Marked for Francisco Vidal
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Jul 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Instituto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market22 Jul 2030
The bid was some way short and Instituto did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom22 Jul 2030
Window shuts: 4 in, 4 out at Instituto
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market22 Jul 2030
So close: Diego Córdoba’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Talleres moved on, Diego Córdoba reports back to Instituto, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Alex Luna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jul 2030
Hernán de la Fuente 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.
Transfer targets22 Jul 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Match20 Jul 2030
A 2‑1 win over Platense, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 May 2030
Alex Luna 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.
Market20 May 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Instituto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad20 May 2030
Hernán de la Fuente 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.
The dugout20 May 2030
“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 dugout20 May 2030
“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.
Market20 May 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Matías Giménez Rojas’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout20 May 2030
Mamadou Baldé has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Instituto 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.
The dugout20 May 2030
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 Santiago Abayay has written the date down.
Market20 May 2030
The clock does Matías Unyicio’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Instituto could ask drops and the wages Matías Unyicio can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Apr 2030
Words exchanged at Instituto
Alex Luna 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.
Squad15 Apr 2030
A row about effort at Instituto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hernán de la Fuente was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad15 Apr 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Francisco Ortíz commits to Instituto for another 3 years.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
“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.
Market15 Apr 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alex Luna’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market15 Apr 2030
4 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Instituto could get for him.
Market15 Apr 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Instituto, another week without a signature from Onel Hernández.
Squad15 Apr 2030
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
The dugout15 Apr 2030
Jenluis Pérez 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Apr 2030
“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.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
Francisco Vidal: 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.” Instituto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Alex Luna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings8 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Hernán de la Fuente 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.
Match6 Apr 2030
It finished 2‑1, and it was Jonathan Dellarossa’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Instituto.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matías Giménez Rojas, and the manager let it.
The terraces8 Apr 2030
At 23 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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Instituto can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Feb 2030
12 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match16 Feb 2030
0‑3 to Estudiantes, 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Diego Córdoba breaks a bone — 44 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 44 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market18 Feb 2030
Maiker Rivas hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Instituto can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings18 Feb 2030
Alex Luna beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words exchanged at Instituto
Alex Luna 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.
Squad18 Feb 2030
“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 Instituto know it.
The dugout18 Feb 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yutiel Susano, and the manager let it.
Market18 Feb 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Francisco Vidal has his answer from Instituto; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces28 Jan 2030
Supporters organise against the Instituto board
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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
A fracture rules Diego Córdoba out for 69 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Instituto will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Jan 2030
Juan Villordo hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Instituto can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words exchanged at Instituto
Alex Luna 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.
Market28 Jan 2030
Only the photograph left for Matías Ríos
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matías Ríos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Instituto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Instituto are still strangers to each other
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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Instituto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maiker Rivas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
“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 dugout28 Jan 2030
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 Francisco Vidal has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Dec 2029
118 days out for Diego Córdoba after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Instituto will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Dec 2029
“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 Instituto, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Instituto may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Alex Luna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A move Fabián Chazarreta would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Fabián Chazarreta is living that version at Instituto, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market17 Dec 2029
Fernando Alarcón has left for Estudiantes in a $31.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets17 Dec 2029
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad17 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Instituto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yutiel Susano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets17 Dec 2029
A loan enquiry to Atletico Nacional: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom26 Nov 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Instituto
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Instituto is running low.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Alex Luna 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.
Market26 Nov 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Instituto is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Sosa 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.
Squad26 Nov 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego Córdoba and Instituto agree another 1 years.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
The manager makes an example of Diego Sosa
“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.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
Juan Villordo 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.
Market26 Nov 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Francisco Vidal may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Francisco Vidal: 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.” Instituto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Market19 Nov 2029
“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 Instituto, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Alex Luna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hernán de la Fuente 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 dugout19 Nov 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcos Fernández, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Nov 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Instituto can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Nov 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mauro Muhlethaler will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Instituto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Alex Luna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Nov 2029
A row about effort at Instituto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hernán de la Fuente was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
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.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
Francisco Vidal 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.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
The manager makes Diego Córdoba a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Instituto. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market12 Nov 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Matías Ríos may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces5 Nov 2029
The mood at Instituto 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.
Market5 Nov 2029
“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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words exchanged at Instituto
Alex Luna 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Sosa 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.
Market5 Nov 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Instituto, another week without a signature from Juan Ignacio Méndez.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
“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.
Market5 Nov 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alex Luna’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad5 Nov 2029
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Instituto
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market29 Oct 2029
“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 Instituto, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Nazareno Fazzi: 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.” Instituto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match27 Oct 2029
The wait goes on for Instituto
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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Alex Luna 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.
Market29 Oct 2029
Only the photograph left for Hoover Crespo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hoover Crespo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Instituto the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Hernán de la Fuente 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.
Match27 Oct 2029
1‑3 to San Lorenzo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad29 Oct 2029
12 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Jul 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Galván and Instituto agree another 2 years.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Alex Luna 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Instituto
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hernán de la Fuente was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Instituto asked and Godoy Cruz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom9 Jul 2029
Still no name above the door at Instituto
Day 8 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Boardroom9 Jul 2029
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Bruno Solotar has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Instituto have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Market9 Jul 2029
“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.
The dugout9 Jul 2029
A fresh start for Alex Luna under the new man
Nothing resets a career like somebody arriving who did not pick the side last season. Alex Luna has taken the hint, and Instituto are getting a version of him the previous regime had stopped seeing.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Instituto have made the call to Alianza Lima. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match25 Nov 2028
No end in sight to Stoke City's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stoke City has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Josh Acheampong 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.
Match25 Nov 2028
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Stoke City training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sorba Thomas 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.
Loan watch27 Nov 2028
“I did not go to Huddersfield Town to sit and watch. I want to come back to Stoke City and fight for my place.” 6 appearances in 22 matches say the rest.
Squad27 Nov 2028
“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; Stoke City are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Steven Evans chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
The chances came and went for Róbert Boženík
12 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Market27 Nov 2028
The Jack McGlynn talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Stoke City know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
Still nobody in the Stoke City dugout
40 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Match23 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Stoke City's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stoke City has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Josh Acheampong and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
“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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Sorba Thomas 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.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
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 1‑3 Steven Evans left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“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 Stoke City know it.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.