Marked for David Ramirez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jan 2036
Agustín Curruhinca damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Words at Liniers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Quiroga 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 dugout28 Jan 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pablo Ferrari, and the manager let it.
Market28 Jan 2036
The Mateo Gridel talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Liniers know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
Marios Merkis gets picked when it counts
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 Marios Merkis is on it.
The dugout28 Jan 2036
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sebastian Romero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market28 Jan 2036
6 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what Liniers could get for him.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Squad28 Jan 2036
Questions about Diego Cubas 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.
In brief
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Match
Nothing left to play for but pride at Liniers
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The dugout
The manager comes out for David Ramirez
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Nov 2035
Agustín Curruhinca damages knee ligaments — 110 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 110 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.
Squad12 Nov 2035
A fracture rules Thiago De Bellis out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Liniers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings12 Nov 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.83, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match10 Nov 2035
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Match10 Nov 2035
Three points for Liniers, 3‑2 the final word against Real Pilar in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad12 Nov 2035
Words at Liniers training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hebert Vergara 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 terraces12 Nov 2035
Liniers supporters have found a favourite in Atte Taylor
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Atte Taylor has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad12 Nov 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Liniers this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Nov 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Sep 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match22 Sep 2035
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Boardroom24 Sep 2035
Pressure builds in the Liniers boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Defences have started doubling up on Hebert Vergara
21 goals and a season average of 7.22 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
“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.
Match22 Sep 2035
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Boardroom24 Sep 2035
Wages swallow 119% of the Liniers 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.
The dugout24 Sep 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Enderson Abreu, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Sep 2035
A fracture rules Thiago De Bellis out for 112 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Liniers will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad3 Sep 2035
There were 9 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.
Market3 Sep 2035
“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.
Match1 Sep 2035
The wait goes on for Liniers
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom3 Sep 2035
The owner puts $360.7K into Liniers
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Squad3 Sep 2035
José Vidal is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and José Vidal 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.
Squad3 Sep 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Liniers can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout3 Sep 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad27 Mar 2034
99 days out for Yuneiker Ríos after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Monagas will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market27 Mar 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Monagas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Words exchanged at Monagas
Diego Vargas 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.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Words at Monagas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Basante 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.
Market27 Mar 2034
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.
Squad27 Mar 2034
Too much change too quickly at Monagas
12 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.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2034
The leaders are next for Monagas
Caracas top the table and they are coming into view. Nothing to lose, which is what every manager says before losing.
The dugout27 Mar 2034
Uriel Irizar gets it from the manager
“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 dugout27 Mar 2034
The manager has not finished forgetting David Ramirez's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.