The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Temperley have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Temperley had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Temperley have done the hard part with Colón, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
39 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Temperley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerónimo Tomasetti 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.
Julián Carrasco 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 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.
Huracán have accepted the money. What Temperley do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Temperley is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Sacachispas paid $510.0K and Temperley took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Temperley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerónimo Tomasetti 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.
Franco Ayunta 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 Nicolás Molina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Franco Ayunta 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.
Words at Temperley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerónimo Tomasetti 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.
“I watch every Temperley game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sacachispas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Lucas Gaona has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Temperley have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Franco Ayunta signs something — a contract at Temperley or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Temperley they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerónimo Tomasetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Pedro Souto'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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Temperley, another week without a signature from Lorenzo Monti.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gerónimo Tomasetti provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Valentín Díaz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Temperley the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gerónimo Tomasetti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.30 — 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.
Marcos Echeverría 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 agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Temperley is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Valentín Díaz has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Temperley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gerónimo Tomasetti 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.
Franco Ayunta 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.
At 34, 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.
Franco Díaz has gone, the accounts have $2.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Dinamo Tbilisi paid $2.8M and Temperley took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all 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.
Franco Ayunta 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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Matthias Weber after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Temperley have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nicolás Demartini scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Nicolás Demartini 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Temperley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Nieto 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Temperley, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Nicolás Demartini wants continental football; whether Temperley can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad24 May 2027
Luciano Nieto 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 Temperley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Position 3, 21 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Temperley can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Nieto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Temperley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luciano Nieto and Temperley agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Temperley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Nieto 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.
Lorenzo Monti 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 2‑1 win over Central Norte, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 8 matches without defeat is a foundation Temperley did not have in the autumn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Temperley training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Nieto 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolás Molina. 2‑0 against Agropecuario Argentino, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
11 combined actions and 7.73. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
17 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Joaquín Medina could afford to be generous.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Temperley can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Temperley 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 Franco Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Temperley this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Facundo Krüger again, and this time the name on the line is Belgrano. Temperley are listening politely and promising nothing.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Gerónimo Tomasetti has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Juan Gabriel Frías has his answer from Temperley; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Temperley have no good answer.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Temperley will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Luciano Nieto 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.
Gabriel Hauche 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Temperley told Gerónimo Tomasetti 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 San Martín SJ in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Temperley would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.