“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 The request is on a desk at UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Andrés Silveira has, at UAI Urquiza, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Everybody at UAI Urquiza saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Boardroom20 Jan 2031
85% of the income goes out in wages at UAI Urquiza
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.
Boardroom20 Jan 2031
Nobody arrives at UAI Urquiza until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with UAI Urquiza this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at UAI Urquiza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. UAI Urquiza lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” UAI Urquiza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: River Plate keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Nahuel Ríos 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. UAI Urquiza know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at UAI Urquiza, another week without a signature from Adrian Aguierre.
In brief
The dugoutFabián Noguera asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Franco Abreu has just signed for UAI Urquiza, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Talleres is saying, and nobody at UAI Urquiza is enjoying the guessing.
Nahuel Ríos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
UAI Urquiza asked and Atlético Tucumán said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Ignacio Fernandes is on it.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. UAI Urquiza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at UAI Urquiza is running low.
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ignacio Fernandes will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UAI Urquiza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
UAI Urquiza offered $550.0K; Talleres 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.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Banfield have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
UAI Urquiza have made the call to Acassuso. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Defensa y Justicia arrived with $1.1M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Yahir Jalin has gone, the accounts have $1.1M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Mateo Vázquez reports back to UAI Urquiza with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad23 Dec 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rosario Central have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
Boardroom89% of the income goes out in wages at UAI Urquiza
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 61 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
The name of Nicolás Fernández has come up in conversations UAI Urquiza were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The deal with Acassuso 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Nahuel Ríos 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
UAI Urquiza asked and Colón 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around UAI Urquiza people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Luciano Arcuri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
He is 23 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UAI Urquiza can pretend not to have heard.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Squad2 Dec 2030
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Juan Carlos Álvarez after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad25 Nov 2030
Alberto Targa falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at UAI Urquiza has been clear about where Filippo Caselli stands, which is more than many ever get.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. UAI Urquiza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation UAI Urquiza did not have in the autumn.
Squad11 Nov 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. UAI Urquiza told Diego Roberts something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 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.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Something was said to Facundo Rivero and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alberto Targa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Adrian Aguierre 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.
“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.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $27.9M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Boardroom21 Oct 2030
93% of the income goes out in wages at UAI Urquiza
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.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
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.” Juan Carlos Álvarez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at UAI Urquiza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. UAI Urquiza will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alberto Targa 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Benjamín García trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nicolás Fernández signs something — a contract at UAI Urquiza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee UAI Urquiza could ask drops and the wages Facundo Rivero can ask rise.
35 graduates, from a department now rated 5 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at UAI Urquiza can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Marked 7.65 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, UAI Urquiza had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout7 Oct 2030
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.” Juan Carlos Álvarez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
95 minutes played. Mariano Ascacíbar found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Deportivo Armenio went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Marked 7.49. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
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.” Juan Carlos Álvarez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at UAI Urquiza 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” UAI Urquiza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for UAI Urquiza is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 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.” UAI Urquiza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Squad16 Sep 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
At 37, 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutThe team sheet said everything about Facundo Rivero
Luciano Arcuri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Sep 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamín García 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.
At 38, 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at UAI Urquiza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. UAI Urquiza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at UAI Urquiza. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
BoardroomThe UAI Urquiza production line keeps running
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 97th minute. Almirante Brown will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $27.5M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. UAI Urquiza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
“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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Villa San Carlos? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
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 words a physio says slowly. 26 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 medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for August Gjerström, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout12 Aug 2030
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Juan Carlos Álvarez to a room that had heard them before.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. UAI Urquiza will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. UAI Urquiza lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
UAI Urquiza asked and Argentinos Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ignacio Fernandes 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Franco Abreu has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means UAI Urquiza have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Everybody at UAI Urquiza saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 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.
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.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 109% of the UAI Urquiza income
BoardroomNobody arrives at UAI Urquiza until somebody leaves
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Godoy Cruz moved on, Yahir Jalin reports back to UAI Urquiza, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UAI Urquiza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
UAI Urquiza had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Vélez, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. José Luis Costa has, at UAI Urquiza, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The phone has started ringing about Yahir Jalin again, and this time the name on the line is Tigre. UAI Urquiza are listening politely and promising nothing.
The deal with Vélez 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.
Luciano Arcuri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo Armenio have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Minute 93, against Deportivo Merlo, 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mariano Ascacíbar commits to UAI Urquiza for another 4 years.
Squad8 Jul 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
UAI Urquiza asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Emanuel Ibáñez 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.
A loan enquiry to Deportivo Armenio: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Argentinos Juniors have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad1 Jul 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamín García 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.
Position 9, 37 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Level with 86 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon UAI Urquiza had all but put away. Excursionistas will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Boardroom1 Jul 2030
98% of the income goes out in wages at UAI Urquiza
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UAI Urquiza can pretend not to have heard.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UAI Urquiza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Squad24 Jun 2030
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 23 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. UAI Urquiza have done the hard part with San Lorenzo, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Sacachispas left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alvarado have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
UAI Urquiza have made the call to Alvarado. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Argentinos Juniors 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
3 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 38 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
In brief
SquadBenjamín García falls out with a teammate over standards
Transfer targetsA loan move for Matías Pérez is in the works
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
UAI Urquiza asked and Racing Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at UAI Urquiza has been clear about where Aldo Fuentes stands, which is more than many ever get.
Marked 8.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑1 win over Agropecuario Argentino, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at UAI Urquiza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UAI Urquiza can pretend not to have heard.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.64 for the rest of it.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout20 May 2030
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Juan Carlos Álvarez 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.
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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 86th, and Almagro spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Successful dribbles: 28. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ignacio Fernandes. 1‑0 against Almagro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Chances created: 14. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
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.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad6 May 2030
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at UAI Urquiza can tell you which week it ends in.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at UAI Urquiza has been clear about where Emanuel Ibáñez stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 dugout6 May 2030
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Juan Carlos Álvarez to a room that had heard them before.
Boardroom6 May 2030
92% of the income goes out in wages at UAI Urquiza
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
0‑6 against Ferrocarril Midland, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
0-6, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Match24 Apr 2030
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about UAI Urquiza and Ferrocarril Midland in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for UAI Urquiza is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
BoardroomNobody left the UAI Urquiza dressing room in a hurry
Player ratingsYahir Jalin beats them one at a time
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Acassuso.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. Liniers had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadA UAI Urquiza teenager takes the young player award
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
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.” Juan Carlos Álvarez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Something was said to Diego Roberts and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Alberto Targa falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alberto Targa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nicolás Fernández signs something — a contract at UAI Urquiza or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Luciano Arcuri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
Minute 95, against Almirante Brown, 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.
It needed Nicolás Fernández to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Almirante Brown, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
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.” Juan Carlos Álvarez chose the glass-half-full version of 3‑3; the supporters left with the other one.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamín García 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.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fabián Perruchino has his answer from UAI Urquiza; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The club looked outside for a month, found nothing it preferred, and handed the job to the man who had been doing it anyway. He knows the building; now he has to prove he knows the rest.
Player ratings4 Mar 2030
A brace, and Aldo Fuentes takes the afternoon — 9.12
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aldo Fuentes provided it, and the 9.12 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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
3 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.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Los Andes tried to reorganise, UAI Urquiza did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.86 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Three points for UAI Urquiza, 3‑1 the final word against Chaco For Ever in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Marked 8.20 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Nahuel Ríos had UAI Urquiza level again within 4 minutes, and Chaco For Ever never got to play with a lead at all.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Juan Carlos Álvarez could afford to be generous.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Minute 86, against Deportivo Merlo, 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.
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
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.
He is 23 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Petiso 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. UAI Urquiza know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Nobody at UAI Urquiza 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. UAI Urquiza 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 UAI Urquiza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at UAI Urquiza would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. José Parra has just signed for UAI Urquiza, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” José Parra and UAI Urquiza agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
UAI Urquiza asked and Racing Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
Nobody at UAI Urquiza 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.
In brief
The dugoutTomás Shaw asks for a word with the manager
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at UAI Urquiza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one UAI Urquiza will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at UAI Urquiza. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
UAI Urquiza opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Fabián Perruchino stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Nahuel Ríos has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: San Lorenzo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
$270.0K was the most the club would pay and Atlético Tucumán 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and UAI Urquiza know which stage they are at.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Tobías Pantoja has moved up 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 UAI Urquiza can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Argentinos Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Atlético Tucumán 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
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 Ignacio Fernandes is on it.
In brief
The dugoutDiego Roberts asks for a word with the manager
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Martín Campos has gone, the accounts have $520.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Lanús paid $520.0K and UAI Urquiza took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
UAI Urquiza asked and Racing Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamín García was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Fabián Perruchino and UAI Urquiza agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
UAI Urquiza have made the call to Argentinos Juniors. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Boardroom24 Dec 2029
88% of the income goes out in wages at UAI Urquiza
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 offer from Independiente for Emiliano Zacca was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Unión de Santa Fe have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 16-year-old it feels ownership of. Julián Pérez 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.
0‑3 to San Martín de Burzaco, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The deal with Unión de Santa Fe 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.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Belgrano pay $69.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Jhon Montoya again, and this time the name on the line is Belgrano. UAI Urquiza are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
UAI Urquiza asked and Atlético Tucumán said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 23 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around UAI Urquiza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Luciano Arcuri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
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.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at UAI Urquiza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at UAI Urquiza, another week without a signature from Tomás Shaw.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UAI Urquiza can pretend not to have heard.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Prado 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Gael García left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Squad5 Nov 2029
A place in the month's best eleven for Martín Campos
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Martín Campos has come out of that comparison in the side, and UAI Urquiza have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
Nobody arrives at UAI Urquiza until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with UAI Urquiza this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Gael García after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fernando Prado will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UAI Urquiza the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
Agropecuario Argentino left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom29 Oct 2029
120% of the income goes out in wages at UAI Urquiza
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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Emanuel Ibáñez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Luciano Arcuri 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 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.
Nobody at UAI Urquiza 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.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
7 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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 Diego Roberts is on 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 UAI Urquiza can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Mateo Vázquez has, at UAI Urquiza, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Yahir Jalin 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UAI Urquiza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UAI Urquiza can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
106% of the income goes out in wages at UAI Urquiza
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.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
15 goals and a season average of 7.24 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad24 Sep 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
Marked 8.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at UAI Urquiza.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Gael García left the room before anybody could ask which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Acassuso in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UAI Urquiza can pretend not to have heard.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Liniers? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee UAI Urquiza could ask drops and the wages Fernando Prado can ask rise.
Nahuel Ríos 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 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.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at UAI Urquiza has been clear about where Gonzalo Mall stands, which is more than many ever get.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fernando Prado will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around UAI Urquiza 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.” UAI Urquiza have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UAI Urquiza can pretend not to have heard.
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 season average of 7.22 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad3 Sep 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Levante had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Luciano Arcuri 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 accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at UAI Urquiza now.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
He is 23 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.
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fernando Prado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolás Fernández. 1‑0 against Villa San Carlos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.04. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Diego Bravo San Martín is living that version at UAI Urquiza, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gael García after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Diego Bravo San Martín and UAI Urquiza agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
In brief
The dugoutAldo Fuentes asks for a word with the manager
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UAI Urquiza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings6 Aug 2029
A brace, and Martín Campos takes the afternoon — 8.43
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Martín Campos provided it, and the 8.43 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Facundo Laviano is living that version at UAI Urquiza, and it tends to show in the first month.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Luciano Arcuri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Aug 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Villa San Carlos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $341.0K of what UAI Urquiza paid for Emilio Figueredo is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
UAI Urquiza close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 4 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Independiente Rivadavia moved on, Jhon Montoya reports back to UAI Urquiza, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Tigre keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolás Fernández. 2‑0 against Chaco For Ever, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8.28. 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Patronato waiting with a shirt. Nobody at UAI Urquiza is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The deal with Tigre 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sarmiento have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings16 Jul 2029
Martín Campos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.27. 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.
A point taken on 92 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UAI Urquiza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Comunicaciones have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The offer from Sabah for Martín Campos was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
UAI Urquiza asked and River Plate said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Martín Campos. 2‑1 against Excursionistas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
0‑3 to San Martín de Burzaco, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. UAI Urquiza have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at UAI Urquiza is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Shirak for Emiliano Zacca was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Ferrocarril Midland 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. UAI Urquiza told Facundo Rivero something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around UAI Urquiza they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything agreed with Racing Club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Fernando Prado has agreed terms with Huracán for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Facundo Rivero and UAI Urquiza agree another 1 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Racing Club have kept their man, and UAI Urquiza go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Emanuel Ibáñez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. UAI Urquiza have done the hard part with Racing Club, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Luciano Arcuri 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 accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
Add another name to the list: Retrô have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Emiliano Zacca. The answer from UAI Urquiza has not changed — yet.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emilio Figueredo, and the manager let it.
Boardroom4 Jun 2029
98% of the income goes out in wages at UAI Urquiza
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Aldo Fuentes 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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout28 May 2029
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.” Gael García chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Carlos Rolón trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what UAI Urquiza can pretend not to have heard.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad21 May 2029
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
200 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout21 May 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Gael García left the room before anybody could ask which.
Martín Campos wins it after the whistle should have gone
91 minutes played. Martín Campos found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Almagro went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Squad14 May 2029
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Martín Campos. 2‑1 against Almagro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 23 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at UAI Urquiza has been clear about where Ezequiel Navarro Montoya stands, which is more than many ever get.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Luciano Arcuri and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings7 May 2029
Martín Campos was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Deportivo Armenio had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 33, 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.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
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.” Gael García chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at UAI Urquiza 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.
“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 UAI Urquiza, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout23 Apr 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Gael García left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Emilio Figueredo is on it.
In brief
The dugoutKevin González dropped after a run of poor form
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diego Roberts. 1‑0 against Liniers, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 dugout16 Apr 2029
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.” Gael García kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Something was said to Diego Roberts and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at UAI Urquiza, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Facundo Rivero commits to UAI Urquiza for another 1 years.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
Aldo Fuentes scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Villa Dálmine, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout9 Apr 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Gael García left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fernando Prado trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at UAI Urquiza this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahuel Ríos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The captaincy has been taken off Nicolás Fernández. UAI Urquiza will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. UAI Urquiza know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at UAI Urquiza 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 decision that decides nothing on the pitch and everything in the room. The manager has said, without saying it, whose voice he wants heard when his own is not there.
In brief
Looking aheadLooking ahead: the trip to Villa Dálmine
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Martín Campos
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Nicolás Fernández had UAI Urquiza level again within 3 minutes, and Almirante Brown never got to play with a lead at all.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Gael García left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at UAI Urquiza is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
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 Emanuel Ibáñez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 2 on the scoresheet, 9.00 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. UAI Urquiza scored in the 108th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Luciano Arcuri 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Nahuel Ríos falls out with a teammate over standards
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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 30. 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benjamín García and UAI Urquiza agree another 3 years.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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 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.
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Martín Campos decided nobody was going anywhere. Real Pilar had no time left to answer.
Nahuel Ríos 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.
He is 23 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.
Marked 8.18 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at UAI Urquiza, another week without a signature from Fernando Prado.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Emilio Figueredo has come out of that comparison in the side, and UAI Urquiza have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Emilio Figueredo, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.01
A mark of 8.01 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.
8 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Los Andes were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Luciano Arcuri was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at UAI Urquiza training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Ríos 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.
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.” Gael García on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.