Marked for Caco
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Jan 2045
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Sergio Suárez and Gimnasia y Esgrima agree another 3 years.
Squad23 Jan 2045
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.
Squad23 Jan 2045
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Carlos Pérez, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Dec 2044
A fracture rules Facundo Arce out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnasia y Esgrima will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad26 Dec 2044
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.
Market26 Dec 2044
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gimnasia y Esgrima know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
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Squad
Caco asks for a word with the manager
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Squad
The manager comes out for Andrés Varela
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Dec 2044
A fracture rules Facundo Arce out for 37 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnasia y Esgrima will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market19 Dec 2044
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Esgrima can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Dec 2044
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Caco 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
Uneasy
Match7 Nov 2044
Position 16, 32 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market7 Nov 2044
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Esgrima can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Nov 2044
Caco: 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.” Gimnasia y Esgrima have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Nov 2044
Francisco Arias 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.
Squad7 Nov 2044
Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima 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.
Boardroom7 Nov 2044
Commercial news is the news nobody sings about and everything else is paid for with. The board will call it a partnership; the accountants will call it the difference between this squad and a smaller one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Sep 2044
Federico Bianchi damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Match12 Sep 2044
Position 16, 31 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market12 Sep 2044
“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.
Match10 Sep 2044
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Gimnasia y Esgrima are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings12 Sep 2044
A mark of 7.29, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match10 Sep 2044
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad12 Sep 2044
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad12 Sep 2044
Caco gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad12 Sep 2044
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings6 Jun 2044
Facundo Arce goes up and wins it — 7.85
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 7.85 for the rest of it.
Squad6 Jun 2044
Gustavo Moreno: 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.” Gimnasia y Esgrima have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Jun 2044
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Francisco Arias and Gimnasia y Esgrima agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Jun 2044
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Arias 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.
Squad6 Jun 2044
“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.
Match4 Jun 2044
It needed Benicio Torres to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Talleres, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.