Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sevilla they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Rubén Vargas 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Sevilla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julen Agirrezabala is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“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.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Rubén Vargas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.51. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Facundo Machado wants continental football; whether Sevilla can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 The request is on a desk at Sevilla, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sevilla they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Sevilla training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Batrakov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Chidera Ejuke 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Position 1, 43 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.
“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 Racing, and it is not being withdrawn.
Guillermo Cotugno 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.
0‑2 to Wanderers, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Espinosa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Racing they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Guillermo Cotugno 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.
Marked 8.52. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Racing.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Espinosa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A brace, and Tomás Habib takes the afternoon — 8.13
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tomás Habib provided it, and the 8.13 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Rodrigo Viera has just signed for Racing, and for once the answer mattered.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Erik de los Santos wants continental football; whether Racing can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Miramar Misiones will make the call about Facundo Machado this week. Racing have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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.
The offer from Defensor Sporting for Facundo Machado was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Bautista Tomatis 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.
“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 Racing, and 2 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
5 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Guillermo Cotugno 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.
“Every summer it is another club, another set of team-mates, another manager to convince. I have done all that. Now I want a pre-season at Racing and a proper look at me.” He remains Cerro’s player until the spell runs out — but the argument is with the club that owns him.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Bautista Tomatis 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.
Álex Vázquez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.52. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Facundo Machado wants continental football; whether Racing can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Álex Vázquez 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.
“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 Racing, and 4 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Guillermo Cotugno 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings3 Apr 2028
Lucas Monzón was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.82. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Vázquez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Juventud go through and Racing go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces20 Mar 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A first appearance Elías Pintos will want to forget — 5.80
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.80, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
José Varela 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Espinosa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
8.02. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Álex Vázquez 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.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
16 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
23 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
José Varela 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.
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Vázquez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Bautista Tomatis 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.
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.
Supporters turn on the $310.0K sale of Franco Suárez
He is going to Progreso, the club has $310.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Miramar Misiones moved on, Facundo Machado reports back to Racing, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
José Varela 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.
Progreso paid $310.0K and Racing took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Thiago Espinosa is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
5 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.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Federico Varese talk too
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Luciano Di Candia has come up in conversations Racing were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Álex Vázquez 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.
38 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad27 Dec 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Federico Varese's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
José Varela 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Vázquez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
José Varela 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Álex Vázquez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.