“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 The request is on a desk at Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
It finished 2-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
7 goals in one match, Yastin Cuevas on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Pumas UNAM and Club America.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Cervantes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ezequiel Orbe wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Franco Romero 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nathan Silva 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 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad4 Mar 2030
A place in the month's best eleven for Yastin Cuevas
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Yastin Cuevas has come out of that comparison in the side, and Pumas UNAM have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monterrey have kept their man, and Pumas UNAM go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
Rubén Duarte 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Pumas UNAM will be judged on one thing only.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 17 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Erick Aguirre will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Pumas UNAM offered $140.0K; Atlas said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Tigres next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
Iker Fimbres 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.
Pumas UNAM offered $370.0K; Pachuca said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Cervantes 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Pumas UNAM, and 6 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
Position 2 and 53 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings4 Feb 2030
A brace, and Iker Fimbres takes the afternoon — 8.56
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iker Fimbres provided it, and the 8.56 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pumas UNAM have done the hard part with Monterrey, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The deal that would have taken Jesús Ricardo Angulo to Tigres has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Pumas UNAM with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Pumas UNAM close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 3 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Julián Quiñones provided it, and the 8.94 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pumas UNAM have gone to Monterrey 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 offer from Chiapas for Óliver 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monterrey have kept their man, and Pumas UNAM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Jesús Ricardo Angulo again, and this time the name on the line is Tigres. Pumas UNAM are listening politely and promising nothing.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pumas UNAM people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Pumas UNAM have gone to Veracruz 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $380.9K — a club that wants Alberto Ocejo enough to be asked twice.
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Pumas UNAM asked and Guadalajara said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Pumas UNAM offered $6.4M; Guadalajara said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $2.3M has been paid because Gaizka Larrazabal is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Marco Farfan 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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 clubs have shaken hands with Guadalajara; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Player ratings7 Jan 2030
A brace, and Iker Fimbres takes the afternoon — 8.53
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Iker Fimbres provided it, and the 8.53 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Pumas UNAM have gone to Guadalajara 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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Pumas UNAM had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM can pretend not to have heard.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Racing Club paid $18.9M and Pumas UNAM took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Julián Quiñones provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús Rivas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Cervantes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The phone has started ringing about Bruno Amione again, and this time the name on the line is Racing Club. Pumas UNAM are listening politely and promising nothing.
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings24 Dec 2029
Up for the corner, and Ezequiel Orbe delivers — 7.83
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ezequiel Orbe scored, was marked 7.83, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Cervantes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pumas UNAM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pumas UNAM 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. Yastin Cuevas wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Franco Romero 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pumas UNAM have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amaury Morales will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nestor Dos Santos wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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 Pumas UNAM 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.
Match8 Dec 2029
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Pumas UNAM. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Iker Fimbres at his very best
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús Rivas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
The phone has started ringing about Diber Cambindo again, and this time the name on the line is Union Magdalena. Pumas UNAM are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Rubén Duarte 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: Amaury Morales. 2‑0 against Tijuana, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.33 — 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Romero 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM can pretend not to have heard.
Rubén Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Cervantes 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.
Nobody at Pumas UNAM 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pumas UNAM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jesús Ricardo Angulo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Pumas UNAM needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amaury Morales will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nestor Dos Santos and Pumas UNAM agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than 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 Pumas UNAM 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 Alan Cervantes 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 Rubén Duarte is on it.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with José Hernández: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús Rivas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Amaury Morales 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Rubén Duarte 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Cervantes 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 Nathan Silva is on it.
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.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvador Reyes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM 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.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
200 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.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Pumas UNAM will be judged on one thing only.
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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amaury Morales will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Amione 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pumas UNAM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tigres in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Rubén Duarte 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.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Yastin Cuevas wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
Rubén Duarte 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.
“I watch every Pumas UNAM game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Leon runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at Pumas UNAM where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to Cruz Azul until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvador Reyes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rubén Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Amione 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.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Amaury Morales will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Iker Fimbres 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.
Queretaro held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Pumas UNAM answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pumas UNAM have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Rubén Duarte 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ezequiel Orbe wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad10 Sep 2029
7 new faces, and Pumas UNAM 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.
Nobody at Pumas UNAM 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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Erick Aguirre 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pumas UNAM have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 62 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM can pretend not to have heard.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $1.2M of what Pumas UNAM paid for Alan Mozo is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom3 Sep 2029
Deadline passes with 19 signed and 17 gone
That is the business done at Pumas UNAM 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.
Rubén Duarte 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.
“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 Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Guadalajara had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Pumas UNAM did not stop to explain themselves.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús Rivas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Add another name to the list: Chiapas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Salvador Reyes. The answer from Pumas UNAM has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Amione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8.38. 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pumas UNAM have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Morelia paid $690.0K and Pumas UNAM took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Nathan Silva 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. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pumas UNAM people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Franco Romero reports back to Pumas UNAM with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
Rubén Duarte 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.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Nathan Silva 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.
9 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Puebla waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Add another name to the list: Puebla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Amaury Morales. The answer from Pumas UNAM has not changed — yet.
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.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Nathan Silva 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pumas UNAM can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Iker Fimbres 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Pumas UNAM have paid $14.2M for Iker Fimbres, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pumas UNAM people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Leon have accepted the money. What Pumas UNAM do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The offer from Morelia for Salvador Reyes 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.
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 Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Pumas UNAM and Tigres have settled on $14.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Chiapas had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Pedro Vite was one of the reasons people came, and $25.4M does not replace that by itself.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $2.1M has been paid because Bayron Duarte is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Bayron Duarte is living that version at Pumas UNAM, and it tends to show in the first month.
Rubén Duarte 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Morelia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Monterrey have accepted the money. What Pumas UNAM do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
$3.4M was the most the club would pay and Tigres 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 offer from Dorados for Jesús Rivas 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.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.2M — a club that wants Roberto de la Rosa enough to be asked twice.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to Guadalajara 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Queretaro waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Tigres 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monterrey have kept their man, and Pumas UNAM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Tijuana for Erick Aguirre 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Pumas UNAM have done the hard part with Monterrey, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The chase for Adrián Alcaraz ended with $670.0K changing hands and Pachuca out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$630.0K was the most the club would pay and Santos Laguna 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 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.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $14.8M has been paid because Andrés Montaño is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chiapas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
$720.0K was the most the club would pay and Dorados 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.
Rubén Duarte 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 Nathan Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Santos Laguna have kept their man, and Pumas UNAM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Pachuca; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pumas UNAM have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 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. Nestor Dos Santos wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
The offer went to Dorados 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $6.2M — a club that wants Luca Martínez Dupuy enough to be asked twice.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Pumas UNAM asked and Pachuca 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 kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Pumas UNAM had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Pumas UNAM and Veracruz have settled on $320.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer went to Santos Laguna 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.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rubén Duarte 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.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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 César Huerta is on it.
Position 5 on 62 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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 dugoutPedro Pedraza asks for a word with the manager
José Hernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Pumas UNAM has been clear about where Alan Mozo stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Pumas UNAM. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pumas UNAM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
BoardroomThe Pumas UNAM production line keeps running
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
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 Rubén Duarte is on it.
Nathan Silva has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pumas UNAM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
Rubén Duarte 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. Franco Romero wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad7 May 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
Rubén Duarte 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
62 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Óliver has written the date down.
“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 Pumas UNAM, 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 Pumas UNAM 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 Alan Cervantes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Pumas UNAM 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.
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús Rivas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nestor Dos Santos 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 Apr 2029
Nathan Silva 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.
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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and José Hernández trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pumas UNAM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 5 on 62 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Pumas UNAM can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Rubén Duarte 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 easiest signature of my career.” Adalberto Carrasquilla and Pumas UNAM agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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 words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
“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 Pumas UNAM, 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 Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Adalberto Carrasquilla commits to Pumas UNAM for another 4 years.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Cervantes 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 not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Pumas UNAM can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Nobody at Pumas UNAM 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM 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 Nathan Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Marked 7.75 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Pumas UNAM had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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.” Miguel Arteaga, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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 César Huerta is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús Rivas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Rubén Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
9 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Salvador Reyes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Rubén Duarte 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 Alan Cervantes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Miguel Arteaga on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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 Nathan Silva is on it.
Beaten 0‑1 by Club America in the one fixture that is never just a fixture. Work, school, the corner shop — there will be no getting away from this one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rubén Duarte 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.
“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.
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.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nestor Dos Santos 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. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Club America on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Two goals and a mark of 8.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jesús Rivas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM 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.
The new man at Pumas UNAM has worked with Yastin Cuevas before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Squad19 Feb 2029
5 new faces, and Pumas UNAM 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.
Nobody at Pumas UNAM 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 Pumas UNAM they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal that would have taken Antonio Torres to Leon has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Pumas UNAM with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Pumas UNAM, and 4 appearances in 33 say he has earned the hearing.
14 goals in 27 games at Tijuana — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Pumas UNAM updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pumas UNAM people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
$1.6M 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Julián Quiñones and Pumas UNAM agree another 3 years.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Pumas UNAM can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Rubén Duarte 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Puebla waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Pumas UNAM asked and Leon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings29 Jan 2029
A brace, and Uroš Đurđević takes the afternoon — 8.27
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Uroš Đurđević provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
$1.7M settles it between the clubs for Kenneth Jaime
Tigres have accepted the money. What Pumas UNAM do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
3 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.
The fee is $540.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Puebla drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Nathan Silva 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pumas UNAM people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guadalajara have kept their man, and Pumas UNAM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings22 Jan 2029
A brace, and Pedro Vite takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Pedro Vite provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Pumas UNAM and Puebla have settled on $540.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Add another name to the list: Puebla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Salvador Reyes. The answer from Pumas UNAM has not changed — yet.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $600.0K — a club that wants Raul Castillo enough to be asked twice.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Yastin Cuevas is a Pumas UNAM player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Pumas UNAM asked and Toluca said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
1 for Bruno Amione, marked 7.93, 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.
The chase for Jonathan Pérez ended with $1.4M changing hands and Tijuana out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The fee is $1.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Pachuca drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Rubén Duarte 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 Nathan Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Jesús Rivas had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer went to Pachuca 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.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
The offer went to Pachuca 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Pedro Pedraza enough to be asked twice.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Toluca will replay every second of the added time for a week.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Pumas UNAM had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
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.
Nathan Silva 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 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Rubén Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
Player ratings25 Dec 2028
Salvador Reyes was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jesús Ricardo Angulo wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Rubén Duarte 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 45 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Rubén Duarte 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
“I watch every Pumas UNAM game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cruz Azul runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutEmi Ochoa dropped after a run of poor form
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM can pretend not to have heard.
“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 Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nestor Dos Santos wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM 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 Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Pumas UNAM, and 4 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
Player ratingsPedro Vite was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Nathan Silva 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 Alan Cervantes was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 goals in 16 games at Tijuana — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Pumas UNAM updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
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 Rubén Duarte is on 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 Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Óliver trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tijuana in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
3 goals in 13 games at Morelia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Pumas UNAM updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Rubén Duarte 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Nathan Silva 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Julián Quiñones. 2‑1 against Cruz Azul, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Pumas UNAM will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pumas UNAM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jaziel Martínez provided it, and the 8.16 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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.
Nathan Silva 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 Nov 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Cervantes 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.
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.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM 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.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Pumas UNAM can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Nathan Silva 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Pumas UNAM can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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 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.
Rubén Duarte 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Nathan Silva 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.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Club America on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
“I watch every Pumas UNAM game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Toluca runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a 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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Nathan Silva and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Cervantes 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Pumas UNAM told Julián Quiñones something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nathan Silva signs something — a contract at Pumas UNAM or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Pumas UNAM 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.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Jesús Ricardo Angulo wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM 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 Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Nathan Silva 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.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
Rubén Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Nathan Silva 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.
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.
A 2‑0 win over Santos Laguna, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Juan Dinenno. 1‑0 against Veracruz, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Pumas UNAM, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Miguel Arteaga could afford to be generous.
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 Rubén Duarte is on it.
In brief
The dugoutEmi Ochoa asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Antonio Torres
61 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pumas UNAM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Rubén Duarte 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Nathan Silva 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jesús Ricardo Angulo, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Sep 2028
7 new faces, and Pumas UNAM 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alan Mozo has his answer from Pumas UNAM; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pumas UNAM offered $2.4M; Club America said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“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 Pumas UNAM hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Rubén Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Nathan Silva 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.
Nobody at Pumas UNAM 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.
79 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pumas UNAM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Pumas UNAM offered $21.8M; Dinamo Minsk said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 17 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
Nathan Silva 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Pumas UNAM will try again when the window opens; Toluca may not be selling by then.
In brief
SquadAlan Cervantes falls out with a teammate over standards
86 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chiapas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Dinamo Minsk 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Toluca have accepted the money. What Pumas UNAM do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.1M — a club that wants Sebastian Aceves enough to be asked twice.
Rubén Duarte 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 words a physio says slowly. 93 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: 37. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Puebla for Salvador Reyes 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.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.0M has been paid because Jesús Ricardo Angulo is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
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.
Everything agreed with Guadalajara, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Rubén Duarte 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.
In brief
SquadNathan Silva falls out with a teammate over standards
102 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pumas UNAM will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Pumas UNAM offered $2.0M; Club America said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Nathan Silva 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.
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Pumas UNAM lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Pumas UNAM people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pumas UNAM will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer went to Guadalajara 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.
“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.
The words a physio says slowly. 117 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.
$4.9M was the most the club would pay and Cruz Azul 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.
Pumas UNAM asked and Leon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Juan Dinenno 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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Pumas UNAM did not have in the autumn.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
Add another name to the list: Atlas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mateo Casares. The answer from Pumas UNAM has not changed — yet.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Julián Quiñones. 1‑0 against Morelia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 38 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pumas UNAM have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Santos Laguna for José Juan Macías 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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.
Juan Dinenno 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.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pumas UNAM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Schalke 04 did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $28.8M for Julián Quiñones, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Pumas UNAM and Monterrey have settled on $1.3M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Héctor Ramírez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pumas UNAM the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Rubén Duarte and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Julián Quiñones from Schalke 04 for $28.8M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Pumas UNAM lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Pumas UNAM have gone to Schalke 04 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Puebla had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
He is going to Toluca, the club has $5.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Pumas UNAM heard it as anything else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Santos Laguna had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Pumas UNAM have lost him in all but the paperwork.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Pumas UNAM have paid $6.4M for Amaury Morales, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tijuana have kept their man, and Pumas UNAM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Pumas UNAM, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rubén Duarte 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 terraces3 Jul 2028
Pumas UNAM spend $6.4M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $6.4M for Amaury Morales, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Monterrey keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Juan Dinenno 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. Franco Romero wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
$140.0K was the most the club would pay and Leon 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chiapas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Pumas UNAM is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Pumas UNAM can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nathan Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nestor Dos Santos was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $7.0M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guadalajara have kept their man, and Pumas UNAM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Pumas UNAM offered $65.6M; AZ said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Sebastián Córdova has come up in conversations Pumas UNAM were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Franco Romero 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 did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Víctor Arteaga has his answer from Pumas UNAM; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutBruno Amione has become a man the manager trusts
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rayo Vallecano have kept their man, and Pumas UNAM go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The offer from Queretaro for Uriel Antuna 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.
Pumas UNAM have gone to Santos Laguna 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $74.1M — a club that wants Mateo Chávez enough to be asked twice.
Juan Dinenno 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Pedro Vite and Pumas UNAM agree another 5 years.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Pumas UNAM training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nathan Silva 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.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Pumas UNAM will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Rubén Duarte 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 Nathan Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pumas UNAM this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Nathan Silva is on 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pumas UNAM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Pumas UNAM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pumas UNAM. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Nobody has promised him anything and he has not asked. The coaching staff have noticed, which at this stage of a season is the only thing that matters.
In brief
BoardroomThe Pumas UNAM board put their names to 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 Pumas UNAM 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 Nathan Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Uriel Antuna signs something — a contract at Pumas UNAM 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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Pumas UNAM has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Pumas UNAM have no good answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Keylor Navas 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 Nathan Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Pumas UNAM, another week without a signature from Sebastián Venegas.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Luis Manuel García has written the date down.
In brief
Loan watchIsrael Luna watches his loan from the bench
“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.
Keylor Navas 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 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Pumas UNAM, and 3 appearances in 46 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Nobody at Pumas UNAM 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pumas UNAM have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Franco Romero wants continental football; whether Pumas UNAM 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 Nathan Silva 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 Nathan Silva is on 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 Pumas UNAM, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Pumas UNAM know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Pumas UNAM. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Antonio Torres has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.