Marked for Lucas Picech
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
76 days out for Oscar Salomón after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Newell's Old Boys will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Newell's Old Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Lucas Picech gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Lucas Picech has just signed for Newell's Old Boys, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Diego Fagúndez 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 dugout18 Jan 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Martín Ortega’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Loan watch18 Jan 2027
19 appearances away from home and 3 goals to show for them. Every one of them makes next summer's conversation a little more expensive.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Lucas Picech signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Ignacio Antonio: 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.” Colón have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market28 Dec 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colón have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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
Lucas Picech has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colón they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 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 Colón this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market28 Dec 2026
Add another name to the list: Banfield have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jorge Sanguina. The answer from Colón has not changed — yet.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
203% of the income goes out in wages at Colón
Every club in football 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 somebody has tried it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Matías Godoy 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nahuel Curcio, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mauricio Gómez
87 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colón lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market14 Dec 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colón have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom14 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Colón
Matías Budiño 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Colón
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Emanuel Beltrán was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market14 Dec 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Nicolás Talpone may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ignacio Antonio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Matías Budiño 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 Colón that is a harder question to answer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Colón
Matías Budiño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Federico Rasmussen 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matías Godoy, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Ezequiel Vega knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colón, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Iván Barbona gets picked when it counts
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 Iván Barbona is on it.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Open for business: Colón enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
Market7 Dec 2026
Colón have made Jorge Sanguina available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
116 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colón lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout16 Nov 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
“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 Colón, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Lucas Picech
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lucas Picech will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colón the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom16 Nov 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Lucas Picech has agreed terms with Argentinos Juniors for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Colón
Matías Budiño 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Federico Rasmussen 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
The manager makes an example of Facundo Aguirre
“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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“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.