Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” All Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Everybody at All Boys saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
He is 22 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at All Boys has been clear about where Valentín Vega stands, which is more than many ever get.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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.
The dugout7 Apr 2036
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.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout24 Mar 2036
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Miguel Ángel Álvarez to a room that had heard them before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“Nobody outside is coming to save us.” It was short, it was not comfortable, and by all accounts the All Boys squad were quieter afterwards than they had been all season.
103 graduates, from a department now rated 4 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 98th minute. Almagro will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.38 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
1 for Martín Romano, marked 7.38, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Noah Figueroa has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Daniel Romano
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pablo Bruno did not need any: 8.23, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tiago Batista. 2‑1 against Ferro Carril Oeste, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Tiago Batista in the middle of it, and Ferro Carril Oeste unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Franco Lombardi commits to All Boys for another 3 years.
The dugout10 Mar 2036
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.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at All Boys has been clear about where Miguel Ángel Godoy stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jorge Correa
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; All Boys are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Colegiales left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout3 Mar 2036
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Miguel Ángel Álvarez to a room that had heard them before.
Squad3 Mar 2036
A place in the month's best eleven for Alejo Tabares
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Alejo Tabares has come out of that comparison in the side, and All Boys have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Maipú held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. All Boys answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
There was one mistake and it ended in the net. Defenders are judged on the worst thing they did rather than on the eighty-nine minutes either side of it, which is unfair and is also the job.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Successful dribbles: 13. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout25 Feb 2036
The manager has not finished forgetting Jorge Méndez'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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings18 Feb 2036
A brace, and Tiago Batista takes the afternoon — 8.14
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tiago Batista provided it, and the 8.14 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings18 Feb 2036
Pablo Bruno, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
4 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” All Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Everybody at All Boys saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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 Ahmed Al-Rashidi is on it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Estudiantes is saying, and nobody at All Boys is enjoying the guessing.
$260.0K was the most the club would pay and Boca Juniors were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Valentín Benítez 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alejandro Silva 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Juan Pablo Ferrari 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Miguel Giménez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at All Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Martín Romano
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. All Boys will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Facundo Méndez reports back to All Boys with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. All Boys have done the hard part with Tristán Suárez, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
All Boys have gone to Boca Juniors with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
All Boys asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Emiliano Méndez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Miguel Varela 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jabalí 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.
All Boys ran out of time with Lanús. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around All Boys they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and All Boys know it.
All Boys asked and Independiente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. All Boys will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
All Boys and Platense have settled on $190.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Everything agreed with Sarmiento, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
All Boys have gone to Argentinos Juniors with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and All Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Miguel Ángel Godoy may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Position 2, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. All Boys have lost him in all but the paperwork.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and All Boys have had the benefit of it.
Lanús have accepted the money. What All Boys do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia La Plata have kept their man, and All Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
All Boys did not want this conversation and are having it anyway. A manager wanted elsewhere is a manager whose next contract talk just became more expensive.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Newell's Old Boys have kept their man, and All Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
All Boys have made the call to Barracas Central. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
A loan enquiry to Argentinos Juniors: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Apa signs something — a contract at All Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
At 21 nothing has moved for months. Not backwards, which would at least be a conversation — simply nowhere, and somebody at the club has to decide whose fault that is.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and All Boys know it.
Everybody at All Boys saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Apa signs something — a contract at All Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Correa trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
90 graduates, from a department now rated 4 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Gustavo Torres is on it.
71 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 Alejo Tabares is on it.
78 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 Marco Iacobellis is on it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at All Boys would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jorge Méndez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Apa signs something — a contract at All Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at All Boys would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
92 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 2, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
106 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and All Boys know now that the thought has arrived.
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 Marco Iacobellis is on it.
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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 Ahmed Al-Rashidi is on it.
Santiago Apa damages knee ligaments — 120 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 120 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.
Position 2, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Alcione Milano have made their interest known and All Boys have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at All Boys can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
All Boys have received the call every well-run club eventually receives — somebody bigger has noticed Miguel Ángel Álvarez. Saying no is easy; keeping him convinced is the actual work.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Santiago Apa damages knee ligaments — 134 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 134 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.
Dunav Ruse have made their interest known and All Boys have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marco Iacobellis signs something — a contract at All Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
SquadSantiago Apa looks at the other side of the line
471Edition
The All Boys Gazette
6 Aug 2035
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Squad6 Aug 2035
Santiago Apa damages knee ligaments — 141 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 141 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.
All Boys have received the call every well-run club eventually receives — somebody bigger has noticed Miguel Ángel Álvarez. Saying no is easy; keeping him convinced is the actual work.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for All Boys is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at All Boys than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Santiago Apa damages knee ligaments — 148 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 148 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.
Position 2, 39 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
All Boys did not want this conversation and are having it anyway. A manager wanted elsewhere is a manager whose next contract talk just became more expensive.
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 Gustavo Torres is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
All Boys spent the window trying to move Leonardo Pereyra on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
Dugo Selo have made their interest known and All Boys have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom23 Jul 2035
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at All Boys until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
All Boys asked and Belgrano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
All Boys ran out of time with Newell's Old Boys. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason All Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
All Boys have received the call every well-run club eventually receives — somebody bigger has noticed Miguel Ángel Álvarez. Saying no is easy; keeping him convinced is the actual work.
All Boys and Atlético Tucumán have settled on $140.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
All Boys have gone to Estudiantes with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” All Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Boca Juniors is saying, and nobody at All Boys is enjoying the guessing.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and All Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. All Boys will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Independiente Rivadavia have accepted the money. What All Boys do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
All Boys have made the call to Boca Juniors. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
$25.7M is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 29 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
He is going to Barcelona, the club has $25.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. All Boys have done the hard part with Talleres, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$490.0K on the table at Belgrano. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Add another name to the list: Chaco For Ever have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Facundo Méndez. The answer from All Boys has not changed — yet.
All Boys offered $680.0K; Racing Club said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer went to Racing Club this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at All Boys can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and All Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
All Boys have made the call to Gimnasia La Plata. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
All Boys and River Plate have settled on $270.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at San Lorenzo is saying, and nobody at All Boys is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and All Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
All Boys have made the call to Rosario Central. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad18 Jun 2035
The division's best last weekend was a All Boys man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Miqueas Pintos was the best thing in any of them.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Position 2 on 39 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Two goals and a mark of 8.63 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” All Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Talleres keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Miqueas Pintos. 2‑1 against Maipú, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
San Martín will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. All Boys were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings4 Jun 2035
A brace, and Sergio Rossi takes the afternoon — 8.42
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Sergio Rossi provided it, and the 8.42 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.36 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” All Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
44 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.12 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 85. Ferro Carril Oeste had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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 Alejo Tabares is on it.
Sportist Svoge have made their interest known and All Boys have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.16 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. All Boys will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings14 May 2035
Pablo Bruno, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.68
A mark of 7.68 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.90 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
He is 21 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 24 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
All Boys did not want this conversation and are having it anyway. A manager wanted elsewhere is a manager whose next contract talk just became more expensive.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for All Boys is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason All Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Arsenal spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Two goals and a mark of 8.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.07 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. All Boys will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; All Boys are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
7.84, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. All Boys had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout23 Apr 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.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. All Boys will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
All Boys have received the call every well-run club eventually receives — somebody bigger has noticed Miguel Ángel Álvarez. Saying no is easy; keeping him convinced is the actual work.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason All Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Minute 93, against Maipú, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Maipú next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Miqueas Pintos is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 Alejo Tabares is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at All Boys has been clear about where Bruno Moretti stands, which is more than many ever get.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Facundo Méndez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. All Boys will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. San Martín will replay every second of the added time for a week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Miqueas Pintos provided it, and the 8.87 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pablo Bruno did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. All Boys will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pablo Bruno did not need any: 7.84, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Felipe Peralta has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings19 Mar 2035
Miqueas Pintos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout19 Mar 2035
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. All Boys will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ahmed Al-Rashidi: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.01 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alejo Tabares. 2‑1 against Colegiales, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 17 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.
In brief
Player ratingsSergio Rossi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It needed Sergio Rossi to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Patronato, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout5 Mar 2035
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the All Boys dressing room was either.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason All Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Madryn tried to reorganise, All Boys did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.67, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason All Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at All Boys can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Minute 86, against Arsenal, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for All Boys is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Santiago Apa signs something — a contract at All Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 16. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 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.” All Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eduardo Quiroga is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Luis Rojas is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Pablo Benítez 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Enzo Rodríguez 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.
All Boys did not want this conversation and are having it anyway. A manager wanted elsewhere is a manager whose next contract talk just became more expensive.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alejo Tabares signs something — a contract at All Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The terracesThe Miqueas Pintos rumours reach the terraces
The dugoutGael Quiroga knocks on the manager's door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Gael Quiroga is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fernando Ramos 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bautista Pereyra 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.
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 Daniel Aguirre is on it.
Titanes Guanare have made their interest known and All Boys have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
He is 20, he is averaging 7.11, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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 Gustavo Torres is on it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at All Boys has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Miqueas Pintos signs something — a contract at All Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Alejo Tabares has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. All Boys had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
All Boys asked and Belgrano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
All Boys have made the call to Deportivo Merlo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Everything agreed with Independiente, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Newell's Old Boys were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. All Boys had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
All Boys have gone to Newell's Old Boys with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and All Boys know it.
Independiente have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
All Boys have made the call to Independiente. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Daniel Aguirre is on it.
In brief
The dugoutBruno Moretti knocks on the manager’s door
SquadThe training reports on Miqueas Pintos are not good
The deal with Belgrano is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutBruno Moretti knocks on the manager’s door
BoardroomThe All Boys production line keeps running
Steaua Bucharest have made their interest known and All Boys have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Platense have kept their man, and All Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
All Boys have made the call to Racing Club. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
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 Marco Iacobellis is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Daniel Aguirre is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Gustavo Torres is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Miqueas Pintos signs something — a contract at All Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutJorge Correa knocks on the manager's door
SquadQuestions about Bruno Moretti on the training pitch
Mjondalen have made their interest known and All Boys have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
At 34, 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
A programme of his own, away from the group, aimed at one thing the staff think is holding him back. Most improvement happens like this and none of it makes the paper.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. All Boys would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at All Boys can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fernando Martínez 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Martín Romano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Daniel Romano is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Negro is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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 Alejo Tabares is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
All Boys did not want this conversation and are having it anyway. A manager wanted elsewhere is a manager whose next contract talk just became more expensive.
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 Marco Iacobellis is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Daniel Aguirre is on it.
In brief
The dugoutJorge Correa knocks on the manager’s door
SquadThe training reports on Facundo Méndez are not good
A season average of 7.11 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. All Boys know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Miguel Ángel Godoy and All Boys agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Facundo Méndez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 3, 40 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at All Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ahmed Al-Rashidi signs something — a contract at All Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. All Boys would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
All Boys did not want this conversation and are having it anyway. A manager wanted elsewhere is a manager whose next contract talk just became more expensive.
A season average of 7.11 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. All Boys know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Mingachevir have made their interest known and All Boys have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; All Boys are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Alejo Tabares is on it.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and All Boys will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
All Boys did not want this conversation and are having it anyway. A manager wanted elsewhere is a manager whose next contract talk just became more expensive.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Méndez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around All Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” All Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for All Boys is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. All Boys know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Facundo Méndez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
All Boys spent the window trying to move Daniel Miranda on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” All Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom24 Jul 2034
All Boys close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 5 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.
All Boys had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at San Lorenzo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The phone has started ringing about Facundo Méndez again, and this time the name on the line is Defensores. All Boys are listening politely and promising nothing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Comunicaciones have kept their man, and All Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tiago Batista was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Alejo Tabares is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at All Boys has been clear about where Pato stands, which is more than many ever get.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Morón waiting with a shirt. Nobody at All Boys is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Batista 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.
A loan enquiry to Deportivo Riestra: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
River Plate go through and All Boys go home, 0‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
All Boys did not want this conversation and are having it anyway. A manager wanted elsewhere is a manager whose next contract talk just became more expensive.
The phone has started ringing about Facundo Méndez again, and this time the name on the line is Estudiantes. All Boys are listening politely and promising nothing.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. All Boys will try not to make too much of it.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the All Boys dressing room in a hurry
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pablo Bruno did not need any: 8.39, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
All Boys did not want this conversation and are having it anyway. A manager wanted elsewhere is a manager whose next contract talk just became more expensive.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Defensores Unidos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at All Boys is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. All Boys have done the hard part with Aldosivi, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
All Boys asked and Comunicaciones said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Batista 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Sergio Rossi. 2‑0 against Ferro Carril Oeste, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
Player ratingsMiqueas Pintos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Transfer targetsA loan move for Rafa is in the works
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Miqueas Pintos provided it, and the 8.96 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; All Boys are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Marco Iacobellis is on it.
Kukësi have made their interest known and All Boys have to have a conversation they never wanted. A manager other clubs ask about is a manager whose next contract costs more.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Pablo Bruno did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. All Boys have done the hard part with Deportivo Merlo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between All Boys and Tristán Suárez, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The phone has started ringing about Facundo Méndez again, and this time the name on the line is Defensores Unidos. All Boys are listening politely and promising nothing.
A season average of 7.03 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. All Boys know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tiago Batista. 3‑1 against Madryn, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A season average of 7.22 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad29 May 2034
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tiago Batista 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.
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.
Player ratings29 May 2034
Miqueas Pintos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.38. 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.
Player ratings29 May 2034
Tiago Batista was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. 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.
The dugout29 May 2034
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.” Miguel Ángel Álvarez kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” All Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
San Martín held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. All Boys answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Felipe Peralta and All Boys agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout22 May 2034
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Miguel Ángel Álvarez to a room that had heard them before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.