“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 The request is on a desk at Deportivo Armenio, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 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.
“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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Villa San Carlos defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Armenio can pretend not to have heard.
Deportivo Armenio had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Guarani, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Add another name to the list: Sampaio Corrêa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Lucas Palma. The answer from Deportivo Armenio has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wilson Ibarrola 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.
Everybody at Deportivo Armenio saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jonathan Herrera signs something — a contract at Deportivo Armenio or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Deportivo Armenio will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
A brace, and Mauro Dávila takes the afternoon — 8.64
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mauro Dávila provided it, and the 8.64 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Armenio have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nicolás Sánchez 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 Juan Pablo Domínguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nicolás Sánchez 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 Federico Motta 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 Deportivo Armenio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Excursionistas next, and one man in the Deportivo Armenio dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Deportivo Armenio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Deportivo Armenio 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.
They sit in position 18 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Pablo Domínguez 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. Diego Barrionuevo 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.
“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 dugout26 Oct 2026
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.” Valentino Ojeda, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nicolás Sánchez 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 had been thinking. Federico Motta 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.
“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.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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.” Valentino Ojeda chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; 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 Patricio Núñez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Armenio can pretend not to have heard.
Nicolás Sánchez 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: 19. 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.
Marked 7.99 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Deportivo Armenio had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.” Valentino Ojeda, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sebastián Gómez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Deportivo Armenio 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.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's afternoon for Andrés Ayala