“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Defensa y Justicia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Defensa y Justicia can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Pucheta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Defensa y Justicia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
César Pérez 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Raúl Rodríguez could afford to be generous.
“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 The request is on a desk at Defensa y Justicia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Defensa y Justicia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
César Pérez 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 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Defensa y Justicia can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 The request is on a desk at Defensa y Justicia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings11 Mar 2030
Up for the corner, and César Pérez delivers — 7.87
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. César Pérez scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
1 for Hernán Zuliani, marked 7.51, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Pucheta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Defensa y Justicia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
César Pérez 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 had been thinking. Alfredo Morelos 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Defensa y Justicia can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Defensa y Justicia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
César Pérez 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Raúl Rodríguez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
He has had enough of the noise. Whether Defensa y Justicia can be a quieter place for him, or whether the only cure is a move somewhere the phone-ins are gentler, is a question for the next few months.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Defensa y Justicia 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 Defensa y Justicia can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pablo Cáceres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Defensa y Justicia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Defensa y Justicia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defensa y Justicia asked and Villarreal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bautista Goncebat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Defensa y Justicia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Martín Álvarez reports back to Defensa y Justicia with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Defensa y Justicia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
César Pérez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alfredo Morelos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Defensa y Justicia asked and Santos said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Defensa y Justicia are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Done, and with games to spare. Next season has floodlit nights against clubs from other countries in it, and the accounts have a line they did not have last year.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Defensa y Justicia have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to River Plate this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$2.7M on the table at San Martín de Burzaco. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Defensa y Justicia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Defensa y Justicia they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $800.0K — a club that wants Franco Calderón enough to be asked twice.
The fee is $470.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Rosario Central drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“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 Defensa y Justicia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Daniel Phillips will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Defensa y Justicia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
San Martín de Burzaco did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $310.0K for Augusto Coronel, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
César Pérez 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.
$180.0K on the table at Boca Juniors. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Defensa y Justicia offered $310.0K; Racing Club said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nazareno Funez and Defensa y Justicia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Defensa y Justicia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lautaro Vazquez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Defensa y Justicia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
At 21 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: César Pérez. 2‑0 against Gimnasia y Esgrima, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Defensa y Justicia people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Talleres moved on, Facundo Echevarría reports back to Defensa y Justicia, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“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 Defensa y Justicia, and it is not being withdrawn.
César Pérez 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.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Defensa y Justicia will try again when the window opens; Argentinos Juniors may not be selling by then.