Marked for Ignacio Miramón
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Market5 Jun 2028
Add another name to the list: LB Chateauroux have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Wilitty Younoussa. The answer from Rodez AF has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
The paperwork begins on Roger Tamba
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Rodez AF have done the hard part with USL Dunkerque, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words exchanged at Rodez AF
Quentin Braat 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Words at Rodez AF training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordan Mendes 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 dugout5 Jun 2028
“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.
Market5 Jun 2028
Samy Benchamma is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Rodez AF has been clear about where Samy Benchamma stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market22 May 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at LOSC Lille, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market22 May 2028
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.
Squad22 May 2028
Oumar Camara and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Moussa Baradji, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 May 2028
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 Roberto Fernández is on it.
Squad22 May 2028
Tiago Morais 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.
The dugout22 May 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francisco Moura trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market22 May 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Hamza Igamane signs something — a contract at LOSC Lille or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Loan watch22 May 2028
12 appearances at Dijon and the goals keep coming. LOSC Lille are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match15 Mar 2028
A European night to remember for LOSC Lille
2‑0 against Red Bull Salzburg, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Market20 Mar 2028
“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 LOSC Lille, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match18 Mar 2028
4 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Benjamin André 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.
Market20 Mar 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether LOSC Lille can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match18 Mar 2028
RC Strasbourg made LOSC Lille work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilan Kebbal, and the manager let it.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 7.92 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, LOSC Lille had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 7.68 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, LOSC Lille had the best player on the pitch.
In brief
-
The dugout
Osame Sahraoui has become a man the manager trusts
-
The dugout
A promise honoured for Tanguy Nianzou
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Mar 2028
“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 LOSC Lille, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
A brace, and Ngal'Ayel Mukau takes the afternoon — 8.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ngal'Ayel Mukau provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Noah Edjouma: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LOSC Lille have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market6 Mar 2028
Osame Sahraoui wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at LOSC Lille hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market6 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at LOSC Lille is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Ayase Ueda 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.
Market6 Mar 2028
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Tanguy Nianzou wants continental football; whether LOSC Lille can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tanguy Nianzou and LOSC Lille agree another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at LOSC Lille training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Igamane 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Feb 2028
10 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market28 Feb 2028
Luiz Henrique hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LOSC Lille can pretend not to have heard.
Match23 Feb 2028
LOSC Lille come up short in Europe
2‑3 away to the standard of Red Bull Salzburg. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Both of them Ayase Ueda's — 8.49
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.49, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match26 Feb 2028
No clean sheets in sight for LOSC Lille
7 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Market28 Feb 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether LOSC Lille can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Ilan Kebbal 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.
Match26 Feb 2028
0‑2 to Stade Brestois, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
The team sheet said everything about Benjamin André
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Benjamin André.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market31 Jan 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. LOSC Lille have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympique Lyonnais have kept their man, and LOSC Lille go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LOSC Lille can pretend not to have heard.
Market31 Jan 2028
The fee is $6.2M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. USL Dunkerque drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market31 Jan 2028
Stade de Reims pay $9.2M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Benjamin André 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.
Squad31 Jan 2028
A move Antoine Sekongo would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Antoine Sekongo is living that version at LOSC Lille, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Hamza Igamane 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.
Match29 Jan 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luiz Henrique. 3‑2 against Paris FC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
$21.3M on the table at Rayo Vallecano. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LOSC Lille can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Jan 2028
Add another name to the list: FC Nantes have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tiago Santos. The answer from LOSC Lille has not changed — yet.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
An offer of $1.3M for Theo Bair
LOSC Lille have gone to AJ Auxerre with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market3 Jan 2028
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether LOSC Lille can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad3 Jan 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hamza Igamane and LOSC Lille agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets3 Jan 2028
LOSC Lille offered $1.0M; Paris Saint-Germain said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Ayase Ueda 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.
Squad3 Jan 2028
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and LOSC Lille have had the benefit of it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Nov 2027
River Plate go through. The table said this team was good enough for months and the format does not care what the table said, which is the argument every eliminated club has had with itself since playoffs were invented.
Match29 Nov 2027
Position 3 and 26 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Alejandro Almaraz ran the middle of the pitch — 6.71
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.71, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Alejo Antilef 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.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Julián Domke was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Augusto Max, and the manager let it.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bautista Barros Schelotto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Nov 2027
1‑0 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Gimnasia La Plata are entitled to ignore.
Market22 Nov 2027
Brian Croce has one foot out of the door
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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“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.
The terraces22 Nov 2027
At 20 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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
A performance of 8.17 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Alejo Antilef and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at Gimnasia La Plata training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Melluso 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Bruno López on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad11 Oct 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ngal'Ayel Mukau and LOSC Lille agree another 5 years.
Market11 Oct 2027
Francisco Moura wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at LOSC Lille hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at LOSC Lille training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roberto Fernández 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Ilan Kebbal 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 LOSC Lille this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch11 Oct 2027
“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 LOSC Lille, and 4 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tanguy Nianzou, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Luiz Henrique has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at LOSC Lille 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.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at LOSC Lille, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market11 Oct 2027
The name of Tiago Santos keeps appearing in other people's back pages. LOSC Lille say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match18 Sep 2027
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Gimnasia La Plata have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad20 Sep 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 Gimnasia La Plata this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jonathan Rodríguez is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match18 Sep 2027
A 3‑1 win over Tigre, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.37 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Marked 8.23 — 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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Augusto Max
“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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Federico Milo pulls a muscle — 15 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 15 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market6 Sep 2027
“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 Gimnasia La Plata, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Brian Croce has agreed terms with San Martín SJ for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Johan Carbonero 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Loan watch6 Sep 2027
“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 Gimnasia La Plata, and 2 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
Market6 Sep 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Trompa is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market6 Sep 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Liam Rossi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market6 Sep 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Benjamín Ortiz 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Ignacio Miramón named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Ignacio Miramón is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Aug 2027
Belgrano 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
At 37 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.88, and nobody on the pitch better.
Squad23 Aug 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 Gimnasia La Plata this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A hand in 2 of them from Juan José Pérez — 7.90
Marked 7.90. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
The terraces23 Aug 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Juan José Pérez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Marked 8.36 — 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.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Bruno López: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gabriel Ayala, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gimnasia La Plata may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Gimnasia La Plata 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Máximo Cabrera 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The clock did what Rosario Central would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Match24 Jul 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ignacio Miramón. 1‑0 against Barracas Central, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Marked 8.12 — 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Róyner Benítez 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.
Loan watch26 Jul 2027
The goals keep arriving from Ivo Mammini’s exile
10 goals in 17 games at Eldense — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Gimnasia La Plata updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout26 Jul 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Bruno López could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jul 2027
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match17 Jul 2027
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 5‑1 against Independiente Rivadavia, and it could have been more.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market19 Jul 2027
Ituano come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Gimnasia La Plata did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
A defender's goal wins it for Gimnasia La Plata — 7.92
1 for Ignacio Miramón, marked 7.92, 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Johan Carbonero 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.
Match17 Jul 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Gimnasia La Plata and Independiente Rivadavia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings19 Jul 2027
A performance of 9.82 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jul 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” University of Pretoria had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Güemes have kept their man, and Gimnasia La Plata go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $76.5K — a club that wants Santino Sciacqua enough to be asked twice.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Johan Carbonero 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
The fee is $46.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Los Andes drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Colazo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Jul 2027
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.
Looking ahead12 Jul 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Independiente Rivadavia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Loan watch12 Jul 2027
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Brown de Adrogué suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Gimnasia La Plata, and the summer will force it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Jan 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer from Deportivo Cali for Ivo Mammini 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Gimnasia La Plata have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Johan Carbonero 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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The clock did what Almirante Brown would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Market4 Jan 2027
A season away well spent by Ivo Mammini
16 games, 7 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Gimnasia La Plata now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Squad21 Dec 2026
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Gimnasia La Plata have had the benefit of it.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market21 Dec 2026
Add another name to the list: Banfield have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Manuel Panaro. The answer from Gimnasia La Plata has not changed — yet.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
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.
Market21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Gimnasia La Plata training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Auzmendi 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.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia y Esgrima have kept their man, and Gimnasia La Plata go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
Benjamin André 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Nabil Bentaleb 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
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.
Market16 Nov 2026
Ayase Ueda linked with a move away
The name of Ayase Ueda keeps appearing in other people's back pages. LOSC Lille say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Paris FC in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Berke Özer has seen what the next man earns
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at LOSC Lille that is a harder question to answer.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
11 appearances away from home and 5 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Başar Önal 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.
Loan watch16 Nov 2026
12 appearances at Gimnasia La Plata and the goals keep coming. LOSC Lille are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Germán Conti out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnasia La Plata will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match7 Nov 2026
Sarmiento 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
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.
Match7 Nov 2026
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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ignacio Fernández 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Manuel Panaro commits to Gimnasia La Plata for another 3 years.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Auzmendi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
At 22 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
64 days out for Germán Conti after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gimnasia La Plata will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match31 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Banfield, and it could have been more.
Market2 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Marked 7.99 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gimnasia La Plata may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Gimnasia La Plata — 7.80
1 for Ignacio Miramón, marked 7.80, 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Gimnasia La Plata training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Agustín Auzmendi 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Lucas Janson at his very best
Marked 8.40. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Gimnasia La Plata.
Squad2 Nov 2026
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Gimnasia La Plata will try very hard not to make too much of it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
Germán Conti breaks a bone — 72 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 8.11 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ignacio Miramón has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Marked 7.24 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Augusto Max
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Germán Conti out for 94 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnasia La Plata will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Thiago Amitrano damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Gimnasia La Plata — 7.67
1 for Ignacio Miramón, marked 7.67, 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Johan Carbonero 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Match3 Oct 2026
1‑3 to Rosario Central, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Both jobs done by Augusto Max — 6.63
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 10 actions, 6.63, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Germán Conti breaks a bone — 101 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad28 Sep 2026
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Gimnasia La Plata lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match26 Sep 2026
2 behind and going nowhere, until Marcelo Torres decided otherwise. Aldosivi had done the hard part and then watched it come apart, and the noise at the final whistle was the sort a ground keeps.
Squad28 Sep 2026
The match ball belongs to Marcelo Torres, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Market28 Sep 2026
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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marcelo Torres. 4‑3 against Aldosivi, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.35, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“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.