Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnasia y Tiro will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Tiro can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuel Guanini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Felipe Karabulut 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.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.31 on the card, and the Gimnasia y Tiro support went home talking about one name.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Mario Muñoz was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Gimnasia y Tiro dressing room was either.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Gimnasia y Tiro know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The offer from Gimnasia La Plata for Juan Ignacio Capano 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Tiro can pretend not to have heard.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Tiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 9.49 — 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.
Marked 8.02 — 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.
The young player of the month award goes to a 20-year-old at Gimnasia y Tiro who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout5 Jul 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Mario Muñoz kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.89 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Gimnasia y Tiro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Gimnasia y Tiro and Racing, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Marked 9.47 — 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 38 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Gimnasia y Tiro is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Tomás Sinópoli 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.
In brief
Boardroom89% of the income goes out in wages at Gimnasia y Tiro
“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 Gimnasia y Tiro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Minute 94, against Maipú, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bautista Plaza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Tiro can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Gimnasia y Tiro have done the hard part with Estudiantes, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Manuel Guanini 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.
At 20 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Gimnasia y Tiro will try not to make too much of it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Gimnasia y Tiro can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Manuel Guanini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Emiliano Navas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Mario Muñoz left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
Boardroom87% of the income goes out in wages at Gimnasia y Tiro
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bautista Plaza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Nicolás Contín’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Gimnasia y Tiro needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Tomás Sinópoli is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Gonzalo Soto has written the date down.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Fabricio Rojas’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on José Quijada are not good
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Atlanta kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Gimnasia y Tiro will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.79 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Felipe Karabulut, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.52
A mark of 8.52 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joaquín Papaleo and Gimnasia y Tiro agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Manuel Guanini 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Tomás Sinópoli has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
“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 Gimnasia y Tiro, and it is not being withdrawn.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Gimnasia y Tiro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“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 dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Ivo Chaves'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.