Marked for Benjamín Pereyra
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Mar 2033
The mood at Quilmes has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad21 Mar 2033
A one-man rearguard from Gael Alonso
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match19 Mar 2033
0‑3 to Flandria, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market21 Mar 2033
“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 The request is on a desk at Quilmes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Mar 2033
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Squad21 Mar 2033
A row about effort at Quilmes
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benicio Di María was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad21 Mar 2033
23 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout21 Mar 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Benicio Di María, and the manager let it.
Boardroom21 Mar 2033
Doors closed at Quilmes
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces21 Feb 2033
Anger at Quilmes spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match19 Feb 2033
Beaten 0‑3 by Mitre, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad21 Feb 2033
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market21 Feb 2033
“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.
Squad21 Feb 2033
51 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout21 Feb 2033
“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.
Boardroom21 Feb 2033
Nobody left the Quilmes dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad21 Feb 2033
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout21 Feb 2033
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market15 Dec 2031
“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.
Transfer targets15 Dec 2031
The deal with Lanús is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets15 Dec 2031
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.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
This is not rotation. Benicio Ríos has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Quilmes is pretending otherwise.
The dugout15 Dec 2031
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Quilmes told Brian Micceli something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Market15 Dec 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Ledesma signs something — a contract at Quilmes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom27 Oct 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Quilmes
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market27 Oct 2031
“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 Quilmes, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout27 Oct 2031
This is not rotation. Bautista Ríos has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Quilmes is pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces6 Oct 2031
The mood at Quilmes has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Match6 Oct 2031
Quilmes are in real trouble now
Position 14, 9 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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
A knee injury of the worst kind for Benjamín Pereyra
19 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Quilmes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
This is not rotation. Brian Micceli has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Quilmes is pretending otherwise.
Market6 Oct 2031
“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 dugout6 Oct 2031
“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.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
Bruno Sánchez is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The dugout6 Oct 2031
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.
Market6 Oct 2031
The name of Agustín Bolívar keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Quilmes say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Sep 2031
Benjamín Pereyra damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Boardroom29 Sep 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Quilmes
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market29 Sep 2031
“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.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
This is not rotation. Bautista Ríos has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Quilmes is pretending otherwise.
The dugout29 Sep 2031
Valentín Rojas knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valentín Rojas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad29 Sep 2031
Questions about Emiliano Gutiérrez on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.