Marked for Alan Alegre
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Durazno
Facundo Trinidad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Alan Alegre
“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 dugout25 Jan 2027
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicolás Quintana is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Durazno
Diego Acosta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Alan Alegre knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alan Alegre trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Elías Peralta gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Elías Peralta has just signed for Durazno, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Alan Alegre in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Durazno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Market11 Jan 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Alejandro Da Silva has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market11 Jan 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Nicolas Gomez 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Elías Peralta has outgrown this division
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Durazno know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Esteban Castaño out for 99 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Durazno will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Durazno can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Diego Acosta 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.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Juventud have kept their man, and Durazno go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Esteban Castaño
“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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
A loan enquiry to Montevideo City Torque: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Alan Alegre knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Durazno, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Open for business: Durazno enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Durazno
Diego Acosta 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
117 days out for Esteban Castaño after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Durazno will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 61 days on the sidelines for Lucas Rotela, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Durazno
Rodrigo Izquierdo 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Diego Acosta in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Durazno this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Alan Alegre is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad19 Oct 2026
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Durazno know which stage they are at.
Market19 Oct 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Durazno, another week without a signature from Nahuel Cisneros.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at Durazno
24 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 dugout19 Oct 2026
Ariel Bulacio gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ariel Bulacio is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Diego Acosta 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Durazno is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Nicolás Quintana 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jose Gonzalez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Oct 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gonzalo Martinez 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Experience through the door at Durazno
Alan Alegre arrives at 35 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.