Marked for Thiago Charras
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market24 Dec 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.
Market24 Dec 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Barracas Central is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Manuel Duarte 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.
Squad24 Dec 2029
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Barracas Central the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Apr 2029
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Luca Fernández: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Manuel Duarte 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 ratings23 Apr 2029
A performance of 8.76 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Marked 8.37 — 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.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Defences have started doubling up on Kevin Jappert
5 goals and a season average of 7.34 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings23 Apr 2029
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Squad23 Apr 2029
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Juan Pablo Insúa knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Match21 Apr 2029
It needed Kevin Jappert to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Tigre, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 Jan 2029
Young Boys pay $1.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad22 Jan 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 Barracas Central this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Jan 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thiago Charras and Barracas Central agree another 4 years.
Market22 Jan 2029
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
Squad22 Jan 2029
A new face in his position, and Kevin Jappert suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Barracas Central have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Market22 Jan 2029
The Marcelo Miño story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcelo Miño signs something — a contract at Barracas Central or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.