Marked for Lucas Cuffia
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zhetysu lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Maxim Zhitnev out for 42 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zhetysu will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Zhetysu
Alan Chochiev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets15 Feb 2027
Zhetysu asked and Slovan Liberec said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad15 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 51 days on the sidelines for Marko Živanović, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Raphael Success
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Colón may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Jan 2027
The medical room confirms 77 days on the sidelines for Federico Rasmussen, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Market18 Jan 2027
Colón say no — this time
The offer from Casarano for Zahir Yunis 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.
Market18 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Colón
Matías Godoy 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Colón
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Federico Rasmussen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market18 Jan 2027
The name of Tomás Paredes has come up in conversations Colón were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Lucas Cuffia
“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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Thaller trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Colón's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Colón has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market14 Sep 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Iván Ojeda had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market14 Sep 2026
Tomás Alfonso 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 Colón can pretend not to have heard.
Market14 Sep 2026
Zhetysu come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Colón did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Colón
Cristian Pavón 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Colón
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pier Barrios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 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.
Match12 Sep 2026
It needed Franco García to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Nueva Chicago, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
In brief
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Alan Bonansea left out for tactical reasons at Colón
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The dugout
Somebody else is better right now than Nicolás Nagel
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Sep 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Zhetysu have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 22 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Zhetysu 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Zhetysu
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alan Chochiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
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.
Squad14 Sep 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 Zhetysu this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nurbol Dosmagambetov 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.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
A loan move for Tomás Pérez is in the works
Zhetysu have made the call to Racing Club. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Zhetysu will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Nūrbergen Nūrbol's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colón can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Federico Rasmussen commits to Colón for another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Colón
Cristian Pavón 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Colón training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pier Barrios 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Nizhniy Novgorod have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Iván Ojeda. The answer from Colón has not changed — yet.
Match1 Aug 2026
Three points for Colón, 1‑0 the final word against Chaco For Ever in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad3 Aug 2026
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.