Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Talleres will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.61 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Talleres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Talleres and Godoy Cruz, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad23 Aug 2038
Words at Talleres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pastor 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.
Marked 8.33 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Bruno Barticciotto and Talleres agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Talleres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomás Romero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Talleres the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Jul 2038
Words at Talleres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pastor 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 name of Valentín Giménez has come up in conversations Talleres were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Bruno Barticciotto 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Talleres is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
A performance of 8.10 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Words at Talleres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrés Arroyo 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.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Talleres lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Ignacio Alastra was at the centre of it, Defensa y Justicia were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ignacio Alastra provided it, and the 9.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Talleres they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Talleres have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Bruno Barticciotto 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.
It finished 4‑3, and it was Ignacio Alastra’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Talleres.
Player ratings12 Oct 2037
Lautaro Ortíz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.36. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
40 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Talleres lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ezequiel Bruno did not need any: 7.64, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Talleres is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Oscar Gonzalez 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 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oscar Gonzalez. 3‑2 against Deportivo Riestra, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Ignacio Alastra at his very best
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Oscar Gonzalez at his very best
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Talleres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom2 Feb 2037
11 academy players handed senior numbers at Talleres
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad2 Feb 2037
Words at Talleres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pastor 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tito 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.