Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Artigas will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Hugo Paz has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Bautista da Silveira has just signed for Artigas, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Artigas training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Sagardia 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Artigas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑4 against Liverpool Montevideo, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Artigas this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Artigas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Nahuel Fernandez to a room that had heard them before.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Beaten 4 times, with 5 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
Ignacio González is 33 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
Braian Vargas and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Federico García has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Artigas have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Marcelo Coates 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. Jose Gonzalez 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. Facundo De Arrascaeta 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. Santiago Godoy 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Artigas are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Artigas know which stage they are at.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yonathan Gorgoroso and Artigas agree another 3 years.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
36 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“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.
Deportivo Maldonado arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.