The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
7.69, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Marcelo Torres 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Augusto Max. 1‑0 against Aldosivi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Manuel Panaro 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 Gimnasia La Plata game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Krylya Sovetov runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ignacio Fernández and Gimnasia La Plata agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.79, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Marcelo Torres was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
Ignacio Miramón 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 Marcelo Torres was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gimnasia La Plata, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Gimnasia La Plata 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gimnasia La Plata 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 Gimnasia La Plata this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Torres 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.
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Manuel Panaro'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.
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 Pedro Silva Torrejón trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Marcelo Torres has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Gimnasia La Plata they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ignacio Miramón 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 easiest signature of my career.” Alexis Steimbach and Gimnasia La Plata agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelo Torres 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Rosario Central will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Gimnasia La Plata were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcelo Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gimnasia La Plata 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 Gimnasia La Plata this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
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.
A 1‑0 win over Unión de Santa Fe, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Successful dribbles: 32. 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Hatayspor had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gimnasia La Plata is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
A 4‑1 win over Gimnasia y Esgrima, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Manuel Panaro takes the afternoon — 8.28
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Manuel Panaro provided it, and the 8.28 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marcelo Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Gimnasia La Plata the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia La Plata this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gimnasia La Plata is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer from Andorra for Jorge De Asis 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.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Ignacio Miramón 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.
15 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Benjamín Luna to a room that had heard them before.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Gimnasia La Plata is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Gonzalo Errecalde has agreed terms with Newell's Old Boys for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Nicolás Ortiz has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Gimnasia La Plata have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Agustín Colazo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.00. 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.