Marked for Pedro Ramallo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings24 Jul 2028
Andrés Romero goes up and wins it — 7.66
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.66 for the rest of it.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 6 gone
That is the business done at Albion until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Pedro Ramallo 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Sebastián Jaume and Albion agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Albion
Santiago Costa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A move Giovanni de Armas 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. Giovanni de Armas is living that version at Albion, and it tends to show in the first month.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Felipe Agosto has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Albion is pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jul 2028
148 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Uruguay Montevideo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match22 Jul 2028
16 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
The dugout24 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Tobías Correa has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Uruguay Montevideo is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Uruguay Montevideo close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 6 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Facundo Silvestre 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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cerro have kept their man, and Uruguay Montevideo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Uruguay Montevideo will try again when the window opens; Colon may not be selling by then.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Mar 2028
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Pedro Ramallo: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match15 Mar 2028
Albion march on in the cup
Uruguay Montevideo are out and Albion go through, 2‑2 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
Market20 Mar 2028
“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.
Match18 Mar 2028
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Albion scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
A defender's goal wins it for Albion — 7.38
1 for Federico Pérez, marked 7.38, 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.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
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. 17 actions, 6.81, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Market20 Mar 2028
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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match18 Mar 2028
Three points for Albion, 2‑1 the final word against Tacuarembo in a contest settled by the finer margins.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces7 Feb 2028
The mood at Albion 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Sergio Rossi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Emergency meeting at Albion
The whole football department in one room on a weekday morning. Nothing was announced afterwards, which is what a board announces when it has run out of patience.
Market7 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Parque del Plata waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Albion is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Ezequiel Franco 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. Ezequiel Franco has, at Albion, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Market7 Feb 2028
“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.
Transfer targets7 Feb 2028
No thanks: David Stabile rejects the move
Albion had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Liverpool Montevideo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Market7 Feb 2028
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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
It is over: Albion are relegated
The arithmetic ran out, and everybody could see it coming from a distance. The hard summer starts now, and next season's fixtures will be full of unfamiliar names.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Sergio Rossi has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Albion can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Crisis meeting at Albion
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.
Market3 Jan 2028
Pedro Ramallo 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Joaquín Medina gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Joaquín Medina has just signed for Albion, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad3 Jan 2028
19 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
The deal with Boston River 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A falling-out at Albion
Santiago Costa and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Sep 2027
Sebastián Jaume damages knee ligaments — 54 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Match6 Sep 2027
Every point is an argument now for Albion
Position 16 and 21 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Sergio Rossi has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Albion can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market6 Sep 2027
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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hernán Toledo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A falling-out at Albion
Diego Vicente and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Pedro Ramallo
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Pedro Ramallo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Albion have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Diego Vicente
“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 dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Andrés Romero'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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Sebastián Jaume
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces23 Aug 2027
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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match21 Aug 2027
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.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Costa, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
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.
Loan watch23 Aug 2027
“I did not go to Huracan del Paso to sit and watch. I want to come back to Albion and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 35 matches say the rest.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Marked 7.71 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Albion had the best player on the pitch.
Match21 Aug 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Words at Albion training over how hard people work
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Looking ahead
Santiago Costa faces his old club
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Tobías Figueroa damages knee ligaments — 59 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 59 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Hernán Toledo breaks a bone — 56 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Santiago Costa pops up at the right end — 7.99
7.99, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Albion may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market1 Mar 2027
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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Albion
Federico Puente and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match27 Feb 2027
Three points for Albion, 2‑1 the final word against Plaza Colonia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Agustín Pereira, and the manager let it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sergio Rossi, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tobías Figueroa damages knee ligaments — 128 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 128 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Hernán Toledo breaks a bone — 124 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 124 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 113% of everything Albion earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pedro Ramallo, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tobías Figueroa
135 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Albion lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 Dec 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Los Halcones waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Albion is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baltasar Barcia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francisco Ginella, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Hernán Toledo 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Another 0 days on the injury, and a return date that has now been moved more than once. The medical staff have stopped giving one.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Questions about Joaquín Varela on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Nov 2026
“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.
Market23 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Albion they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Albion
Federico Puente 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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Vera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Albion
Tomás Moschion and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Nicolás Márquez
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Albion will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Albion
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Baltasar Barcia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages swallow 119% of the Albion income
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Hernán Toledo slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Hernán Toledo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Andrés Romero gets picked when it counts
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 Andrés Romero is on it.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Pedro Ramallo. Albion will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market26 Oct 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Albion they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Francisco Ginella has agreed terms with Boston River for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastián Jaume is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Baltasar Barcia 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 dugout26 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Albion are still strangers to each other
14 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.