Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Ocampos 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.
Three points for Monterrey, 1‑0 the final word against Tijuana in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Óliver was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.25. 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.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Uroš Đurđević, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Manuel Herrera, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutHiram Mier dropped after a run of poor form
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Monterrey hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Ocampos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Manuel Herrera after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Monterrey can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
In brief
The dugoutErick Aguirre knocks on the manager’s door
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Luis Rojas obliged against Queretaro. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Monterrey.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Queretaro will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Sebastian Rodriguez did not need any: 7.79, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Monterrey heard it as anything else.
At 19 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.
In brief
SquadFidel Ambríz falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsLucas Ocampos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“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 Monterrey, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Pumas UNAM kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Monterrey will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Orbelín Pineda 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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.90, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Ocampos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roberto de la Rosa, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
12 new faces, and Monterrey are still learning each other
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.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Lucas Ocampos 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orbelín Pineda 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 run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Monterrey will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Manuel Herrera to a room that had heard them before.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luis Reyes has his answer from Monterrey; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Manuel Montes
The dugoutHiram Mier dropped after a run of poor form
Successful dribbles: 35. 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.
Position 2, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fidel Ambríz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
With 6 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Monterrey have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
1 for Fidel Ambríz, marked 7.85, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Monterrey this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Lucas Ocampos 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Fidel Ambríz 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fidel Ambríz. 2‑0 against Santos Laguna, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Monterrey, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Lucas Ocampos 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 the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jorge Rodríguez wants continental football; whether Monterrey 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 Orbelín Pineda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Manuel Herrera could afford to be generous.
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Ocampos. 1‑0 against Queretaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fidel Ambríz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Manuel Herrera could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ricardo Chávez
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Monterrey lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
$3.2M was the most the club would pay and Pachuca 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.
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lucas Ocampos 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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 24 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. AC Milan moved on, Lucas Ocampos reports back to Monterrey, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Monterrey have gone to Pachuca with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 20 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer went to Tijuana 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Monterrey will try again when the window opens; Veracruz may not be selling by then.
Lucas Ocampos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Orbelín Pineda 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.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monterrey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$2.5M on the table at Veracruz. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Monterrey asked and Queretaro said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Lucas Ocampos 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 name of Luis Gustavo Sánchez has come up in conversations Monterrey were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Fidel Ambríz 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 words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Hugo Cuypers had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Toluca were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
The offer from Guadalajara for Luca Orellano 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.
$2.6M was the most the club would pay and Veracruz 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.
Orbelín Pineda 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Monterrey training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Ocampos 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.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Monterrey lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.15, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Jesús Corona takes the afternoon — 8.07
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jesús Corona provided it, and the 8.07 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer went to Veracruz 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.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Sebastian Rodriguez scored, was marked 7.37, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Veracruz drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Manuel Montes has, at Monterrey, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Veracruz have accepted the money. What Monterrey do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deal with Veracruz 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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Monterrey heard it as anything else.
Lucas Ocampos 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Daniel Arteaga 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Toluca have kept their man, and Monterrey go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Add another name to the list: AS Roma have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucas Ocampos. The answer from Monterrey has not changed — yet.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was 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 Monterrey 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. Jorge Rodríguez wants continental football; whether Monterrey 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 Jesús Corona was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.