Marked for Facundo Pimienta
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market8 Oct 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Atlético Tucumán, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Oct 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Renzo Tesuri and Atlético Tucumán agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Oct 2029
Clever Ferreira 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 Oct 2029
“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.
Squad8 Oct 2029
“Ask me in the summer. I will know before anybody else does.” He is 38 with 206 appearances behind him, and Atlético Tucumán have to plan for both answers.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match28 Jul 2029
0‑1 against Racing Club, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad30 Jul 2029
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match28 Jul 2029
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.
Market30 Jul 2029
“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 The request is on a desk at Atlético Tucumán, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Clever Ferreira 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 ratings30 Jul 2029
A performance of 8.21 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad30 Jul 2029
The manager makes an example of Leandro Díaz
“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.
Player ratings30 Jul 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Mateo Coronel 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 Mateo Coronel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market27 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Atlético Tucumán can pretend not to have heard.
Market27 Nov 2028
Only the photograph left for Tomás Bustos
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomás Bustos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Tucumán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Clever Ferreira 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ramiro González and Atlético Tucumán agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Pimienta, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 Oct 2028
Tomás Bustos has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Tucumán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Clever Ferreira 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
“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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Martín Benítez 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 Atlético Tucumán, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Loan watch30 Oct 2028
24 appearances at Santa Fe and the goals keep coming. Atlético Tucumán are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Oct 2028
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market23 Oct 2028
“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 Atlético Tucumán, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Defensive actions: 26. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad23 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Tucumán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market23 Oct 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad23 Oct 2028
The manager makes an example of Mateo Coronel
“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.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
A performance of 8.78 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jun 2028
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Luis Ingolotti: 4 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match7 Jun 2028
A 1‑1 win over Defensa y Justicia, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 33. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 Atlético Tucumán, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Rodrigo Granillo: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Tucumán have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.