Marked for Hugo Duque
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Jan 2029
Franco Luna 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 Mitre can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Mitre
Rodrigo González 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.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Facundo Wiechniak 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.
Market15 Jan 2029
A stepping stone, not a home, for Fachri Asnawi
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Mitre were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Market15 Jan 2029
He is 19, and nobody at Mitre signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad15 Jan 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Fachri Asnawi commits to Mitre for another 3 years.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
Enzo Avaro 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.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Papu
“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.
Market15 Jan 2029
The Enzo Avaro talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mitre know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market25 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mitre can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
Hugo Duque: 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.” Mitre have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
Market25 Sep 2028
Enzo Avaro wants European nights
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words exchanged at Mitre
Ignacio Pietrobono 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
A row about effort at Mitre
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Ferreyra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.60 on the card, and the Mitre support went home talking about one name.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
86% of the income goes out in wages at Mitre
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
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.” Hernán Ramos chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Sep 2028
Enzo Avaro 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 Mitre can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom18 Sep 2028
The numbers do not look good at Mitre
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Martín Rodríguez 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 dugout18 Sep 2028
The manager makes an example of Marcos Machado
“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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Too much change too quickly at Mitre
5 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.
Squad18 Sep 2028
A falling-out at Mitre
Hugo Duque and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market18 Sep 2028
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nahuel González has his answer from Mitre; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Benjamín Suárez will call it something else in private.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Pressure builds in the Mitre boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market4 Sep 2028
“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 Mitre, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mitre this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Mitre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Ferreyra 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.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Enzo Avaro runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match2 Sep 2028
Gimnasia y Esgrima left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nahuel Reyes, and the manager let it.
Market4 Sep 2028
“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.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Hernán Ramos to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Feb 2028
49 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Mitre lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Mitre
Ignacio Pietrobono 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Tiago Ferreyra 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.
Match12 Feb 2028
A bad afternoon for Mitre against Colón
1‑3 to Colón, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Favio Cabral, and the manager let it.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Nobody could get near Enzo Avaro
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Market14 Feb 2028
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
Wages swallow 85% of the Mitre 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Feb 2028
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mitre lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Feb 2028
Favio Cabral has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Mitre they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout7 Feb 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Mitre have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Feb 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ignacio Pietrobono and Mitre agree another 2 years.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words exchanged at Mitre
Ignacio Pietrobono 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.
Market7 Feb 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Graduation day at Mitre
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The numbers do not look good at Mitre
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Mitre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Ferreyra 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.