A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Huracán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Huracán people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $198.9K of what Huracán paid for Nahuel Marzochi is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Benjamín García will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Braian Vidal has agreed terms with Barracas Central for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Franco Tato 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.
Squad28 Jul 2036
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Martínez 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Huracán go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huracán can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huracán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Enzo Guerrero 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.
Squad26 May 2036
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Óscar Cortés 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.
“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 Huracán know it.
Something was said to Radim Kaštyl and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
4 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huracán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Charlie Stevens has agreed terms with Sarmiento for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Enzo Guerrero 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 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.
Squad28 Apr 2036
Tobías Bacar 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Franco Tato 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Marked 8.11 — 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Huracán can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Yehider Ibargüen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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; Huracán are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Huracán, another week without a signature from Nicolás Vila.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huracán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Nov 2035
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mateo Martínez 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Huracán can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
6 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.
Nobody at Huracán 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Rocha will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Huracán can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Jonas Colaes obliged against UAI Urquiza. 4‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Huracán.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Huracán people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Two goals and a mark of 8.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Huracán, and it is not being withdrawn.
Huracán have gone to Racing Club 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Valencia is saying, and nobody at Huracán is enjoying the guessing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Huracán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huracán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
17 appearances at Excursionistas and the goals keep coming. Huracán are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad14 May 2035
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
“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 Huracán know it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Huracán, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Huracán 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Felipe De Luca will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Huracán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Rodrigo González 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.
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2035
Words at Huracán training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Guillermo Enrique 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.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad12 Mar 2035
9 new faces, and Huracán are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Huracán can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Huracán can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and San Martín waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Huracán is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
Huracán ran out of time with Defensores. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Huracán, another week without a signature from Juan Pablo Zozaya.
Gonzalo Requena 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Huracán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Huracán, another week without a signature from Santino Chavero.
“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 Huracán know it.
11 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Santino Chavero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.