Marked for Camilo Cuello
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Jul 2031
The wait goes on for Progreso
12 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.
Market7 Jul 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Progreso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
The deal with River Plate 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.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Progreso asked and Penarol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jul 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Progreso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
“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.
Player ratings7 Jul 2031
Marked 8.58 — 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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Salvador Iribarne 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.
Match5 Jul 2031
Progreso rescue it on 91 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 91. Albion had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Jun 2031
8 matches without a win for Progreso
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Progreso are no longer polite ones.
Market9 Jun 2031
“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.
Squad9 Jun 2031
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
Everything agreed with Penarol, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad9 Jun 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Progreso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Jun 2031
Franco Ojeda gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Franco Ojeda has just signed for Progreso, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets9 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Danubio have kept their man, and Progreso go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match7 Jun 2031
Wanderers left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout9 Jun 2031
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 0‑2 Marcelo Rios left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Jun 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market2 Jun 2031
“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.
Match31 May 2031
No end in sight to Progreso's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Progreso has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad2 Jun 2031
Facundo de León 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.
Transfer targets2 Jun 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Penarol have kept their man, and Progreso go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match31 May 2031
Juventud left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad2 Jun 2031
A row about effort at Progreso
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Salvador Iribarne was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad2 Jun 2031
A month that belonged to Franco Rios
The young player of the month award goes to a 19-year-old at Progreso who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
The dugout2 Jun 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 May 2031
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings12 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market12 May 2031
“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.
Squad12 May 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Progreso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 May 2031
The goals have deserted Progreso
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Progreso can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad12 May 2031
Salvador Iribarne 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 dugout12 May 2031
The manager makes an example of Tomás Leuzzi
“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 dugout12 May 2031
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout12 May 2031
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.” Marcelo Rios chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 May 2031
There were 21 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match3 May 2031
0‑4 to Defensor Sporting, 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.
Market5 May 2031
“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 Progreso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings5 May 2031
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad5 May 2031
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Progreso this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 May 2031
Franco Rios is the month’s best young player
At 19 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Progreso will try not to make too much of it.
The dugout5 May 2031
“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.
Boardroom5 May 2031
Nobody left the Progreso dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout5 May 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Apr 2031
Nowhere to hide for Progreso
0‑3 against Nacional, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market28 Apr 2031
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Progreso can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings28 Apr 2031
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Apr 2031
Words exchanged at Progreso
Facundo de León 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 dugout28 Apr 2031
The manager makes an example of Tomás Pastorino
“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.
Market28 Apr 2031
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Camilo Cuello has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Progreso.
Boardroom28 Apr 2031
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout28 Apr 2031
Somebody else is better right now than Andrés Mehring
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Apr 2031
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 13 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match5 Apr 2031
A 3-goal lead gone for Progreso
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Racing kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Progreso will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
Two goals and a mark of 8.85 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Alejo Mainero 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.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
Nicolás Fernández was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.16. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad7 Apr 2031
A month that belonged to Franco Rios
The young player of the month award goes to a 18-year-old at Progreso who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad7 Apr 2031
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Andrés Mehring has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Match5 Apr 2031
It finished 3‑3, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings7 Apr 2031
The one goal a footballer does not get to celebrate and does not get to forget either. His name is in the wrong column and nothing about it was meant.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Mar 2031
There were 11 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match8 Mar 2031
The wait goes on for Progreso
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.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Facundo de León 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.
Match8 Mar 2031
Progreso are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad10 Mar 2031
Marcos Curado 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.
Player ratings10 Mar 2031
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
The dugout10 Mar 2031
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Camilo Cuello, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Mar 2031
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Franco Rios and Progreso agree another 3 years.
Match8 Mar 2031
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Jan 2031
58 days out for Matías Barcia after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Progreso will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market13 Jan 2031
“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 Progreso, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market13 Jan 2031
Only the photograph left for Iván Rojas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Iván Rojas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Progreso the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Facundo de León 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.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
Progreso ran out of time with River Plate. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Words at Progreso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcos Curado 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.
Transfer targets13 Jan 2031
Progreso asked and Deportivo Maldonado said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad13 Jan 2031
Too much change too quickly at Progreso
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market13 Jan 2031
He is 18, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Dec 2030
A fracture rules Matías Barcia out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Progreso will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market30 Dec 2030
River Plate come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Progreso did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market30 Dec 2030
Elkín Morales 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 Progreso can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets30 Dec 2030
The deal with Penarol 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.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Camilo Cuello arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Camilo Cuello has, at Progreso, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market30 Dec 2030
Mateo Marrero has left for La Luz in a $76.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Transfer targets30 Dec 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olimpia have kept their man, and Progreso go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad30 Dec 2030
A falling-out at Progreso
Iván Rojas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Dec 2030
Words at Progreso training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elkín Morales 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces3 Jun 2030
Supporters organise against the Albion 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.
Match1 Jun 2030
6 matches without a win for Albion
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Albion are no longer polite ones.
Market3 Jun 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.
Match1 Jun 2030
Albion are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Words exchanged at Albion
Hernán Toledo 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.
Match1 Jun 2030
The goals have deserted Albion
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Albion can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad3 Jun 2030
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Batista was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets3 Jun 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lanús have kept their man, and Albion go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match1 Jun 2030
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 May 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market6 May 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.
Squad6 May 2030
Words exchanged at Albion
Hernán Toledo 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.
Match4 May 2030
A bad afternoon for Albion against Juventud
1‑3 to Juventud, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad6 May 2030
Luciano Batista 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 dugout6 May 2030
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 Ignacio Jimenez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad6 May 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Albion can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Player ratings6 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout6 May 2030
The manager makes an example of Alexis González
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Mar 2030
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market25 Mar 2030
Camilo Cuello 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 Albion can pretend not to have heard.
Match23 Mar 2030
No end in sight to Albion's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Albion has to find a result from somewhere.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
Ramiro Bertalmio: 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.” Albion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad25 Mar 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Mar 2030
The goals have deserted Albion
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Albion can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad25 Mar 2030
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Batista was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces25 Mar 2030
He is 23 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.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomás Moschion, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match23 Feb 2030
Luciano Batista wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Luciano Batista found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Cerro went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
Lucas Rodríguez, 33, rolls back the years — 8.06
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.06 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market25 Feb 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match23 Feb 2030
Three points for Albion, 2‑1 the final word against Cerro in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces25 Feb 2030
He is 23 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.
Player ratings25 Feb 2030
Luciano Batista was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.17. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad25 Feb 2030
7 new faces, and Albion 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
“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; Albion are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Feb 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 Albion, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Words exchanged at Albion
Hernán Toledo 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 dugout4 Feb 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alonso Herrera, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Feb 2030
Albion will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
Market4 Feb 2030
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Albion know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad4 Feb 2030
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
Market4 Feb 2030
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Albion, another week without a signature from Juan Alonso.
The dugout4 Feb 2030
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 dugout4 Feb 2030
Camilo Cuello 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
Market28 Jan 2030
Camilo Cuello 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 Albion can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
“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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
A falling-out at Albion
Hernán Toledo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom10 Dec 2029
Albion are going up
Promotion, confirmed and mathematical, and a town that will not sleep much tonight. Whatever else this season had in it, it ends a division higher than it began.
Market10 Dec 2029
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Albion have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market10 Dec 2029
Camilo Cuello 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 Albion can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets10 Dec 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Albion have done the hard part with Nacional, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Albion
André 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.
Transfer targets10 Dec 2029
Albion have gone to Tacuarembo 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.
Transfer targets10 Dec 2029
Albion 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.
Squad10 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Dec 2029
A stepping stone, not a home, for Lautaro Bilbao
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Albion were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout5 Nov 2029
Gonzalo Egido: 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.” Albion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Nov 2029
André 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 Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Nov 2029
“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; Albion are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Alexis González 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 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Abhishek Deo has moved up it.
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 Albion, another week without a signature from Elías Ortíz.
The dugout5 Nov 2029
Camilo Cuello 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.
Market5 Nov 2029
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Mathias Rossi leaves Albion the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on André
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Boardroom
Albion board back the manager
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Oct 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Albion this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Oct 2029
Albion release $2.7M for the manager
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
Market8 Oct 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 dugout8 Oct 2029
The manager makes an example of Facundo Moreira
“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 dugout8 Oct 2029
Pablo Viudez knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Albion, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout8 Oct 2029
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Albion. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Sep 2029
Santiago Pellistri damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Match24 Sep 2029
Albion refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 53 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
Franko Siegler: 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.” Albion have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words exchanged at Albion
Santiago Costa 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 dugout24 Sep 2029
Lucas Rodríguez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Albion 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 dugout24 Sep 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.
Market24 Sep 2029
The clock does Juan Manuel López’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Albion could ask drops and the wages Juan Manuel López can ask rise.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexis González trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market24 Sep 2029
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Matteo Correia leaves Albion the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad17 Sep 2029
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Albion lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market17 Sep 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Albion is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Tempers go at Albion
André 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.
Market17 Sep 2029
Bruno Barja runs his contract down
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Albion money.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Albion will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
The manager makes Gonzalo Egido a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Albion. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
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The dugout
Camilo Cuello knocks on the manager's door
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Squad
The penny has dropped for André
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The dugout
André keeps his manager's vote