32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Nueva Chicago 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 The request is on a desk at Nueva Chicago, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luciano Jachfe 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.
A 2‑1 win over Central Norte, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Nueva Chicago training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Ruiz 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Valentín Quiroga could afford to be generous.
Nobody at Nueva Chicago 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.
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Nueva Chicago lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nueva Chicago this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Ruiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Nueva Chicago game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Tombense runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
Central Norte next, and one man in the Nueva Chicago dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Rodrigo Ramírez, marked 7.83, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Luciano Jachfe 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Ruiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Nueva Chicago people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Nueva Chicago can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nueva Chicago this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julián Ceballos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Tiziano Pasquarelli again, and this time the name on the line is Cerrito. Nueva Chicago are listening politely and promising nothing.
11 goals in 30 games at Marítimo de La Guaira — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Nueva Chicago updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nueva Chicago have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luciano Jachfe and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Nueva Chicago training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Julián Ceballos 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Nueva Chicago, and 6 appearances in 20 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sebastián Cocimano signs something — a contract at Nueva Chicago or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Nueva Chicago would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matías Romero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Nueva Chicago, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 14 gone
That is the business done at Nueva Chicago until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The offer from Bhayangkara Presisi for Lucas Bersce 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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Nueva Chicago this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nueva Chicago ran out of time with Colón. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Nueva Chicago training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Vera 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.
He is 20, and nobody at Nueva Chicago signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Leonel Ortíz’s exile