“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alvarado can pretend not to have heard.
Cristian Gorgerino 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 Apr 2030
Words at Alvarado training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enzo Arancibia 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Gutiérrez signs something — a contract at Alvarado or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Alvarado, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Alvarado would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
0‑3 against Brown de Adrogué, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alvarado can pretend not to have heard.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Bednarek, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Alvarado training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Enzo Arancibia 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The offer from Albacete for Matías Pérez 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alvarado can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alvarado this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Rodrigo Fernández is on it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alvarado have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alvarado have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Cristian Gorgerino 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.
16 appearances and 5 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mateo Ostachi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.