“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 The request is on a desk at Aldosivi, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Renzo Conechny was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Matías Morello 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Enzo Hoyos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Aldosivi 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 The request is on a desk at Aldosivi, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Gimnasia y Esgrima 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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Bautista Biondi has agreed terms with Ferrocarril Midland for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Aldosivi asked and Huracán 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 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 Aldosivi, 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 Aldosivi 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 Aldosivi this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Alan Sosa’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Aldosivi.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Aldosivi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elías López 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 7.83 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Aldosivi had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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.” Valentín Ponce, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Morello was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aldosivi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Aldosivi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elías López 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.
7.82, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Aldosivi had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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 Valentín Ponce to a room that had heard them before.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Aldosivi 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 Elías López was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Facundo Garcés and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
5 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.
“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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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.” Valentín Ponce chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
0‑3 against Racing Club, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aldosivi they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Facundo Garcés 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Garcés, and the manager let it.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Aldosivi training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elías López 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 music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Valentín Ponce to a room that had heard them before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Aldosivi, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Ruan Tressoldi 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Elías López 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.
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 Bautista Dadín is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Aldosivi have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Facundo Garcés 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.
“I watch every Aldosivi game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Central Córdoba SdE runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Aldosivi will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Aldosivi has been clear about where Cristián Blanco stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
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.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Toni Martínez was one of the reasons people came, and $20.7M does not replace that by itself.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $422.8K — a club that wants Diego Percan enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sevilla have kept their man, and Alavés go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Juan Aurich for Franco Godoy 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.
$1.0M on the table at Independiente Rivadavia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The chase for Jorge Cabello ended with $870.0K changing hands and Agropecuario Argentino out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The chase for Emanuel Sittaro ended with $610.0K changing hands and Instituto out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Ruan Tressoldi 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Jorge Cabello has just signed for Aldosivi, and for once the answer mattered.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Aldosivi can tell you which week it ends in.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Julen Blanco has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The offer from Aldosivi for Facundo Garcés 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ville Koski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Alavés the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Alavés hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Rodríguez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés 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. Stefano Condino has, at Alavés, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
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 ambition story running backwards, and the one nobody tells: a footballer who wants a smaller ground, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is rarely reported as anything else.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Adrián trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés 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 Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 9 actions, 7.03, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Andreas Christensen is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Ibañez 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” David Herrero after 0‑5, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Alavés told Miguel Rodríguez something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“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.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
0‑2 to Real Madrid, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Pablo Ibañez 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.
18 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alavés lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Alavés have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Jon Pacheco 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.
Marked 8.25 — 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Pablo Ibañez had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Alavés have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Alavés may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 gone
That is the business done at Alavés until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“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 Alavés, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alavés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 18 and 15 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Add another name to the list: Oviedo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Facundo Garcés. The answer from Alavés has not changed — yet.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alavés will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Alavés training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Ibañez 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alavés will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Toni Martínez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Pablo Ibañez 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 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 squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ander Guevara’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Alavés needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Facundo Garcés trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Alavés. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alavés will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Jon Pacheco 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Toni Martínez. 2‑1 against Elche, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Alavés can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
13 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Facundo Garcés has his answer from Alavés; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Felipe Duran was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Alavés dressing room was either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Alavés can pretend not to have heard.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alavés this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Alavés can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Jon Pacheco 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 Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Felipe Duran to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Sassá has just signed for Alavés, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Alavés hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Facundo Garcés wants continental football; whether Alavés can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pablo Ibañez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
49 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.