1 for Axel Poza, marked 7.95, 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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Racing, and it is not being withdrawn.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Racing will try again when the window opens; Defensa y Justicia may not be selling by then.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Racing are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The offer went to Liniers 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.
Racing offered $26.0K; Defensa y Justicia 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.
This is not rotation. Santino Roldán has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Racing is pretending otherwise.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Valsangiácomo 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.
Lautaro Closter 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.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
Player ratings25 Jun 2029
Franco Vidal, 16, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 16-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Everything agreed with Los Andes, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Racing have gone to Defensa y Justicia 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.
$73.0K was the most the club would pay and Liniers were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
6 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Valsangiácomo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Racing have made the call to Argentinos Juniors. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Alexis Saavedra is in the works
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 Racing, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Valsangiácomo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout21 May 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Juan Carlos Rojas left the room before anybody could ask which.
0‑3 to Tristán Suárez, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Ignacio Valsangiácomo 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Racing, another week without a signature from Brian Olivera.
The dugout7 May 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑3 Juan Carlos Rojas left the room before anybody could ask which.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Valsangiácomo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lautaro Closter 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Diego Lopes is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Valsangiácomo 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Racing will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Racing are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Racing $110.0K. Abel Bustos left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
“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.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Ruan Yuanhong is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
0‑5 to All Boys, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
This is not rotation. Juan Lombardi has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Racing is pretending otherwise.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Valsangiácomo 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 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.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Racing are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diego Lopes trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing can pretend not to have heard.
Racing had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Aldosivi, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Belgrano have kept their man, and Racing go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Racing are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
Matías Melo is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Racing have done the hard part with Estudiantes, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Rosario Central is saying, and nobody at Racing is enjoying the guessing.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Valsangiácomo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bautista Lippi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Racing would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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.
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 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Racing know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Racing would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
In brief
SquadQuestions about Santino Roldán on the training pitch
“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 Racing, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Juninho 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
Lautaro Closter 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.
Something was said to Luís Assis and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Position 14 and 30 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Valsangiácomo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ruan Yuanhong's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lautaro Closter’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The terraces23 Oct 2028
Supporters make their feelings known about Matías Melo
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Racing would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Racing the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Position 14 and 30 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
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.
Lautaro Closter 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Racing are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
Squad6 new faces, and Racing are still learning each other
The dugoutBautista Lippi asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutRuan Yuanhong is still being punished for one mistake
“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 Racing, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
1‑3 to San Miguel, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Valsangiácomo 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.
Lautaro Closter 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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 Racing, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Valsangiácomo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Lautaro Closter 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.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Racing is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The terraces19 Jun 2028
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 25 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Matías Machado scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Patronato, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Valsangiácomo 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.
Racing asked and Platense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing can pretend not to have heard.
Add another name to the list: Villa Dálmine have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Abel Bustos. The answer from Racing has not changed — yet.
The deal with Estudiantes is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Racing told Axel Oyola something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Racing now.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Valsangiácomo 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas Flores will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Racing the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 1‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Racing training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luís Assis 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing can pretend not to have heard.
Abel Bustos 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.
Marked 8.03 — 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.
Minute 89, against Gimnasia y Tiro, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing 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 Racing this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Racing 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Racing, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces13 Mar 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Abel Bustos 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.
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.
“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 Racing, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Matías Machado’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Racing needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Abel Bustos 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Racing can tell you which week it ends in.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Racing know it.
The dugout14 Feb 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 Juan Carlos Rojas to a room that had heard them before.
“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.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
A first appearance Lautaro Closter will want to forget — 4.60
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 4.60, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing can pretend not to have heard.
Ignacio Valsangiácomo 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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Racing were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.