Position 7 on 38 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 2 de Mayo can pretend not to have heard.
Román Fernández 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Vargas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 dugout23 Apr 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Antonio Almiron was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the 2 de Mayo dressing room was either.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jeremy Flor’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and 2 de Mayo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Marked 5.35. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
107 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. 2 de Mayo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at 2 de Mayo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“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 The request is on a desk at 2 de Mayo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Jeremy Flor 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 Alexis Vargas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Alexis Vargas was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
In brief
The dugoutJeremy Flor knocks on the manager's door
The words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 2 de Mayo can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Cerro Porteno 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rubio Nu have kept their man, and 2 de Mayo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Alexis Vargas is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at 2 de Mayo training over how hard people work
The deal with Olimpia 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Juan Flores 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.
2 de Mayo asked and Guarani said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
$82.0K on the table at Guairena. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Jeremy Flor 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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fernando Cáceres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around 2 de Mayo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Jeremy Flor 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 2 de Mayo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Blas Medina
The mood at 2 de Mayo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Jeremy Flor 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Kilian Patrick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at 2 de Mayo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at 2 de Mayo the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jeremy Flor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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 Ricardo Quiñónez is on it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at 2 de Mayo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at 2 de Mayo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeremy Flor 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 2 de Mayo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at 2 de Mayo, another week without a signature from Jeremy Flor.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jeremy Flor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 2 de Mayo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at 2 de Mayo 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.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 1 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at 2 de Mayo argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kilian Patrick was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Hernán Domínguez may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what 2 de Mayo can pretend not to have heard.
Jeremy Flor 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 Jeremy Flor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
23 matches without a win, and then this, against Deportivo Santani. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Andrés Molinas was at the centre of it, Deportivo Santani were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Andrés Molinas. 3‑2 against Deportivo Santani, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeremy Flor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 6.90, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Angelo Gironda has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.