Marked for Valentín Dutruel
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Racing may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Sebastián Ochoa out for 25 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Racing
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ricardo Centurión was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Abel Bustos gets it from the manager
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
Matías Machado knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Racing, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
39 days out for Sebastián Ochoa after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Racing will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The Racing board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ricardo Centurión 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Racing
Abel Bustos 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 272% of everything Racing earn
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Gabriel Aranda
“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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Tomás Kummer
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tomás Kummer has come out of that comparison in the side, and Racing have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Market2 Nov 2026
Racing have made Abel Bustos available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.