Marked for Ignacio Gentile
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Dec 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Universidad de Chile can pretend not to have heard.
Market1 Dec 2031
Lucas Beltrán has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Universidad de Chile they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Ezequiel Centurión and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Dec 2031
Nahuel Flamenco 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 dugout1 Dec 2031
“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.
Market1 Dec 2031
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Universidad de Chile, another week without a signature from Gabriel Vasconcelos.
The dugout1 Dec 2031
Kauê Rodrigues has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Universidad de Chile 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.
Squad1 Dec 2031
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Squad1 Dec 2031
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Nov 2031
Lucas Beltrán has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Universidad de Chile they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market3 Nov 2031
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.
Squad3 Nov 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universidad de Chile this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Everybody at Universidad de Chile saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad3 Nov 2031
Words at Universidad de Chile training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Flamenco 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 dugout3 Nov 2031
The manager makes an example of Lautaro Pastrán
“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 dugout3 Nov 2031
Kauê Rodrigues has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Universidad de Chile 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.
The dugout3 Nov 2031
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Universidad de Chile, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Sep 2031
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.
Market1 Sep 2031
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Universidad de Chile they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market1 Sep 2031
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.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Lautaro Pastrán and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Loan watch1 Sep 2031
“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 Universidad de Chile, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout1 Sep 2031
“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.
Squad1 Sep 2031
Words at Universidad de Chile training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vitinho 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 ratings1 Sep 2031
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Aug 2031
Enzo Avaro 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 Deportes Limache can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings25 Aug 2031
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.34, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad25 Aug 2031
6 saves: Marko Brey was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market25 Aug 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignacio Gentile will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Limache the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Bastián Silva and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Aug 2031
Words at Deportes Limache training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Augusto Aguirre 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.
Squad25 Aug 2031
50 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Jul 2031
“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 Deportes Limache, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings28 Jul 2031
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market28 Jul 2031
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignacio Gentile will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Deportes Limache the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Bastián Silva and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market28 Jul 2031
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportes Limache can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad28 Jul 2031
Augusto Aguirre 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.
Market28 Jul 2031
Add another name to the list: Iquique have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Juan Isla. The answer from Deportes Limache has not changed — yet.
Player ratings28 Jul 2031
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market7 Jul 2031
“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 Deportes Limache, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match5 Jul 2031
8 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.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
“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.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ignacio Gentile has agreed terms with Universidad de Chile for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Bastián Silva 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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Augusto Aguirre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match5 Jul 2031
0‑1 to Palestino, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Cardona, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jul 2031
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market7 Jul 2031
The offer from Colo-Colo for Bautista González 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.
Market7 Jul 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market7 Jul 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Universidad de Chile is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
Tomás Leyton: 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.” Universidad de Chile have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market7 Jul 2031
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad7 Jul 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Universidad de Chile this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match5 Jul 2031
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Universidad de Chile did not have in the autumn.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
Deportes Limache will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Ignacio Gentile has pre-agreed a move to Universidad de Chile, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Jun 2031
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportes Limache people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market30 Jun 2031
Enzo Avaro 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 Deportes Limache can pretend not to have heard.
Match28 Jun 2031
No end in sight to Deportes Limache's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Deportes Limache has to find a result from somewhere.
Market30 Jun 2031
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportes Limache is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market30 Jun 2031
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Celías Ingenthron wants continental football; whether Deportes Limache can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad30 Jun 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportes Limache this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Deportes Limache offered $44.0K; Deportes Santa Cruz said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Augusto Aguirre 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.
Transfer targets30 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Audax Italiano have kept their man, and Deportes Limache go back to a list with one name crossed off it.