24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sol de America lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Sol de America is running low.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Patiño was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aquilino Giménez 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sol de America lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sol de America have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oscar Coronel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sol de America, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Sol de America is running low.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sol de America this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Sol de America will try again when the window opens; Sportivo Trinidense may not be selling by then.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Sol de America training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Coronel 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 makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Sol de America will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Franco Ortellado has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Julián Benítez was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sol de America will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sol de America lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Sol de America, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Patiño was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and Sol de America go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Alan Pereira 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.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Words at Sol de America training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Patiño 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 manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.