Marked for Régis
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Nov 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Central Espanol, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Máximo Alonso 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Régis
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Oct 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Central Espanol can pretend not to have heard.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Máximo Alonso 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Sep 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad27 Sep 2027
“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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Máximo Alonso 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Aug 2027
19 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match7 Aug 2027
0‑3 against Penarol, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match7 Aug 2027
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.
Market9 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Central Espanol can pretend not to have heard.
Market9 Aug 2027
Only the photograph left for Isaac Méndez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Isaac Méndez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Central Espanol the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad9 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Central Espanol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Régis and Central Espanol agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
8 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.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Market2 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Central Espanol can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Match31 Jul 2027
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Central Espanol are no longer polite ones.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Máximo Alonso 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Régis signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Régis and Central Espanol agree another 2 years.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.93, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Aug 2027
109 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Jul 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match24 Jul 2027
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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Central Espanol this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Jul 2027
Wanderers left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.57, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad26 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Régis
“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.
Loan watch26 Jul 2027
“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 Central Espanol, and 0 appearances in 30 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad26 Jul 2027
João Lourenço asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
The one thing Facundo Milán could not do
Shots: 4, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Jun 2027
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Central Espanol are no longer polite ones.
Market21 Jun 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings21 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Facundo Borges: 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.” Central Espanol have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market21 Jun 2027
The name of Ignacio Rodríguez has come up in conversations Central Espanol were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Máximo Alonso 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.
Squad21 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Régis
“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 ratings21 Jun 2027
A defender's afternoon for Logan Ponce
Defensive actions: 17. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Loan watch21 Jun 2027
“I watch every Central Espanol game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Colon runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.