Marked for Lautaro Daus
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad21 Aug 2028
José Martínez 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.
Market21 Aug 2028
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Vitaly Stezhko has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Omonoia.
Squad21 Aug 2028
36 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jun 2028
Thomas Lam 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
APOEL are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Omonoia will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad19 Jun 2028
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Omonoia would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market19 Jun 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Omonoia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad19 Jun 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Giannis Masouras trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market19 Jun 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Bruno may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings29 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom29 May 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Defensores
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Defensores is running low.
Market29 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 The request is on a desk at Defensores, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market29 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Defensores is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad29 May 2028
Ian Pérez 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 Defensores this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings29 May 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.55, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Marked 8.51 — 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.
Squad29 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Gutiérrez, and the manager let it.
Squad29 May 2028
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Lautaro Daus knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Apr 2028
Estudiantes ended it 2‑4. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market24 Apr 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.
Squad24 Apr 2028
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.
The terraces24 Apr 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Market24 Apr 2028
Juan de Tomaso has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Defensores they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Defensive actions: 26, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 23 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Ian Pérez 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Mar 2028
Ian Pérez puts it in writing
“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 Defensores, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match25 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Defensores's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Defensores has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad27 Mar 2028
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.
Market27 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for Juan de Tomaso
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan de Tomaso will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Defensores the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Defensive actions: 25. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Ian Pérez 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 ratings27 Mar 2028
Defensive actions: 20. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch27 Mar 2028
“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 Defensores, and 1 appearances in 0 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Feb 2028
A one-man rearguard from Lautaro Daus
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Market7 Feb 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.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 25 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Market7 Feb 2028
Only the photograph left for Matías Gómez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matías Gómez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Defensores the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market7 Feb 2028
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Market7 Feb 2028
As if he never left: Lucas Castro returns
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Lucas Castro is a Defensores player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Ian Pérez 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 Defensores this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Marked 8.57 — 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.
Match5 Feb 2028
A 1‑0 win over Chacarita Juniors, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Dec 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 Defensores, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jonathan Dellarossa 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.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
515% of the income goes out in wages at Defensores
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 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 Defensores this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Lautaro Daus commits to Defensores for another 4 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Luis Jerez Silva 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.