At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Santos Laguna found something the first half had given no notice of, and Veracruz could not hold what they had.
Two goals and a mark of 9.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Veracruz made Santos Laguna work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑3 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Bruno Amione 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.81, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“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.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jesus Dos Santos chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Pardo 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Anthony Lozano and Santos Laguna agree another 2 years.
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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Santos Laguna 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.
“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.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Anthony Lozano 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 Franco Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 6.78 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 6.75, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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 Jesus Dos Santos left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Javier Güemez
Two goals and a mark of 8.82 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Carlos Gruezo 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Pardo 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.
18 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.
13 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Chiapas 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Bruno Amione 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.
Three points for Santos Laguna, 2‑0 the final word against Chiapas in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Franco Fagúndez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
Half the programme played, position 13, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Santos Laguna told Anthony Lozano something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
0-4, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
4 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Franco Pardo 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.
Position 16 and 11 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Anthony Lozano 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 Oct 2028
Franco Pardo 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
Somebody else is better right now than Javier Güemez
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Bruno Amione 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 22 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucas Di Yorio wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Carlos Gruezo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jesus Dos Santos was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Santos Laguna dressing room was either.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.83 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kevin Palacios wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
8 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos Gruezo and Santos Laguna agree another 2 years.
Anthony Lozano 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Pardo 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I 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 decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos Gruezo and Santos Laguna agree another 2 years.
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.
“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.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Jesus Dos Santos to a room that had heard them before.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eduardo Aguirre provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑2 draw with Pumas UNAM leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jesus Dos Santos chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
Nobody at Santos Laguna is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ezequiel Bullaude signs something — a contract at Santos Laguna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Anthony Lozano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Franco Pardo 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.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Javier Alvarez 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 mood at Santos Laguna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The offer from Leon for Mauricio Cuevas 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.
Anthony Lozano 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Santos Laguna 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.
“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.
“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.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 25 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at Santos Laguna 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.
The name of Mauricio Cuevas has come up in conversations Santos Laguna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Pardo 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Anthony Lozano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Pardo 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 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kevin Balanta has his answer from Santos Laguna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Club America.
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.
In brief
Player ratingsRamiro Sordo beats them one at a time
0‑4 to Queretaro, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The deal with Pachuca 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.
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 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Pachuca have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
At 28 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.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Bruno Amione 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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.
Anthony Lozano 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 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.
At 26 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Franco Pardo 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 offer from Chiapas for Alan Guzmán 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.
Everything agreed with Monterrey, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Anthony Lozano 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 23 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.
At 30 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.
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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
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 0‑1 Jesus Dos Santos left the room before anybody could ask which.
Santos Laguna have made the call to Monterrey. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The offer from Rostov for Tahiel Jiménez 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.
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.
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.
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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
2 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 28 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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.
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.
At 26 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Paulo Romero has, at Santos Laguna, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Add another name to the list: Nashville SC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tahiel Jiménez. The answer from Santos Laguna has not changed — yet.
Anthony Lozano 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 27 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.
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.
Chiapas will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Carlos López has pre-agreed a move to Santos Laguna, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
At 23 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 offered $75.0K; 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
“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 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.
$90.0K was the most the club would pay and Monterrey 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
7 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 dugoutThe manager makes Pedro Aquino a promise
99Edition
The Santos Laguna Sentinel
19 Jun 2028
From our football correspondentUneasy
The terraces19 Jun 2028
The mood at Santos Laguna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
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 chase for Santiago Márquez ended with $710.0K changing hands and Leon out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Anthony Lozano 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.
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.
Chiapas will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Alan Mendoza has pre-agreed a move to Santos Laguna, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ramiro Sordo
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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Santos Laguna have done the hard part with Tigres, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Anthony Lozano 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.
Santos Laguna have gone to Tijuana 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Chiapas will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Michael Pérez has pre-agreed a move to Santos Laguna, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
The name of Rubén Hernández has come up in conversations Santos Laguna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
Santos Laguna have gone to Leon 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 went to Leon 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Luis Blanco has just signed for Santos Laguna, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Pardo 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 Franco Fagúndez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Santos Laguna is running low.
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.
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Bruno Amione 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.
“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.
Squad29 May 2028
6 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.
“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.
The mood at Santos Laguna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Anthony Lozano 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 Andrew Rick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Anthony Lozano 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Ramiro Sordo 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ramiro Sordo signs something — a contract at Santos Laguna 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.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Bruno Amione has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Sordo 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 squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Ezequiel Bullaude was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
“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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Santos Laguna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Jose Gallardo 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.
“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 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.
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.
Squad1 May 2028
Andrew Rick 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 change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Ezequiel Bullaude's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“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.
The mood at Santos Laguna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Anthony Lozano 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 Ramiro Sordo 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 Fran Villalba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
Anthony Lozano 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 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Franco Pardo 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.
7 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 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 Ramiro Sordo signs something — a contract at Santos Laguna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
3 goals in 27 games at Veracruz — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Santos Laguna updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Michell Rodríguez has written the date down.
Carlos Gruezo 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Pardo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrew Rick trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
14 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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Santos Laguna
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
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.
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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Sordo 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. 21 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Anthony Lozano 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 Franco Pardo 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 Carlos Gruezo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Santos Laguna the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
28 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.
“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.
Carlos Gruezo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Pardo 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.
13 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Carlos Gruezo 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 Ramiro Sordo signs something — a contract at Santos Laguna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Andrew Rick has written the date down.
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.
2 behind and going nowhere, until Anthony Lozano decided otherwise. Chiapas had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
“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.
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.
42 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Carlos Gruezo and Santos Laguna agree another 2 years.
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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Derek Hernández is living that version at Santos Laguna, and it tends to show in the first month.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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 bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Anthony Lozano provided it, and the 9.48 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Anthony Lozano 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.
Pachuca made Santos Laguna work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Pardo 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 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.
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.
“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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Rodrigo Parra is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Ramiro Sordo 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Anthony Lozano had Santos Laguna level again within 2 minutes, and Puebla never got to play with a lead at all.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Tigres moved on, Fran Villalba reports back to Santos Laguna, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Carlos Gruezo 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 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 Franco Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 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.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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 1‑2 Jesus Dos Santos left the room before anybody could ask which.
Something was said to Fran Villalba and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Santos Laguna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Santos Laguna is running low.
Santos Laguna close the window on a squad of their own making
16 in and 7 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arneth González will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Carlos Gruezo 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 Franco Pardo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Alex Valencia and Santos Laguna agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Sordo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Jesus Dos Santos to a room that had heard them before.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Pumas UNAM spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas Di Yorio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Santos Laguna the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front 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.
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Sordo 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.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Pumas UNAM were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Santos Laguna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
5 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.
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.
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.
“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 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.
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 deal with Philadelphia Union 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.
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.
Chofis 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 mood at Santos Laguna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Chofis 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Francisco Moreno is living that version at Santos Laguna, and it tends to show in the first month.
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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Santos Laguna 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Mineiro have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ramiro Sordo
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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 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.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jesus Dos Santos after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
In brief
The dugoutFran Villalba asks for a word with the manager
Chofis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Santos Laguna 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 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. José Javier Abella is somebody else's player now, and $55.0K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Anthony Lozano provided it, and the 9.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arneth González 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.
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Santos Laguna 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.
The mood at Santos Laguna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Chofis 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.
Add another name to the list: Defensor Sporting have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tahiel Jiménez. The answer from Santos Laguna has not changed — yet.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Sergio Barajas is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Santos Laguna will try very hard not to make too much of it.
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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Echeverría 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 dugout6 Dec 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Jesus Dos Santos to a room that had heard them before.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Chofis has come out of that comparison in the side, and Santos Laguna have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.58 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Carlos Gruezo 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 Bruno Amione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chofis. 2‑1 against Leon, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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.” Jesus Dos Santos, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Santos Laguna 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.
Something was said to Lucas Di Yorio and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
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.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Franco Fagúndez’s exile
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
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 Santos Laguna this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
27 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.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Morelia had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Santos Laguna did not stop to explain themselves.
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.
Chofis 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
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.
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.
“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. Lucas Di Yorio 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 Bruno Amione was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.24 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chofis. 1‑0 against Puebla, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.04 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ricardo Echeverría 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 dugout25 Oct 2027
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.” Jesus Dos Santos, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
12 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.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
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.
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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Santos Laguna 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.
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 dugoutRamiro Sordo knocks on the manager's door
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Javier Güemez
63Edition
The Santos Laguna Sentinel
11 Oct 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces11 Oct 2027
The mood at Santos Laguna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Carlos Gruezo 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
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.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 11 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
10 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.
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.
Carlos Gruezo 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Carlos Gruezo has his answer from Santos Laguna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
9 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Chofis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Santos Laguna 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout27 Sep 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Jesus Dos Santos to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Pedro Aquino
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.
8 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.
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.
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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kevin Balanta wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Santos Laguna 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Chofis 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.
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.
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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Santos Laguna 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.
The deal that would have taken Tahiel Jiménez 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.
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.
Chofis 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 Sep 2027
Bruno Amione 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Philadelphia Union have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
5 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Chofis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Bruno Amione 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 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Guadalajara will make the call about Tahiel Jiménez this week. Santos Laguna have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
18 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.
Santos Laguna and Leon have settled on $130.0K. 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 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.
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.
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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Houston Dynamo have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
SquadWords at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
55Edition
The Santos Laguna Sentinel
16 Aug 2027
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces16 Aug 2027
The mood at Santos Laguna has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
25 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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Salvador Mariscal had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Santos Laguna and Club America have settled on $140.0K. 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.
Carlos Gruezo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Bruno Amione 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.
Santos Laguna asked and Brondby said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fran Villalba had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Guadalajara were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“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 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Bruno Amione 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.
72 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Cáseres, and the manager let it.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Franco Pardo'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.
The dugout2 Aug 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 Jesus Dos Santos left the room before anybody could ask which.
31 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Toluca were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Santos Laguna people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 9.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 9.12 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. Arneth González 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Santos Laguna and Toluca in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Nashville SC have kept their man, and Santos Laguna 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Santos Laguna has been clear about where Haret Ortega stands, which is more than many ever get.
The chase for Jorge Rodríguez ended with $1.8M changing hands and Atlas out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
Santos Laguna asked and Tigre 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 phone has started ringing about Salvador Mariscal again, and this time the name on the line is Atlas. Santos Laguna are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad12 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.
In brief
SquadSantos Laguna are still strangers to each other
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Veracruz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Santos Laguna and Atlas have settled on $1.8M. 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.
Santos Laguna have gone to Pumas UNAM 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 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.
Atlas paid $1.5M 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.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Pachuca waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Santos Laguna is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
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 20 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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.
The offer went to Monterrey 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. Tijuana have kept their man, and Santos Laguna go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
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.
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.
In brief
SquadJavier Güemez falls out with a teammate over standards
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 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The name of Tahiel Jiménez has come up in conversations Santos Laguna were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Cáseres 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 offer from Leon for Chofis 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.
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 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 phone has started ringing about Efraín Orona again, and this time the name on the line is Pumas UNAM. Santos Laguna are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Gruezo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tahiel Jiménez and Santos Laguna agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A loan enquiry to Defensa y Justicia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
The dugoutAlberto Ocejo knocks on the manager’s door
BoardroomOpen for business: Santos Laguna enter the window
Position 16 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Gruezo 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 Ramiro Sordo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The loan was meant to give him football. 3 games and 0 goals later he is back at Santos Laguna no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Cáseres is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Santos Laguna, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Santos Laguna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Carlos Gruezo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fran Villalba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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
SquadThe training reports on Gonzalo Siri are not good
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ramiro Sordo, and the manager let it.
Squad10 May 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alex Valencia and Santos Laguna agree another 4 years.
“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 17 say he has earned the hearing.
In brief
The dugoutFran Villalba knocks on the manager’s door
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Position 16 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alex Valencia and Santos Laguna agree another 4 years.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Cáseres 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Santos Laguna know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 dugoutEfraín Orona knocks on the manager's door
“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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Gruezo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ezequiel Bullaude signs something — a contract at Santos Laguna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alberto Ocejo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Franco Pardo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Carlos Gruezo 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 is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kevin Palacios wants continental football; whether Santos Laguna can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Arneth González 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.
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 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Santos Laguna told Gonzalo Siri something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ramiro Sordo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Carlos Gruezo 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergio Barajas and Santos Laguna agree another 4 years.
“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.
Chofis 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 Carlos Gruezo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ezequiel Bullaude signs something — a contract at Santos Laguna or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Gruezo 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Javier Güemez will call it something else in private.
30 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
16 goals and a season average of 7.20. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad8 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.
29 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.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gonzalo Siri, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Cáseres 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.
28 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.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Puebla kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Santos Laguna will be asked about the last half hour all week.
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.
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.
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Cáseres 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” José Javier Abella has his answer from Santos Laguna; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jesus Dos Santos after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Something was said to Ricardo Echeverría and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
Position 16 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Santos Laguna training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Carlos Gruezo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
1‑5 to Monterrey, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
“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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Santos Laguna 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Santos Laguna and Monterrey, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.