It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Salus this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Juan Martinez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bruno Varela 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gaston Bentancur has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.