Marked for Hermes Rodríguez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Zamora have done the hard part with Athletico Paranaense, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Zamora
Edwuin Pernía 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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zamora have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthonys Matos 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.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Zamora go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market3 Jan 2028
17 appearances and 7 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Market3 Jan 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with José Sequera’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Dec 2027
Anthony Uribe 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 Zamora can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Dec 2027
José Barragán has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zamora they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Zamora
Edwuin Pernía 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthonys Matos 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.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Zamora go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Antony Trujillo, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
50 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
Vasco da Gama have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
A loan enquiry to Atlético Mineiro: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Nov 2027
“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 Zamora, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Zamora
Antony Trujillo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Zamora
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthonys Matos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Isaí Valladares has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zamora 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.
Market22 Nov 2027
Zamora have let the market know Marco Bustillo can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Zamora, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Word from the training ground: Antony Trujillo
The sharpest man in every session this week, by all accounts. Lines like this run the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
Match22 Nov 2027
Mid-table, and Zamora know it
Position 9 on 34 points, with the season drifting toward the summer. It is the safest place in football and the hardest one to sell a season ticket from.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Oct 2027
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zamora lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market4 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zamora is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Arlés Flores and Zamora agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Zamora
Antony Trujillo 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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at Zamora training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthonys Matos 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 dugout4 Oct 2027
José Sequera gets picked when it counts
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 José Sequera is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market6 Sep 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zamora they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Zamora
Edwuin Pernía 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Anthonys Matos 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Anthony Uribe 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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
Sergio Sulbarán 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 dugout6 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Hermes Rodríguez, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“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.
Market23 Aug 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jean Paúl Madera will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zamora the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Anthonys Matos 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 dugout23 Aug 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Antony Trujillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market23 Aug 2027
Zamora have let the market know Sergio Sulbarán can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zamora is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Zamora
Antony Trujillo 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Zamora
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anthonys Matos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anthony Uribe, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Zamora will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Market16 Aug 2027
The shop window has Arlés Flores in it
Zamora have let the market know Arlés Flores can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.