Marked for Ignacio Santos
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad21 Feb 2033
Francisco Ospina damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Squad21 Feb 2033
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.
Squad21 Feb 2033
Ismael Aguilera 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.
Squad21 Feb 2033
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Boardroom21 Feb 2033
Day 11 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
The terraces21 Feb 2033
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Boardroom21 Feb 2033
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
Player ratings21 Feb 2033
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom20 Dec 2032
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market20 Dec 2032
“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 targets20 Dec 2032
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Artigas keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Boardroom20 Dec 2032
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Fenix have kept their man, and Deportivo Italiano go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad20 Dec 2032
61 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Sebastian Pellistri 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 dugout20 Dec 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Ruiz, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2032
Deportivo Italiano have made the call to Rentistas. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market23 Feb 2032
Kevin Ferraz 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 Deportivo Italiano can pretend not to have heard.
Squad23 Feb 2032
There were 6 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.
Player ratings23 Feb 2032
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.96, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad23 Feb 2032
Lucas Cajes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings23 Feb 2032
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom23 Feb 2032
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Market23 Feb 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad23 Feb 2032
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ignacio Santos and Deportivo Italiano agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match21 Feb 2032
It needed Diego Rosa to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Basanez, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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Squad
Words at Deportivo Italiano training over how hard people work
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The dugout
Axel Arcos knocks on the manager's door