“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Montevideo City Torque have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
David Terans 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ignacio Molina is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad31 May 2027
Pablo Siles 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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“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 The request is on a desk at Colon, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Los Halcones waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colon is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He is going to River Plate, the club has $500.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Miramar Misiones keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Montevideo City Torque pay $230.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Chopitea was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Nahuel Leivas is in the works
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Renzo Lescano
“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 Montevideo City Torque, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and La Luz waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Montevideo City Torque is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer went to Danubio this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The offer from Albion for José Tarán 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.
$810.0K on the table at Juventud. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $55.0K — a club that wants Facundo Balatti enough to be asked twice.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Leison Cuero has, at Montevideo City Torque, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Everything agreed with Miramar Misiones, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Leandro Méndez 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 had been thinking. Agustín Chopitea 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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mar de Fondo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Montevideo City Torque is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Bella Vista for Nahuel Leivas 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.
“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 Montevideo City Torque, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Montevideo City Torque will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Montevideo City Torque have gone to Colon with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Diogo Guzmán 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.
$49.0K on the table at Danubio. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Montevideo City Torque offered $48.0K; Nacional 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.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colon lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Leandro Méndez 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.
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.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Colon. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colon, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Leandro Méndez 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 had been thinking. Agustín Chopitea 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.
Leandro Méndez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Chopitea 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.
Nobody at Colon 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.
Leandro Méndez 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.
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.
Everybody at Colon saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 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.
Leandro Méndez 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 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.
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 Lucas Espinosa is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Tomás Lerman has written the date down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colon this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos Garcia has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Chopitea 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.
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 Agustín de Armas is on it.
In brief
The dugoutLeison Cuero knocks on the manager's door
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Bautista Cabrera has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Leandro Méndez 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 had been thinking. Agustín de Armas 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.
Nobody at Colon 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.