Marked for Daniel Delgado
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at Central Norte, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Central Norte now.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words at Central Norte training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Villarreal 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.
Boardroom30 Sep 2030
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mauricio Rosales trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market30 Sep 2030
The name of Juan Carabajal keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Central Norte say nothing, which says plenty.
Market30 Sep 2030
Central Norte have made Jonás Zerda available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market30 Sep 2030
Atta Kusi runs his contract down
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Central Norte money.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Franco Vedoya makes the division’s eleven — 7.20
Marked 7.20, and picked in the team of the week for it. He was the best player on that pitch and the selectors saw the same match everybody else did.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings9 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 36. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market9 Sep 2030
Jonás Zerda 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 Central Norte can pretend not to have heard.
Match7 Sep 2030
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.
Squad9 Sep 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matías Villarreal and Central Norte agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Matías Villarreal 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.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Gabriel Vega and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Sep 2030
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.” Franco Vidal chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout9 Sep 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Delgado, and the manager let it.
Match7 Sep 2030
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Deportivo Riestra defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Jul 2030
56 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Central Norte lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market8 Jul 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Central Norte can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom8 Jul 2030
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Transfer targets8 Jul 2030
Everything agreed with Central Córdoba SdE, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Match6 Jul 2030
No end in sight to Central Norte's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Central Norte has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets8 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.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Hernández Leal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings8 Jul 2030
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match6 Jul 2030
Late, late show earns Central Norte a point
Minute 93, against Defensores Unidos, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market13 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.
Boardroom13 May 2030
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Central Norte now.
Player ratings13 May 2030
Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match11 May 2030
No end in sight to Central Norte's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Central Norte has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 May 2030
Matías Villarreal 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.
Match11 May 2030
0‑1 to Deportivo Riestra, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad13 May 2030
Fabricio Hass 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 dugout13 May 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout13 May 2030
The manager makes an example of Fabricio Hass
“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
Market29 Oct 2029
Jonás Zerda 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 Central Norte can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Market29 Oct 2029
Only the photograph left for Juan Carabajal
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Carabajal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Central Norte the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Gastón Martínez 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.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín Hernández Leal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market29 Oct 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Franco Vedoya’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Fabricio Hass 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 Fabricio Hass is on it.
The dugout29 Oct 2029
Alejo Soni 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.
Market29 Oct 2029
The shop window has Mateo Fofre in it
Central Norte have let the market know Mateo Fofre can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Jan 2029
39 days out for Mauricio Rosales after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Central Norte will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market8 Jan 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.
Market8 Jan 2029
Only the photograph left for Leandro Vilte
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leandro Vilte will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Central Norte the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Central Norte have done the hard part with Atlético Tucumán, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Enzo Abondetto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 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 Central Norte this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Jan 2029
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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Daniil Zhukovskiy commits to Central Norte for another 3 years.
The dugout8 Jan 2029
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 Enzo Abondetto is on it.