Marked for Daniel Alvarez
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Jul 2029
Only the photograph left for Luis Barbat
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luis Barbat will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Cerrito the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout16 Jul 2029
Daniel Alvarez: 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.” Cerrito have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom16 Jul 2029
Belts tighten at Cerrito
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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Cerrito
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Santiago Viera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A falling-out at Cerrito
Matías Soto and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match14 Jul 2029
A 2‑1 win over Artigas, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
Marked 8.69 — 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.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
A performance of 8.36 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Jul 2029
Rodrigo Viera has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Cerrito they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market2 Jul 2029
Cerrito say no — this time
The offer from Atenas for Jhovani Ocampos was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words exchanged at Cerrito
Tiago Simoni 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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matías Soto and Cerrito agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match30 Jun 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ignacio Yepez. 1‑0 against Tacuarembo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings2 Jul 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cerrito told Ignacio Yepez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
4 new boys at the Cerrito academy
Signed today, seen by nobody for years, and one of them may one day be the reason the club exists. That is the whole of the argument for an academy, and it is a good one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Jose Nunez has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market5 Feb 2029
“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 Cerrito, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
The Cerrito board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market5 Feb 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cerrito is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Tiago Simoni in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cerrito this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Feb 2029
A muscle injury sidelines Román Ugarriza for 18 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Cerrito will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
The manager's exit leaves Santiago Viera exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Santiago Viera is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Squad5 Feb 2029
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Daniel Alvarez has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
Luciano Batista 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom15 Jan 2029
Pressure builds in the Cerrito boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market15 Jan 2029
Owen Falconis 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 Cerrito can pretend not to have heard.
Market15 Jan 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Cerrito is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 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 Cerrito this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
The manager makes an example of Daniel Alvarez
“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 dugout15 Jan 2029
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.
Market15 Jan 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout15 Jan 2029
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cerrito, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market15 Jan 2029
Cerrito spent the window trying to move Daniel Susluaga on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cerrito can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout1 Jan 2029
news_b_frozen_out_of_the_side
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words exchanged at Cerrito
Owen Falconis 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Pablo Ramírez gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pablo Ramírez has just signed for Cerrito, and for once the answer mattered.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
Cerrito counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Cerrito now.
Squad1 Jan 2029
Words at Cerrito training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Viera 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.
Transfer targets1 Jan 2029
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.
Boardroom1 Jan 2029
Wages eat 95% of everything Cerrito 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.
Squad1 Jan 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Pablo Ramírez and Cerrito agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.