Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Nacional they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Nacional that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Thomás Gutiérrez plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Nacional is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Nacional, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Nacional has been clear about where Matías Almeida stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nacional have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The name of Alexis Cañete has come up in conversations Nacional were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Nacional have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.