Marked for Alan Ortiz
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maipú can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
This is not rotation. Gastón Mansilla has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Maipú is pretending otherwise.
Match13 Mar 2027
4 matches without a win for Maipú
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Maipú are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Nicolás Heiz in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maipú this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Luciano Arnijas 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.
Player ratings15 Mar 2027
Nicolás Heiz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Julián Vera's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
“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.
Match13 Mar 2027
It needed Nicolás Heiz to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Atlanta, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Maipú told to sell
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maipú this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Graduation day at Maipú
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad8 Feb 2027
A row about effort at Maipú
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Arnijas was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match6 Feb 2027
Gimnasia y Tiro left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market8 Feb 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. José Luis Bruno is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market8 Feb 2027
One of our own: Jorge Miranda joins the Maipú first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Jorge Miranda is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
Maipú board go back on their word
Something was promised, a deadline passed, and it did not arrive. Trust inside a football club is built over years and spent in an afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Maipú
Nicolás Heiz 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Maipú training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Viguet 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 dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Tomás Silva
“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 dugout1 Feb 2027
Matías Viguet knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Maipú, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Luciano Arnijas has moved up it.
Market1 Feb 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maipú know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market1 Feb 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
Víctor Barrera has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Maipú 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market25 Jan 2027
Alavés come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Maipú did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Maipú
Aron Agüero 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Matías Viguet 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.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Wages swallow 118% of the Maipú income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Aron Agüero knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Aron Agüero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Alan Ortiz gets it from the manager
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Gastón Mansilla’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market25 Jan 2027
Maipú have made Matías Viguet available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Alan Ortiz: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Maipú will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Maipú
Nicolás Heiz 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Julián Vera and Maipú agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Luciano Arnijas 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Matías Viguet asks for a word with the manager
“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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
A test against the best for Maipú
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Tristán Suárez.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Alan Ortiz gets it from the manager
“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.
Market7 Sep 2026
The Nicolás Heiz talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maipú know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Maipú, another week without a signature from Nicolás Fernández.