Marked for Fausto Grunullú
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Dec 2029
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Boston River have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets24 Dec 2029
Boston River and Racing have settled on $360.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Agustín Amado 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Pedro Milans 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.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Augusto Cambón, and the manager let it.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francisco Bonfiglio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
Facundo Saravia has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Boston River will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market24 Dec 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Bruno Antúnez signs something — a contract at Boston River or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market24 Dec 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Dec 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boston River people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Agustín Amado and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market17 Dec 2029
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Emanuel Beltrán wants continental football; whether Boston River can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A move Miguel Sierra 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. Miguel Sierra is living that version at Boston River, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market17 Dec 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Boston River have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Leandro Suhr 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.
Market17 Dec 2029
No place for Franco Pérez in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Franco Pérez has his answer from Boston River; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
Leo Suárez gets picked when it counts
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 Leo Suárez is on it.
Squad17 Dec 2029
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Nov 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Pedro Milans and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro Suhr was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
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 Facundo Saravia is on it.
Market26 Nov 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Fredy Martínez’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fausto Grunullú trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Mar 2029
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Boston River lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match14 Mar 2029
0‑0 against Central Espanol, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad19 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Emanuel Beltrán out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boston River will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad19 Mar 2029
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Agustín Amado and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market19 Mar 2029
Leo Suárez wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Match17 Mar 2029
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 92. Wanderers had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The dugout19 Mar 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2028
Agustín Amado 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Leandro Suhr 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.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Facundo Saravia
“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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fausto Grunullú and Boston River agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings10 Apr 2028
A mark of 7.89, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Market10 Apr 2028
Martín González is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Boston River has been clear about where Martín González stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Daniel Da Silva kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout10 Apr 2028
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.