Marked for Joaquín Varela
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Jun 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Gimnasia y Esgrima have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market26 Jun 2028
“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.
Market26 Jun 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market26 Jun 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gimnasia y Esgrima have done the hard part with Boca Juniors, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Match24 Jun 2028
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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Milton Álvarez 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 Jun 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Camargo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Joaquín Varela has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending otherwise.
Market12 Jun 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Gimnasia y Esgrima have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings12 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Transfer targets12 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia y Esgrima have kept their man, and Gimnasia y Esgrima go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Nahuel Denis in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout12 Jun 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Milton Álvarez, and the manager let it.
Match10 Jun 2028
Brown de Adrogué left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gimnasia y Esgrima are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad29 May 2028
Francisco Molina damages knee ligaments — 25 days out
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.
Market29 May 2028
“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.
Market29 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Axel Pinto
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Axel Pinto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gimnasia y Esgrima the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 May 2028
Milton Álvarez 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Franco Camargo 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.
Match27 May 2028
Mitre made Gimnasia y Esgrima work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces29 May 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Juan Zaya 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 dugout29 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Axel Pinto, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 May 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francisco Molina
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 May 2028
“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 Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 May 2028
Only the photograph left for Axel Pinto
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Axel Pinto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gimnasia y Esgrima the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match29 Apr 2028
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Gimnasia y Esgrima are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 May 2028
Milton Álvarez 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.
Match29 Apr 2028
San Martín SJ left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad1 May 2028
200 times in these colours, in all weathers and under four or five different managers. That kind of service is quietly disappearing from the game.
The dugout1 May 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Benicio Ríos after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Apr 2028
82 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market3 Apr 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Esgrima can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Apr 2028
Only the photograph left for Axel Pinto
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Axel Pinto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gimnasia y Esgrima the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Milton Álvarez 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 Apr 2028
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Camargo 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.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The manager makes an example of Joaquín Varela
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match1 Apr 2028
0‑1 to Central Norte, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Mar 2028
Francisco Molina damages knee ligaments — 89 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 89 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Pinto 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Nahuel Denis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
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.
Looking ahead27 Mar 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Central Norte in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market27 Mar 2028
Axel Pinto runs his contract down
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Gimnasia y Esgrima money.
Market27 Mar 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Joaquín Varela may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francisco Molina
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match8 Mar 2028
A 1‑0 win over Deportivo Laferrere, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market13 Mar 2028
Axel Pinto hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Esgrima can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
This is not rotation. Hugo Soria has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Up for the corner, and Franco Camargo delivers — 7.84
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Franco Camargo scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Varela 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Nahuel Denis 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Gimnasia y Esgrima are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
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 Milton Álvarez is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Mar 2028
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market6 Mar 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Esgrima can pretend not to have heard.
Market6 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for Axel Pinto
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Axel Pinto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gimnasia y Esgrima the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match4 Mar 2028
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gimnasia y Esgrima has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Axel Pinto has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Varela 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.
Match4 Mar 2028
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Nahuel Denis 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francisco Molina
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Feb 2028
“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.
Match26 Feb 2028
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Gimnasia y Esgrima are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
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.
Match26 Feb 2028
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Estudiantes scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Squad28 Feb 2028
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Milton Álvarez knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Match26 Feb 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Estudiantes leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Feb 2028
Francisco Molina damages knee ligaments — 124 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 124 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.
Market21 Feb 2028
“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.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Axel Pinto has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending otherwise.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Milton Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joaquín Varela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Milton Álvarez
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
The game went through Nahuel Denis — 6.52
Marked 6.52 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad21 Feb 2028
9 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Feb 2028
132 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match12 Feb 2028
1‑4 against Temperley, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market14 Feb 2028
Axel Pinto hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Esgrima can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 Feb 2028
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.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Hugo Soria has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending otherwise.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Milton Álvarez 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 Feb 2028
Words at Gimnasia y Esgrima training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Varela 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.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager makes an example of Joaquín Varela
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom14 Feb 2028
Nobody left the Gimnasia y Esgrima dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match31 Jan 2028
Position 17, 32 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
The terraces31 Jan 2028
The mood at Gimnasia y Esgrima has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Market31 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Joaquín Varela 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
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 dugout31 Jan 2028
Joaquín Varela asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market31 Jan 2028
The shop window has Axel Pinto in it
Gimnasia y Esgrima have let the market know Axel Pinto can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Gimnasia y Esgrima is running low.
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Esgrima can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joaquín Varela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Nahuel Denis in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Liu Yuqi wants to go home
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
Joaquín Varela knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joaquín Varela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
When it matters, Axel Pinto plays
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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
The formation has left Erjon Tahiri behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Gimnasia y Esgrima will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2028
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Hugo Soria has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Gimnasia y Esgrima keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Nahuel Denis 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad17 Jan 2028
9 new faces, and Gimnasia y Esgrima are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Market17 Jan 2028
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
Market17 Jan 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with David Gallardo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: San Telmo keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Milton Álvarez 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joaquín Varela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market10 Jan 2028
A stepping stone, not a home, for Juan Zaya
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Gimnasia y Esgrima were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
Milton Álvarez is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Market10 Jan 2028
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jan 2028
Milton Álvarez damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Match3 Jan 2028
32 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The terraces3 Jan 2028
Supporters organise against the Gimnasia y Esgrima board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market3 Jan 2028
“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.
Market3 Jan 2028
The offer from Persis for Massimo Saliszewski 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.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Los Andes is saying, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is enjoying the guessing.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Milton Álvarez 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.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lanús have kept their man, and Gimnasia y Esgrima go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joaquín Varela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Dec 2027
37 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom27 Dec 2027
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Gimnasia y Esgrima is running low.
Market27 Dec 2027
“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.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
Gimnasia y Esgrima had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Boca Juniors, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Milton Álvarez 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.
Loan watch27 Dec 2027
33 appearances at Ituano and the goals keep coming. Gimnasia y Esgrima are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
A loan move for Antonio Roble is in the works
Gimnasia y Esgrima have made the call to San Telmo. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market27 Dec 2027
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Milton Álvarez
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 Dec 2027
“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 Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it is not being withdrawn.
The terraces13 Dec 2027
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Francisco Maidana was one of the reasons people came, and $650.0K does not replace that by itself.
Transfer targets13 Dec 2027
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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets13 Dec 2027
$43.0K on the table at Belgrano. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Camargo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market13 Dec 2027
Defensa y Justicia pay $89.0K, 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Sep 2027
145 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match11 Sep 2027
A 1‑7 beating by Godoy Cruz was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Match13 Sep 2027
Position 17 and 25 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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.
Match11 Sep 2027
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Gimnasia y Esgrima has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Milton Álvarez 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.
Match11 Sep 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Gimnasia y Esgrima and Godoy Cruz, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Franco Camargo 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.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joaquín Varela, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Aug 2027
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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 Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Milton Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match31 Jul 2027
Defensores left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro Barro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
Ninety minutes of David Gallardo at his very best
Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Gimnasia y Esgrima.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“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 dugout2 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Francisco Molina has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
A brace, and Juan Cruz Franzoni takes the afternoon — 8.54
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Juan Cruz Franzoni provided it, and the 8.54 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Gimnasia y Esgrima close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 10 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Jul 2027
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Central Norte. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match24 Jul 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Juan Cruz Franzoni. 2‑1 against Central Norte, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces26 Jul 2027
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.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Octavio Bianchi, and the manager let it.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joaquín Varela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 May 2027
“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.
Match29 May 2027
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Gimnasia y Esgrima are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad31 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 May 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 May 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joaquín Varela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joaquín Varela, and the manager let it.
The dugout31 May 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Benicio Ríos after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Boardroom31 May 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Apr 2027
Francisco Molina damages knee ligaments — 62 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 62 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
5 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad12 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Apr 2027
0‑1 to Temperley, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Loan watch12 Apr 2027
“I did not go to Caldas to sit and watch. I want to come back to Gimnasia y Esgrima and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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 dugout12 Apr 2027
Milton Álvarez has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Apr 2027
Francisco Molina damages knee ligaments — 69 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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.
Market5 Apr 2027
“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.
Match3 Apr 2027
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Gimnasia y Esgrima are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Milton Álvarez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match3 Apr 2027
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match3 Apr 2027
0‑1 to Defensores, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Benicio Ríos after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Market5 Apr 2027
Joaquín Varela is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Gimnasia y Esgrima has been clear about where Joaquín Varela stands, which is more than many ever get.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Francisco Molina
112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Milton Álvarez 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
A 3‑2 win over Estudiantes, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Marked 8.03 — 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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joaquín Varela, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑2, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
164 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnasia y Esgrima lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market4 Jan 2027
“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 Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Milton Álvarez 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Gimnasia y Esgrima have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Comunicaciones have kept their man, and Gimnasia y Esgrima go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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 dugout4 Jan 2027
Milton Álvarez asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Sep 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Gimnasia y Esgrima can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Sep 2026
It had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Milton Álvarez
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
7 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.67 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Gimnasia y Esgrima had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Gimnasia y Esgrima people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Manuel Severich had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Maximiliano Casa
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Gimnasia y Esgrima will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Gonzalo Gómez 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 dugout7 Sep 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
Squad7 Sep 2026
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. Francisco Maidana has moved up it.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Esgrima this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ezequiel Muñoz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jorge Alonso 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Martín Peralta is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Roberto Lucero has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joaquín Varela, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Leandro Barro 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.