Marked for Facundo Morales
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings14 May 2029
Up for the corner, and Ionas González delivers — 7.86
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Ionas González scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Match12 May 2029
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Deportivo Italiano have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad14 May 2029
Renzo Fernández 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.
Player ratings14 May 2029
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Boardroom14 May 2029
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The terraces14 May 2029
He is 19 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.
Looking ahead14 May 2029
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Boardroom14 May 2029
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Italiano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Apr 2029
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro Cáceres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Elías Alderete named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Elías Alderete is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout2 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leandro Cáceres, and the manager let it.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Deportivo Italiano will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Up for the corner, and Julián Irazoque delivers — 7.93
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Julián Irazoque scored, was marked 7.93, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Renzo Fernández 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.
Match24 Mar 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yael Ramallo. 2‑0 against Cooper, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom26 Mar 2029
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Player ratings26 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
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.” Mathias Gimenez kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
The manager makes an example of Favio Brizuela
“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 dugout26 Mar 2029
Cristian Ramírez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Deportivo Italiano 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Julián Irazoque has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Renzo Fernández and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yael Ramallo, and the manager let it.
Match10 Mar 2029
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Sud America scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
A mark of 7.66, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Deportivo Italiano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elías Alderete 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.
Match10 Mar 2029
A 1‑1 draw with Sud America leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Tomás Suyo does not fit this one
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The caretaker keeps it: Mathias Gimenez confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Squad5 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Italiano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Mar 2029
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Squad5 Mar 2029
20 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ionas González, and the manager let it.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Renzo Fernández'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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Feb 2029
Yael Ramallo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match24 Feb 2029
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout26 Feb 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.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Mathias Gimenez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Deportivo Italiano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro Cáceres 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.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
Elías Alderete is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Player ratings26 Feb 2029
4.74. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Feb 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for Federico Gonzalez
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Italiano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Ionas González pops up at the right end — 7.55
7.55, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Renzo Fernández 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.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
9 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elías Alderete was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Yael Ramallo 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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad5 Feb 2029
50 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Leandro Cáceres 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 dugout5 Feb 2029
The manager's exit leaves Facundo Morales exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Facundo Morales is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Dec 2028
83 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Italiano lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
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.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
The deal with Huracan del Paso is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Renzo Fernández 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.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Market4 Dec 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Félix Triñanes has his answer from Deportivo Italiano; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
Deportivo Italiano have made the call to Deportivo Colonia. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gastón Centurión
147 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Italiano lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Renzo Fernández 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
272% of the income goes out in wages at Deportivo Italiano
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Deportivo Italiano are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
Facundo Morales without the man who signed him
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Facundo Morales was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout2 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Renzo Fernández 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.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Deportivo Italiano asked and Montevideo City Torque said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Naygers Flores 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Boardroom7 Aug 2028
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $9.3M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Squad7 Aug 2028
This league is too small for Santino Ayala
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Deportivo Italiano will not keep him by pretending otherwise.