Saúl 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Farías 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Estudiantes, and 5 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Estudiantes 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.
8 shut-outs in 18 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Rodrigo Borzone has been having a lot of them.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Ezequiel Naya has written the date down.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Estudiantes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Saúl and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Mater 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 did not go to Excursionistas to sit and watch. I want to come back to Estudiantes and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
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 Steven Bergwijn is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Estudiantes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Estudiantes, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Estudiantes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tiago Palacios signs something — a contract at Estudiantes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Estudiantes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match21 Jul 2027
Facundo Lando wins it after the whistle should have gone
100 minutes played. Facundo Lando found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Liniers went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Estudiantes and Rosario Central have settled on $1.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
$2.1M on the table at Banfield. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
1 for Facundo Lando, marked 7.99, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
1 for Elián Giménez, marked 7.94, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 11 gone
That is the business done at Estudiantes 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.
$460.0K is a serious amount of money and it does not play centre-forward. Everybody in the dressing room knows who used to be looked at when it went wrong.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Brasil de Pelotas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Argentino de Quilmes is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The terraces19 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $460.0K sale of Facundo Lando
He is going to Estudiantes, the club has $460.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Franco Sosa 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. Lucio Nadalín 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.
Argentino de Quilmes have made the call to Banfield. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.94 beside his name.
Franco Sosa 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 had been thinking. Enzo Zárate 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.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Noah Flores could afford to be generous.
“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 Argentino de Quilmes, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Argentino de Quilmes may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Everything agreed with Gimnasia y Esgrima, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Franco Sosa 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Lucio Nadalín 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 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.
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 Martiniano Compagnucci is on 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 Argentino de 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 Román Barreto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Argentino de Quilmes told Lucio Nadalín something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Argentino de Quilmes know which stage they are at.
A new face in his position, and Enzo Zárate suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Argentino de Quilmes have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Successful dribbles: 31. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Argentino de Quilmes can pretend not to have heard.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Argentino de Quilmes may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Tigre keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucio Nadalín 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Argentino de Quilmes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Leandro Guzmán 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Enzo Zárate 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 pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dayro Peña, and the manager let it.
The dugout23 Nov 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 1‑2 Noah Flores left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Villa Dálmine in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Leandro Guzmán 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.
A 2‑1 win over Flandria, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Joel Martínez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Román Barreto was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Enzo Zárate’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Argentino de Quilmes needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Martiniano Compagnucci has agreed terms with Villa Dálmine for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Leandro Guzmán 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 Enzo Zárate was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.91, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Franco Sosa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.13. 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.