Marked for Patrick Thorsby
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Mar 2036
24 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
The manager makes an example of Patrick Thorsby
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market31 Mar 2036
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Mateo Gridel’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market31 Mar 2036
“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 dugout31 Mar 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 dugout31 Mar 2036
Isaías Sierra 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.
Squad31 Mar 2036
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Liniers will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout31 Mar 2036
The manager makes Sergiu Balasa a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Liniers. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market31 Mar 2036
4 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jan 2036
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Liniers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Jan 2036
A row about effort at Liniers
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hebert Vergara was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2036
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and Liniers go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Jan 2036
“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.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Liniers are still strangers to each other
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout21 Jan 2036
Pablo Ferrari knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Liniers, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market21 Jan 2036
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 dugout21 Jan 2036
Diego Cubas 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 dugout21 Jan 2036
Marcelo Livaja has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Liniers will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Dec 2035
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Liniers lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market24 Dec 2035
“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 Liniers, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Trezeguet El Shenawy has, at Liniers, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Hebert Vergara 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.
Transfer targets24 Dec 2035
Liniers asked and Godoy Cruz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market24 Dec 2035
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Transfer targets24 Dec 2035
America de Cali have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets24 Dec 2035
San Lorenzo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Market24 Dec 2035
He is 19, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Nov 2035
117 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Liniers lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad5 Nov 2035
A fracture rules Thiago De Bellis out for 49 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.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Liniers can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match3 Nov 2035
The wait goes on for Liniers
6 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.
Squad5 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.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
The owner puts $302.7K 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.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
Liniers cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Boardroom5 Nov 2035
Liniers are $26.0M in the red
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.
The dugout5 Nov 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
Crisis
Squad15 Oct 2035
Agustín Curruhinca damages knee ligaments — 138 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 138 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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
A fracture rules Thiago De Bellis out for 70 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.
Market15 Oct 2035
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Miguel Ángel Torres 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.
Market15 Oct 2035
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alejandro Ramírez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market15 Oct 2035
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Leonardo Pérez 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.
Market15 Oct 2035
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Felipe Moretti is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Too much change too quickly at Liniers
7 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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Moussa Djitté 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 dugout15 Oct 2035
“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.
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
Player ratings2 Jul 2035
Two goals and a mark of 8.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match30 Jun 2035
10 unbeaten for Liniers
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Liniers did not have in the autumn.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Liniers
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad2 Jul 2035
A season average of 7.20 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Boardroom2 Jul 2035
The owner puts $351.7K 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.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Newell's Old Boys have kept their man, and Liniers go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match30 Jun 2035
A 2‑0 win over Talleres, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout2 Jul 2035
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad2 Jul 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.65, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.91, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match28 Apr 2035
4 matches without a win for Liniers
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Liniers are no longer polite ones.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
“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.
Match24 Apr 2035
A goal on 92 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Match24 Apr 2035
It needed Tobías Donsanti to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Defensores, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad30 Apr 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.
Boardroom30 Apr 2035
Wages eat 93% of everything Liniers earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Gustavo Domínguez'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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Jan 2035
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Liniers lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Isaías Sierra breaks a bone — 107 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Liniers can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
The Liniers board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad8 Jan 2035
A move Patrick Thorsby would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Patrick Thorsby is living that version at Liniers, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad8 Jan 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Santiago Formichelli commits to Liniers for another 2 years.
Boardroom8 Jan 2035
The owner puts $526.9K 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.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Godoy Cruz have kept their man, and Liniers go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout8 Jan 2035
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Thiago De Bellis was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.