Marked for Rafa
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 Oct 2035
25 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Match20 Oct 2035
5 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.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Antonio Napolitano 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.
Match20 Oct 2035
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad22 Oct 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stanislav Stanek 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.
Match20 Oct 2035
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout22 Oct 2035
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout22 Oct 2035
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 Rolando Martínez is on it.
The dugout22 Oct 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Noah Correa, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Sep 2035
A knee injury of the worst kind for Gustavo Marino
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Agropecuario Argentino lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market17 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.
Match15 Sep 2035
10 matches without a win, and then this, against Quilmes. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Stanislav Stanek, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.92
A mark of 7.92 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Antonio Napolitano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces17 Sep 2035
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Match15 Sep 2035
A 1‑0 win over Quilmes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom17 Sep 2035
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout17 Sep 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 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Aug 2035
A 0‑5 beating by Villa San Carlos was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market6 Aug 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.
Squad6 Aug 2035
Antonio Napolitano 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.
Boardroom6 Aug 2035
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Match4 Aug 2035
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets6 Aug 2035
Agropecuario Argentino asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match31 Jul 2035
0‑1 to Defensores, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
Rafa did the work nobody counts — 6.67
11 combined actions and 6.67. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Jul 2035
There were 7 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.
Boardroom23 Jul 2035
Agropecuario Argentino close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 13 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Antonio Napolitano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Jul 2035
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Agropecuario Argentino can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Transfer targets23 Jul 2035
Agropecuario Argentino asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom23 Jul 2035
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Market23 Jul 2035
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout23 Jul 2035
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Interim Coach chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rafa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.