“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Argentinos Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Argentinos Juniors is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Argentinos Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Argentinos Juniors hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Diego Rodríguez 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.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Argentinos Juniors will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Erik Godoy 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Instituto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Defensores Unidos will make the call about Nahuel Olmedo this week. Instituto have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
21 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Manuel Roffo 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fernando Alarcón 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 5.24. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Instituto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 7.94 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alex Luna 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.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Instituto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“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 Instituto, 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 Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
0‑0 against Caracas, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Instituto have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Manuel Roffo 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 fee is $76.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Almirante Brown drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Instituto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Santiago Abayay is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Joaquín Rivero 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.
Marked 8.55 — 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.
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Instituto training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Albarracín 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.
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.