tigres and Universitario Popayan, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
“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 Tigres, 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 Tigres 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Jhon Renteria is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Tigres told Nicolás Soto something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Álvarez Castillo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.41 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Santiago Córdoba 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.
He is 23 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.
Depor made Tigres work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad20 May 2030
Words at Tigres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Becerra 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Edwin Mina could afford to be generous.
15 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
In brief
The dugoutHéctor Solano asks for a word with the manager
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Tigres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Match30 Mar 2030
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Tigres. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Santiago Córdoba. 1‑0 against Aguilas Doradas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Tigres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Becerra 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.
Marked 8.04 — 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
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
BoardroomNobody arrives at Tigres until somebody leaves
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Tigres can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 9.16 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 39, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Nicolás Lara 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Tigres and Fortaleza CEIF, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
He is 18 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Tigres they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Joshef Zea 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.
Nobody at Tigres 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 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.
34 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Tigres. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Tigres could ask drops and the wages Wilder Viera can ask rise.