Marked for Leandro Silva
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout28 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.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
The deal with Rosario Central is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Iquique had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Antofagasta, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Iquique
Diego Orellana 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Pablo Palacio 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.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Iquique asked and Aguilas Doradas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Antofagasta have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad28 Dec 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Market28 Dec 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Agustín Venezia’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Nicolás Ayala: 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.” Iquique have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Pablo Palacio 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Iquique
Gonzalo Mall and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matías Navarrete commits to Iquique for another 1 years.
The dugout26 Oct 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.
Market26 Oct 2026
Iquique bring in an old head
Matías Navarrete is 34 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Iquique may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Zacarías López 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
Words at Iquique training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pablo Palacio 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 Oct 2026
Isaac Díaz 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“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 Iquique will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager makes Jorge Merlo a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Iquique. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Iquique
Agustín Venezia and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Iquique training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brayan Garrido 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
Diego Rojas 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.
Loan watch28 Sep 2026
5 appearances at Cobresal and the goals keep coming. Iquique are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniel Castillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.