Marked for Valentín Serrano
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Jan 2027
Supporters organise against the Arsenal board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
Pressure builds in the Arsenal boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market25 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 The request is on a desk at Arsenal, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Ermis have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Iván Cabrera. The answer from Arsenal has not changed — yet.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Damián 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 Arsenal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Arsenal
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matteo Trombini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
Iván Peralta gets it from the manager
“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.
Market25 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Valentín Serrano signs something — a contract at Arsenal or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Arsenal will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jan 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Pontedera had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market11 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Luca Franco for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Arsenal will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Lautaro Guzmán 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Thiago Schiavulli 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 dugout11 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Nahuel Pezzini’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market11 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Arsenal, another week without a signature from Julián Lobelos.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Talo Colletta 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market4 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.
Market4 Jan 2027
The deal that would have taken Lautaro Guzmán to America de Cali has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Arsenal with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market4 Jan 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Arsenal have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Patronato have kept their man, and Arsenal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
No hiding place for Colo
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Colo, and the manager let it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Arsenal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Mihovilcevich 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Arsenal than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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.