Marked for Facundo Filinich
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Sep 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 The request is on a desk at Arsenal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Sep 2028
Julián Ledesma has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arsenal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Nahuel Frascone has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Arsenal is pretending otherwise.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Nahuel Pezzini 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Arsenal told Matías Machado something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Arsenal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Filinich 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
“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 dugout11 Sep 2028
Joaquín Santos has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Arsenal will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market11 Sep 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Arsenal know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Aug 2028
Matías Lucero has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Arsenal they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market21 Aug 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 The request is on a desk at Arsenal, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
This is not rotation. Alexis Payes has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Arsenal is pretending otherwise.
Match19 Aug 2028
Nobody wants to play Arsenal right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match19 Aug 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Rodrigo Cano’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arsenal.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Alexis Payes 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 Arsenal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces21 Aug 2028
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout21 Aug 2028
“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.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.17, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Jan 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.
Market10 Jan 2028
Persita come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Arsenal did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Eduardo Paz arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Eduardo Paz has, at Arsenal, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Central Córdoba SdE have kept their man, and Arsenal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Arsenal will try again when the window opens; Argentinos Juniors may not be selling by then.
Market10 Jan 2028
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Market10 Jan 2028
He is 20, and nobody at Arsenal signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Eduardo Paz commits to Arsenal for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Dec 2026
88 days out for Facundo Cipresso after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Argentino de Merlo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market7 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 Argentino de Merlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Argentino de Merlo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Argentino de Merlo have done the hard part with Ferro Carril Oeste, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad7 Dec 2026
72 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Alejo Tello 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 Argentino de Merlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Nahuel Sica 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 targets7 Dec 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.
Market7 Dec 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alan Salvador has his answer from Argentino de Merlo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Nov 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 Argentino de Merlo can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
An order from above at Argentino de Merlo: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Argentino de Merlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahuel Sica 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Mauro Orué 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad2 Nov 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leandro Moreira, and the manager let it.