Matheus Bahia 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. Geremías Meléndez 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 7.50 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Academia Puerto Cabello had the best player on the pitch.
Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello 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.
Carabobo next, and one man in the Academia Puerto Cabello dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Up for the corner, and Jiovany Ramos delivers — 7.45
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Jiovany Ramos scored, was marked 7.45, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Jiovany Ramos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Matheus Bahia 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.
5 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Academia Puerto Cabello have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Academia Puerto Cabello can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Jiovany Ramos 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: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Matheus Bahia 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Roberto Rosales 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 dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Francisco Murillo was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Academia Puerto Cabello dressing room was either.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Academia Puerto Cabello than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Academia Puerto Cabello have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jose Arango 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. Francisco Moreno 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Victor Ferraresi 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Herrera 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.
Geremías Meléndez 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 Roberto Rosales was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Robinson Flores is on it.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Academia Puerto Cabello know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrés Ponce signs something — a contract at Academia Puerto Cabello or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Atlético El Vigía had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Academia Puerto Cabello go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Geremías Meléndez 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. Roberto Rosales 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.
5 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.
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 Academia Puerto Cabello, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Academia Puerto Cabello can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Zamora for José Hernández Chávez was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Academia Puerto Cabello is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
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.
Academia Puerto Cabello have made the call to Internacional. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
The dugoutJhon Marchán knocks on the manager's door
“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 Academia Puerto Cabello, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Dynamo Puerto waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with Caracas 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.
Pablo Lima 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.
Academia Puerto Cabello asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jefre Vargas 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello 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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Academia Puerto Cabello can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Mineiro is saying, and nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello is enjoying the guessing.
Academia Puerto Cabello asked and UCV said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefre Vargas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Robinson Flores is on it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Atlético El Vigía had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Titanes Guanare have kept their man, and Academia Puerto Cabello go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$650.0K was the most the club would pay and Anzoátegui 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 Academia Puerto Cabello 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.
Atlético Mineiro 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.
$1.7M was the most the club would pay and Deportivo La Guaira 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.
$480.0K on the table at Anzoátegui. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Junior Moreno 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 Geremías Meléndez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Saggiomo and Academia Puerto Cabello agree another 3 years.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jean Franco Castillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Academia Puerto Cabello the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Andrés Ponce wants continental football; whether Academia Puerto Cabello can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Junior Moreno 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.
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.
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Giovani Bamba 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Academia Puerto Cabello they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Geremías Meléndez 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 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Academia Puerto Cabello will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Academia Puerto Cabello 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 Jefre Vargas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Academia Puerto Cabello will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Pablo Lima 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.
Jefre Vargas 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Academia Puerto Cabello, another week without a signature from Gerardo Padrón.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Academia Puerto Cabello. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jean Franco Castillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Academia Puerto Cabello the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Junior Moreno 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jefre Vargas 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.
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.
Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Academia Puerto Cabello they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 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 Robinson Flores is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andrés Ponce signs something — a contract at Academia Puerto Cabello 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.
In brief
The dugoutGerardo Padrón asks for a word with the manager
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Everybody at Academia Puerto Cabello saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Academia Puerto Cabello this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Geremías Meléndez 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 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 Daniel Saggiomo is on it.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Junior Moreno 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. Jefre Vargas 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Academia Puerto Cabello, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Everybody at Academia Puerto Cabello saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Junior Moreno 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 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.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Andrés Ponce wants continental football; whether Academia Puerto Cabello can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Academia Puerto Cabello this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giovani Bamba 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 Andrés Ponce signs something — a contract at Academia Puerto Cabello or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Academia Puerto Cabello they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Academia Puerto Cabello this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jefre Vargas 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.
Junior Moreno 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 Geremías Meléndez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Academia Puerto Cabello, another week without a signature from Gerardo Padrón.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Academia Puerto Cabello know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Junior Moreno 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 Geremías Meléndez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Geremías Meléndez 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.
14 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Academia Puerto Cabello know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Academia Puerto Cabello, another week without a signature from Daniel Saggiomo.
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 Pierangelo Pagnano is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Saggiomo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Academia Puerto Cabello the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Daniel Saggiomo 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.
Junior Moreno and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Jefre Vargas 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Francisco Murillo on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello 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.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Academia Puerto Cabello have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Academia Puerto Cabello is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Gerardo Padrón 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Geremías Meléndez 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Academia Puerto Cabello this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.51. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Francisco Murillo could afford to be generous.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Academia Puerto Cabello will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Academia Puerto Cabello this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Guillermo Marín has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Academia Puerto Cabello have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Giovani Bamba 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.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 16. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
The offer from Kwara United for Tony Shimaga was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Academia Puerto Cabello this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jiovany Ramos is a Academia Puerto Cabello player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Lisandro Pérez has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Academia Puerto Cabello have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andres Osorio 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Juan Ramirez 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Andrés Ponce wants continental football; whether Academia Puerto Cabello can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Lima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Roberto Rosales 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.
“96 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 37 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Academia Puerto Cabello.
Still no offer on the table, and Joel Graterol’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.