Marked for Facundo González
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match27 Apr 2030
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Agropecuario Argentino are no longer polite ones.
Market29 Apr 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 The request is on a desk at Agropecuario Argentino, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Agropecuario Argentino may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom29 Apr 2030
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Agropecuario Argentino now.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Napolitano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Gerónimo Cardozo 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 ratings29 Apr 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match27 Apr 2030
It needed Antonio Napolitano to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Estudiantes, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout29 Apr 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Hernán Arias was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Agropecuario Argentino dressing room was either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Apr 2030
Diego Vásquez 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Agropecuario Argentino is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Boardroom1 Apr 2030
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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Antonio Napolitano 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 dugout1 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Franco De Arrascaeta, and the manager let it.
Market1 Apr 2030
No place for Pablo Otero in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Pablo Otero has his answer from Agropecuario Argentino; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Looking ahead1 Apr 2030
Almirante Brown next, and one man in the Agropecuario Argentino dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Market1 Apr 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alejo Medina’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad1 Apr 2030
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Agropecuario Argentino would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Nov 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 Agropecuario Argentino, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Antonio Napolitano 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 dugout5 Nov 2029
Matías Molina 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 dugout5 Nov 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Revaz Shengelia, and the manager let it.
Market5 Nov 2029
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mirko Parassole signs something — a contract at Agropecuario Argentino or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Facundo González is put on a programme of his own
Individual work, away from the group, aimed at one specific thing the coaches think is holding him back. It rarely makes the news and it is how most improvement actually happens.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Feb 2029
103 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Agropecuario Argentino lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
Revaz Shengelia: 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.” Agropecuario Argentino have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Feb 2029
Antonio Napolitano 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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
5 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.
Market5 Feb 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Iván Benítez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market5 Feb 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Enano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market5 Feb 2029
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Facundo González has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market5 Feb 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ezequiel Sánchez has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The dugout5 Feb 2029
“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.