“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Belgrano can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Belgrano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Belgrano have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belgrano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Belgrano have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belgrano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
37 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
The shirt still fits. Pato is back at Belgrano, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The shirt still fits. Sergio Vidal is back at Belgrano, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The shirt still fits. Bautista De Luca is back at Belgrano, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Belgrano have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luciano Leguizamón is 20, and Belgrano have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Belgrano know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belgrano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A new face in his position, and Juan Velázquez suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Belgrano have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Belgrano have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.