Marked for Renzo Barbieri
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Nov 2028
Sebastián Sosa damages knee ligaments — 125 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 125 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A fracture rules Joaquín Pereyra out for 61 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Juventud will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Juventud
Rodrigo Chagas 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.
Market20 Nov 2028
Axel Pérez wants European nights
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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Juventud
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and David Morosini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Julián Pou 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 dugout20 Nov 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Bruno Larregui is on it.
Market20 Nov 2028
The name of Bruno Larregui keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Juventud say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Juan Pedro Paiva asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Nov 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sebastián Sosa
132 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Nov 2028
70 days out for Joaquín Pereyra after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Juventud will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match6 Nov 2028
Juventud beaten on the continent
0‑1 against Palestino, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Market13 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juventud can pretend not to have heard.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Rodrigo Chagas 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.
Player ratings13 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Juventud training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Morosini 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 dugout13 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Nicolas Pereira to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Axel Pérez 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sebastián Sosa
161 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Juventud lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market16 Oct 2028
“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 Juventud, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Rodrigo Chagas 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.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Sebastián Sosa is on it.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Geiner Martínez 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.
Market16 Oct 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Juventud know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Juventud, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout16 Oct 2028
The manager plants his flag on Sebastián Sosa
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Sebastián Sosa’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Boardroom16 Oct 2028
Juventud keep producing them
29 graduates from an academy now rated 9 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Jan 2028
First, on 71 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juventud can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout31 Jan 2028
Bruno Larregui: 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.” Juventud have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Juventud
Rodrigo Chagas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market31 Jan 2028
Add another name to the list: Oliveirense have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Facundo Barceló. The answer from Juventud has not changed — yet.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Agustín Rodríguez 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Michael López for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Juventud will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout31 Jan 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.
Market31 Jan 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Juventud know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Juventud
Rodrigo Chagas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“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 dugout15 Nov 2027
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.