Marked for Jonathan Coates
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout23 Apr 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rentistas may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Words exchanged at Rentistas
Ignacio Tinelli 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.
Squad23 Apr 2035
Words at Rentistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fausto Rodón 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 dugout23 Apr 2035
Jesús Rossi 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.
Player ratings23 Apr 2035
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad23 Apr 2035
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad23 Apr 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan Coates and Rentistas agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings23 Apr 2035
A mark of 7.70, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout23 Apr 2035
The manager has not finished forgetting Jesús Rossi'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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Oct 2034
Fausto Rodón 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 Rentistas can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Oct 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rentistas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Words at Rentistas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fausto Rodón 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.
Squad30 Oct 2034
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Market30 Oct 2034
“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 dugout30 Oct 2034
Manuel Muzzio 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 Manuel Muzzio is on it.
The dugout30 Oct 2034
The manager makes an example of Jonathan Coates
“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.
The dugout30 Oct 2034
Jimmy Enríquez 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 Rentistas, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout30 Oct 2034
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Rentistas. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Aug 2034
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Juan Cruz Carranza: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Jairo O'Neill breaks a bone — 63 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match23 Aug 2034
Juventud ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Match26 Aug 2034
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Villa Teresa spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
The dugout28 Aug 2034
Jonathan Coates: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rentistas have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Aug 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rentistas is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Nicolás Mallet and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Aug 2034
A row about effort at Rentistas
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fausto Rodón was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market28 Aug 2034
No place for Fausto Rodón in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fausto Rodón has his answer from Rentistas; what he does with it is the next window’s story.