Marked for Alejandro Vera
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Aug 2030
17 matches without a win for Maipú
The run now stands at 17, and the questions being asked around Maipú are no longer polite ones.
Market26 Aug 2030
Julián Vera hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maipú can pretend not to have heard.
Squad26 Aug 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Maipú may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market26 Aug 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maipú they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Tempers go at Maipú
Diego Gaitán 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.
Match24 Aug 2030
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom26 Aug 2030
109% of the income goes out in wages at Maipú
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad26 Aug 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Šimon Kováč, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Aug 2030
No end in sight to Maipú's wait for a win
15 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Maipú has to find a result from somewhere.
Market12 Aug 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maipú can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Aug 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alejandro Vera commits to Maipú for another 1 years.
Squad12 Aug 2030
Tempers go at Maipú
Diego Gaitán 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.
Player ratings12 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Aug 2030
The manager makes an example of Alejandro Vera
“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.
Match10 Aug 2030
0‑1 to Central Córdoba SdE, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom12 Aug 2030
Maipú are $18.8M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Market12 Aug 2030
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Aug 2030
The wait goes on for Maipú
14 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.
Match5 Aug 2030
Maipú are in real trouble now
Position 18, 12 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market5 Aug 2030
“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 Maipú, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Aug 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Diego Gaitán and Maipú agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Diego Gaitán 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 Maipú this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
$418.9K of the owner's money at Maipú
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Player ratings5 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Aug 2030
Marked 8.57 — 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.
Squad5 Aug 2030
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Jul 2029
Moussa Kanté hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ararat can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Jul 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Ararat may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match30 Jul 2029
Ararat refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market30 Jul 2029
Only the photograph left for Joacim Holtan
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joacim Holtan will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Ararat the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market30 Jul 2029
Shirak come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Ararat did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad30 Jul 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Ararat this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.