Marked for Ramiro Hernandes
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
“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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Matías Giménez Rojas reports back to Argentinos Juniors with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Argentinos Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hernán López Muñoz 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 Jan 2027
Nicolás Oroz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Argentinos Juniors will try again when the window opens; Defensores Unidos may not be selling by then.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Francisco Álvarez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rodrigo Fernández, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rentistas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Argentinos Juniors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market4 Jan 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 The request is on a desk at Argentinos Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer from Palestino for Ramiro Hernandes 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
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Argentinos Juniors will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Market4 Jan 2027
Only the photograph left for Kevin Coronel
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Coronel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Argentinos Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
The deal with Defensores Unidos 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 targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Deportivo Riestra have kept their man, and Argentinos Juniors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Nicolás Oroz 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Argentinos Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín Gho 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
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 2026
“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.
Market28 Dec 2026
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Argentinos Juniors have paid $5.2M for Ramiro Hernandes, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Market28 Dec 2026
The offer from Independiente Medellin for Matías Giménez Rojas 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
Alan Lescano has left for Banfield in a $6.2M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Alan Lescano was one of the reasons people came, and $6.2M does not replace that by itself.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Hernán López Muñoz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomás Molina, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Iván Morales 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Gastón Bouhier and Argentinos Juniors agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Dec 2026
The bid was some way short and Argentinos Juniors did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match21 Dec 2026
Position 13 and 13 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Everything agreed with Belgrano, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market21 Dec 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Argentinos Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market21 Dec 2026
Juan José Cardozo has left for Banfield in a $1.4M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Luciano Sánchez 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Argentinos Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hernán López Muñoz 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. Atlético Mineiro have kept their man, and Argentinos Juniors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Dec 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Argentinos Juniors waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Belgrano is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Belgrano have gone to Union SG 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
Gimnasia La Plata paid $4.7M and Belgrano took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
The offer went to Unión de Santa Fe this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Market21 Dec 2026
The phone has started ringing about Adrián Spörle again, and this time the name on the line is Magallanes. Belgrano are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A move Ramiro Montoya 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. Ramiro Montoya is living that version at Belgrano, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market21 Dec 2026
César Galíndez has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Belgrano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belgrano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Belgrano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lautaro Gutiérrez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market12 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Belgrano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Oct 2026
At 20 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A falling-out at Belgrano
Thiago Cardozo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ramiro Tulián and Belgrano agree another 5 years.
The dugout12 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.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Belgrano, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Agustín Melano 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.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
A test against the best for Belgrano
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against River Plate.
Market12 Oct 2026
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Belgrano could ask drops and the wages Francisco González Metilli can ask rise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces5 Oct 2026
Anger at Belgrano spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
The dugout5 Oct 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Belgrano is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Belgrano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Belgrano
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis Maldonado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match3 Oct 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Nicolás Fernández’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Belgrano.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Adrián Sánchez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Thiago Cardozo dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Belgrano
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market31 Aug 2026
Alavés come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Belgrano did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market31 Aug 2026
Álvaro Ocampo has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Belgrano they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match29 Aug 2026
3 matches without a goal for Belgrano
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
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.
The dugout31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Fabricio Mendieta 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 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Belgrano
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kevin Garay 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.