35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santos Laguna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santos Laguna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Ezequiel Bullaude is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and José Javier Abella trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Pachuca in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“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 Santos Laguna will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna 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.” Santos Laguna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Santos Laguna 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 Santos Laguna can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Ángel Estrada, marked 7.79, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Héctor Holguín will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Joe Scally 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 point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Kevin Corona after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Santos Laguna can tell you which week it ends in.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere 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 Santos Laguna 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 Ezequiel Bullaude is on it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ezequiel Bullaude wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
José Javier Abella 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.
Something was said to Haret Ortega and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kevin Balanta trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Monterrey next, and one man in the Santos Laguna dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Joe Scally arrived with a record at a bigger club than this one, and the room has treated him accordingly. The young ones watch him train; the senior ones watch to see whether it lasts.
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 Luis Alberto Márquez is on it.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
0‑4 against Pumas UNAM, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Héctor Holguín will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Anthony Lozano and Santos Laguna agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Kevin Corona to a room that had heard them before.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Santos Laguna can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
In brief
The dugoutCarlos Acevedo has become a man the manager trusts
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The 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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kevin Corona was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Santos Laguna dressing room was either.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Tigres defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Aldo López was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 21 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Carlos Acevedo's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santos Laguna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Franco Pardo 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.
Add another name to the list: Cruz Azul have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tahiel Jiménez. The answer from Santos Laguna has not changed — 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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 11 arrived, 31 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Santos Laguna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Carlos Gruezo wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna 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 Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Santos Laguna 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Carlos Acevedo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Union Berlin have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Santos Laguna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
Union Berlin have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Santos Laguna have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Diego Medina
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santos Laguna 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. Anthony Lozano provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Atlas for Jonathan Pérez 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Santos Laguna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ángel Vázquez is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monterrey have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kevin Corona on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santos Laguna 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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chiapas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.33 for the rest of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Santos Laguna asked and Porto 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 words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
9 seasons and 5 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Pachuca paid $1.9M and Santos Laguna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The phone has started ringing about Ricardo Echeverría again, and this time the name on the line is Pachuca. Santos Laguna are listening politely and promising nothing.
David Osvaldo Sánchez 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. 66 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 Santos Laguna can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Club America for Javier Güemez 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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Bruno Amione was one of the reasons people came, and $5.6M does not replace that by itself.
Franco Pardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Santos Laguna
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Add another name to the list: Pumas UNAM have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bruno Amione. The answer from Santos Laguna has not changed — yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ángel Vázquez is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Santos Laguna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna 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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Santos Laguna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Franco Pardo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santos Laguna 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 Santos Laguna, 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.
“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.
Dorados paid $190.0K and Santos Laguna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Kevin Balanta 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.
Santos Laguna asked and Cruz Azul said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Güemez 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Kevin Balanta is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Mauro Nambo is in the works
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santos Laguna 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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cruz Azul is saying, and nobody at Santos Laguna is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cruz Azul have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Santos Laguna have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Güemez 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santos Laguna 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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Picón will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Guadalajara is saying, and nobody at Santos Laguna is enjoying the guessing.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Add another name to the list: Atlas have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jonathan Pérez. The answer from Santos Laguna has not changed — yet.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Santos Laguna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cruz Azul keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Chiapas paid $310.0K and Santos Laguna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Santos Laguna asked and Monterrey said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Güemez 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.
Tahiel Jiménez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every 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 Ezequiel Bullaude is on it.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santos Laguna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Atlas for Jonathan Pérez 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 Santos Laguna, 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.
The deal with Cruz Azul 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Santos Laguna asked and Club America said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Javier Güemez 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.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Santos Laguna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Carlos Acevedo 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 dugout31 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Bruno Amione's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 Carlos Acevedo 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.
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 Alberto Ocejo has written the date down.
34 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santos Laguna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Picón will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javier Güemez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Santos Laguna, and 12 appearances in 36 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Santos Laguna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Acevedo signs something — a contract at Santos Laguna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santos Laguna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Santos Laguna can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 May 2027
Javier Güemez 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.
Jorge Rodríguez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every 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 Ezequiel Bullaude 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 Santos Laguna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
5 goals in 12 games at Leon — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Santos Laguna updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santos Laguna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santos Laguna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santos Laguna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Santos Laguna lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Santos Laguna 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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santos Laguna 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. Carlos Gruezo wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Carlos Acevedo 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.
Squad3 May 2027
Javier Güemez 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 dugout3 May 2027
Bruno Amione is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Carlos Acevedo is on it.
In brief
The dugoutAldo López asks for a word with the manager
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santos Laguna will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Picón will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javier Güemez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jorge Rodríguez 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Javier Güemez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Acevedo signs something — a contract at Santos Laguna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nobody at Santos Laguna will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 75 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Santos Laguna 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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Santos Laguna they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jorge Rodríguez 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 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.
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Santos Laguna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Carlos Acevedo 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.
He is 21 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Güemez 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 Santos Laguna, and 5 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 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 Santos Laguna can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Carlos Acevedo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Santos Laguna 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.” Santos Laguna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Picón will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alex Valencia is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Franco Pardo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Edgar Martínez’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Santos Laguna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The words a physio says slowly. 105 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Santos Laguna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Santos Laguna can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Héctor Holguín will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Santos Laguna will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Santos Laguna lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Santos Laguna will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alex Valencia did not need any: 7.85, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Carlos Acevedo 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: Alberto Ocejo. 2‑1 against Puebla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Alex Valencia 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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Javier Güemez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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 Santos Laguna can pretend not to have heard.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
“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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
13 seasons and 243 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
7.91, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Picón will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna 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 Javier Güemez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Jorge Rodríguez 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 not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Santos Laguna told Diego González something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Three points for Santos Laguna, 1‑0 the final word against Monterrey in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Güemez 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Santos Laguna pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Palacios 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 dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Kevin Corona left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Santos Laguna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Monterrey next, and one man in the Santos Laguna dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santos Laguna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Javier Güemez 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.
“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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Haret Ortega, marked 7.26, 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 deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dorados keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Santos Laguna 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.
In brief
SquadJavier Güemez falls out with a teammate over standards
Player ratingsFran Villalba was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Santos Laguna can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Franco Pardo 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 Kevin Palacios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Two goals and a mark of 9.04 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Chiapas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The name of Diego González has come up in conversations Santos Laguna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Bruno Amione 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 Javier Güemez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsRalph Orquin beats them one at a time
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Santos Laguna 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 Santos Laguna can pretend not to have heard.
7.92, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Santos Laguna and Queretaro, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ezequiel Bullaude. 4‑2 against Queretaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Franco Pardo 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alex Valencia is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Santos Laguna has been clear about where Bruno Amione stands, which is more than many ever get.
Franco Pardo 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ronaldo Rubio is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Güemez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Carlos Acevedo signs something — a contract at Santos Laguna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Racing Club paid $10.4M and Santos Laguna took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Ramiro Sordo has gone, the accounts have $10.4M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
0‑2 to Leon, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Javier Güemez 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutBruno Amione is still being punished for one mistake
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
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.
100 for the club now, each one filed in somebody’s memory with a date and a scoreline. Numbers like this are what supporters argue about in twenty years.
Lucas Di Yorio 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.
Position 12, 25 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Di Yorio provided it, and the 9.05 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody 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 Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Franco Pardo 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.
Three points for Santos Laguna, 2‑1 the final word against Chiapas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Javier Güemez 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.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Ramiro Sordo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.
“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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ezequiel Bullaude. 3‑1 against Morelia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Güemez 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.
Jorge Rodríguez 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kevin Corona on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
15 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Ramiro Sordo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricardo Echeverría was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
“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 Santos Laguna, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kevin Corona after 1‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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 Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Güemez 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.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Lucas Di Yorio’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Santos Laguna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lucas Di Yorio provided it, and the 8.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.88 for the rest of it.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Puebla were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Franco Pardo 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.
8 goals in one match, Lucas Di Yorio on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Santos Laguna and Puebla.
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Javier Güemez 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.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Héctor Holguín: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“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 Santos Laguna, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Salvador Mariscal provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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 point taken on 112 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santos Laguna have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Santos Laguna can tell you which week it ends in.
Lucas Di Yorio 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.
0‑1 to Cruz Azul, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Javier Güemez 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.
“I watch every Santos Laguna 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Diego González wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Güemez 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.
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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricardo Echeverría was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Javier Güemez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Michell Rodríguez’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Santos Laguna needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Santos Laguna. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Franco Pardo 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Arneth González is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Bruno Amione wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Pumas UNAM left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Javier Güemez falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Santos Laguna 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. Ezequiel Bullaude wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Juan Pablo Tejeda is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Javier Güemez 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 needed Anthony Lozano to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Tigres, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Kevin Corona was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Santos Laguna dressing room was either.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Monterrey moved on, Salvador Mariscal reports back to Santos Laguna, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 6.66 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricardo Echeverría was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Kevin Corona after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
The deal that would have taken Carlos Acevedo to Guadalajara has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Santos Laguna with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Santos Laguna can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Carlos Gruezo, marked 7.88, 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Javier Güemez 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.
Minute 88, against Club America, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Jorge Rodríguez 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
9 new faces, and Santos Laguna 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Santos Laguna have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 16 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Morelia for Arneth González 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.
The phone has started ringing about Tahiel Jiménez again, and this time the name on the line is Leon. Santos Laguna are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Javier Güemez 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tahiel Jiménez has come out of that comparison in the side, and Santos Laguna have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
In brief
SquadA Santos Laguna teenager takes the young player award
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Carlos Gruezo delivers — 7.93
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Carlos Gruezo scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Santos Laguna 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Tahiel Jiménez 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.
The name of Arneth González has come up in conversations Santos Laguna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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 goals in one match, Ezequiel Bullaude on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Santos Laguna and Queretaro.
500 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Veracruz have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Javier Güemez 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.
Franco Pardo 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Michell Rodríguez has just signed for Santos Laguna, and for once the answer mattered.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Guadalajara have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Javier Güemez 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.
Marked 8.20. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Santos Laguna.
Squad17 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Santos Laguna 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.
A loan enquiry to Atlas: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Kevin Corona kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ezequiel Bullaude wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Carlos Acevedo 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 academy exists for exactly this morning. Diego Lozano has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jesus Lainez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jonathan Montes has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
In brief
The dugoutFranco Pardo knocks on the manager’s door
13 seasons and 216 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Santos Laguna can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Acevedo and Santos Laguna agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Franco Pardo 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Kevin Corona on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
The dugoutFranco Pardo asks for a word with the manager