A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Levante will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑3 to Celta, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Levante can pretend not to have heard.
Slavy 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 new man at Levante has worked with Marc Cucurella before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Levante asked and Real Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Leganés waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo La Coruña is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 The request is on a desk at Deportivo La Coruña, and it is not being withdrawn.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Pío Bonacci was one of the reasons people came, and $58.1M does not replace that by itself.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Espanyol have kept their man, and Deportivo La Coruña go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Deportivo La Coruña will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Levante have done the hard part with Real Madrid, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Pío Bonacci from Deportivo La Coruña for $58.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Slavy was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Oscar Naasei 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.
$58.1M on the table at Deportivo La Coruña. 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 clubs have shaken hands with Córdoba; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Levante have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $5.0M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Cultural Leonesa drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The phone has started ringing about Tai Abed again, and this time the name on the line is Eldense. Levante are listening politely and promising nothing.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.0M — a club that wants Zé Ricardo enough to be asked twice.
$900.0K was the most the club would pay and Eldense were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Levante this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo La Coruña they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Deportivo La Coruña had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Real Madrid, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Levante moved on, Pío Bonacci reports back to Deportivo La Coruña, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Deportivo La Coruña will try again when the window opens; Alavés may not be selling by then.
Deportivo La Coruña asked and Barcelona said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Levante scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Levante is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Elche moved on, Pablo Campos reports back to Levante, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Slavy 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.
Levante asked and Racing Club said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tai Abed 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Iván Romero. 1‑0 against Deportivo La Coruña, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Levante waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo La Coruña is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 La Coruña, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 8 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Deportivo La Coruña have done the hard part with Real Madrid, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Antony 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.
Deportivo La Coruña asked and Real Madrid said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and André Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Levante have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The deal with Deportivo La Coruña 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Levante have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Levante 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.
“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.
Brahim Díaz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Deportivo La Coruña people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 La Coruña, 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 Deportivo La Coruña 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thomás Rojas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Quilmes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Words at Quilmes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Luna 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.
Ariel Kippes 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.
Nobody at Quilmes 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.
4 goals in 29 games at Deportivo Miranda — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Quilmes updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 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 Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lorenzo Amatucci 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.” Nil Bravo after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Deportivo La Coruña can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
In brief
The dugoutDávid Strelec asks for a word with the manager
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Quilmes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Luna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Quilmes 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.
Something was said to Gian Gómez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
4 goals in 29 games at Deportivo Miranda — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Quilmes updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Quilmes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Quilmes, another week without a signature from Thiago Drago.
“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 La Coruña, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Víctor Meseguer was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Deportivo La Coruña know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ramiro Luna wants continental football; whether Quilmes can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Quilmes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Luna 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.
Ariel Kippes 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valentino Bianchi 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bruno Morales is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bautista Villalba 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.
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 Pío Bonacci is on it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Quilmes has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Deportivo La Coruña is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Germán Parreño 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 Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Quilmes can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Ramiro Luna 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.
Ariel Kippes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ramiro Luna is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody at Quilmes will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A brace, and Ramiro Luna takes the afternoon — 9.06
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ramiro Luna provided it, and the 9.06 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Quilmes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Quilmes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Ramiro Luna 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Quilmes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ramiro Luna. 2‑1 against Ferro Carril Oeste, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
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. 11 actions, 7.14, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“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 Quilmes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Luna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Quilmes, another week without a signature from Martín Vallejos.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Quilmes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ezequiel Delgado Cañete has come out of that comparison in the side, and Quilmes have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Martín Vallejos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
29 appearances at PSM and the goals have stopped going in. Quilmes lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo La Coruña they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dani Barcia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Tobías Donsanti 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 Ramiro Luna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ariel Kippes 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Federico Lombardi on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Esteban Glellel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Quilmes told Darián Romero something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Patronato in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
0‑4 against Central Córdoba SdE, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ariel Kippes commits to Quilmes for another 2 years.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Quilmes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Luna 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.
Ariel Kippes 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Quilmes, another week without a signature from Martín Vallejos.
The dugout9 Aug 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 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Federico Lombardi to a room that had heard them before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The 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.
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.
VfB Stuttgart have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Deportivo La Coruña, another week without a signature from Arnau Comas.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Deportivo La Coruña know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Quilmes people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 25 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Thiago Santi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Quilmes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Quilmes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Luna is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ezequiel Delgado Cañete 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.
A 1‑0 win over Gimnasia y Tiro, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Quilmes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Guadalajara waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Deportivo La Coruña is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Diego Villares 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Rubén Marín is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Alejandro Soto is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Fabricio López and Deportivo La Coruña agree another 4 years.
Deportivo La Coruña have made the call to Monza. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Ulises Delgado’s exile
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Quilmes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Ramiro Luna 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.
Ariel Kippes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every 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 Pío Bonacci is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Quilmes, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“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 Quilmes, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Quilmes people have started saying his name in the past tense.
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Central Norte moved on, Thiago Deangelis reports back to Quilmes, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Luna was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pío Bonacci. 2‑1 against Atlanta, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
8 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.
“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 La Coruña can pretend not to have heard.
The fee is $2.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Castellón drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad28 Jun 2027
José Giménez 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 Dani Barcia is on it.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Quilmes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Quilmes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Position 3, 24 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Ramiro Luna 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Quilmes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Recalde 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.
Level with 91 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Quilmes had all but put away. San Martín will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
32 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Quilmes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Quilmes, and it is not being withdrawn.
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Quilmes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Luna 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.61 on the card, and the Quilmes support went home talking about one name.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Federico Lombardi kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Quilmes has been clear about where Santino Baldassarri stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 46 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.50 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Quilmes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 May 2027
Words at Quilmes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Recalde is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Esteban Glellel is on it.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Quilmes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Aaron Spetale and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Quilmes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Luna 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 saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Quilmes is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Nobody at Quilmes 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aaron Spetale signs something — a contract at Quilmes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Quilmes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Ramiro Luna 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.
“I watch every Quilmes game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Syunik runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Raúl Lozano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Quilmes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
106 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Quilmes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Tiago Ibarra obliged against Gimnasia y Esgrima. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Quilmes.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Tiago Ibarra could not have asked for more on his first appearance — 7.16
Debuts are survived rather than enjoyed. This one was enjoyed: 7.16, 1 goals, and a manager already being asked whether he starts again next week.
Aaron Spetale 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Ramiro Luna falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Ezequiel Delgado Cañete 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.
8 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.
113 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Quilmes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.98 on the card, and the Quilmes support went home talking about one name.
The dugout1 Mar 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.” Federico Lombardi, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
120 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Quilmes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Quilmes 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 Luciano Recalde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I watch every Quilmes game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Syunik runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 134 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Quilmes people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
The offer from Andranik for Darián Romero 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.
Ramiro Luna and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Quilmes
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Recalde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
141 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Quilmes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Quilmes can pretend not to have heard.
Aaron Spetale and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ramiro Luna 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Quilmes, another week without a signature from Ulises Vera.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Quilmes, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Maipú in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The words a physio says slowly. 148 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Defensores waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Quilmes is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Opatija for Agustín Bindella 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.
Ramiro Luna 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ulises Vera falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Quilmes, and both men came out saying it was fine.