The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Almirante Brown is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Leonardo Jara 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 club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ulises Abreliano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Almirante Brown game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Omonia 29M runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Almirante Brown, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Almirante Brown is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Javier Martínez wants continental football; whether Almirante Brown can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about 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 Almirante Brown this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Hernán Pedroso is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leandro Ávalos will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Almirante Brown the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almirante Brown 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 Carlos Gugenheim was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Luis Alberto Núñez left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Javier Martínez provided it, and the 8.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Javier Martínez wants continental football; whether Almirante Brown can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about 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 Almirante Brown 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 Agustín Dattola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
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.” Luis Alberto Núñez kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Matías Noble
Leonardo Jara 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 Agustín Dattola was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The phone has started ringing about Facundo García again, and this time the name on the line is Teruel. Almirante Brown are listening politely and promising nothing.
A goalkeeper’s error has no defender behind it to tidy it away. He knew before the ball crossed the line, the crowd knew a second later, and there is nothing anybody can say tonight.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Bruno Galván's mistake
The dugoutTomás Villoldo dropped after a run of poor form
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Leandro Ávalos has agreed terms with Brown de Adrogué for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Almirante Brown they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leonardo Jara 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 no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sergio Pereyra 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mateo Medina 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.