Marked for Jonathan Brizuela
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Huesca may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Huesca
Óscar Sielva and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Brizuela is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The medical room confirms 20 days on the sidelines for Jorge Delgado, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad9 Aug 2027
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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Marcos Aguirre
“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.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
Sergi Enrich 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 Sergi Enrich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market9 Aug 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Huesca, another week without a signature from Rodrigo Díaz.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
A promise honoured at Huesca
Something was said to Mateus Anderson and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
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Market
Rafael Tresaco leaves for nothing
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Boardroom
The board put their hand in their pocket
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Jun 2027
Sergi Enrich 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 Huesca can pretend not to have heard.
Match7 Jun 2027
Huesca finish in position 20
35 points, and the season has a number on it. Whatever it felt like from the inside, this is what it will look like in a book.
Boardroom7 Jun 2027
Crisis meeting at Huesca
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The dugout7 Jun 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.
Market7 Jun 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Huesca have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings7 Jun 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words exchanged at Huesca
Óscar Sielva and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Jun 2027
A move Jonathan Brizuela would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Jonathan Brizuela is living that version at Huesca, and it tends to show in the first month.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match16 Nov 2026
Instituto refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 21 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Valerio Olivera: 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.” Instituto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Alex Luna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonás Acevedo, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Instituto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro Maldonado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Hernán de la Fuente is on it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Matías Tissera 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Instituto will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Market16 Nov 2026
The name of Emanuel Sittaro keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Instituto say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.93, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
At 38 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 9.06, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match12 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Instituto
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad14 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Sep 2026
Three points for Instituto, 3‑1 the final word against Platense in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giuliano Cerato, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Lucas Sanseviero 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.