“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 The request is on a desk at Güemes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomás Galván will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Güemes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Acassuso is saying, and nobody at Güemes is enjoying the guessing.
Güemes have gone to Belgrano with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The phone has started ringing about Angel Uñates again, and this time the name on the line is All Boys. Güemes are listening politely and promising nothing.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomás Galván will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Güemes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings29 May 2028
Up for the corner, and Franco Bergés delivers — 7.60
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Franco Bergés scored, was marked 7.60, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Franco Bergés 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Güemes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Arnay 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.
Goalkeepers do not get to make mistakes; they get to make goals. He made one, he knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
In brief
The dugoutMaico Quiroz is still being punished for one mistake
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Güemes can pretend not to have heard.
Santiago Sala 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.
A mark of 7.75, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad15 May 2028
Rodrigo Arnay 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Güemes can pretend not to have heard.
Two goals and a mark of 8.93 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomás Galván will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Güemes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.40 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Güemes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Three points for Güemes, 3‑1 the final word against Patronato in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout1 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jorge Morales, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Güemes, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A brace, and Santiago Sala takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Santiago Sala provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Güemes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Santiago Sala 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Arnay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Güemes can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Güemes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7.68, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Güemes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 1‑0 win over Gimnasia y Tiro, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Güemes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Arnay 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Güemes know it.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Jorge Morales, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Santiago Sala 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
San Martín go through and Güemes go home, 1‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“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.
The terraces13 Mar 2028
Güemes are taken apart by San Martín — and the town wants answers
It finished 1-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Güemes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Juan Mendoza has his answer from Güemes; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Güemes can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Güemes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The award goes to David Veliz, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words at Güemes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Arnay 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Güemes can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tomás Galván has agreed terms with Villa San Carlos for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Rodrigo Arnay 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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Güemes can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Güemes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Güemes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Youssef Ismail is a Güemes player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
2 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Güemes can pretend not to have heard.
Leandro Finochietto 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Maico Quiroz signs something — a contract at Güemes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A month in which every rumour is possible and most of them are nonsense. The manager has a list, the board has a number, and neither is telling the other the whole of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Güemes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
7.51, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Güemes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Güemes and Arsenal in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 8.77. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Güemes.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Güemes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Gerez 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.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Güemes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
1 for Maico Quiroz, marked 7.95, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Santiago Sala 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.
Quilmes held the lead for 3 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Güemes answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gastón Espósito was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Güemes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gastón Espósito was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Santiago Farrera is on it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Güemes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Ferro Carril Oeste, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Güemes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gastón Espósito 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.
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 Franco Bergés is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Güemes, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Güemes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Güemes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.