13 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Almagro has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Damián London, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.77
A mark of 7.77 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Almagro this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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 Ignacio Morales 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 Almagro can pretend not to have heard.
Thiago López 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 mark of 7.58, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Almagro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Morales 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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Almagro will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Almagro can pretend not to have heard.
7 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.
“I did not go to FC Argeș to sit and watch. I want to come back to Almagro and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 24 matches say the rest.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Almagro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Morales 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.
“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 Almagro, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Almagro have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Almagro have done the hard part with Estudiantes, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Emiliano González 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Almagro can tell you which week it ends in.
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 Almagro, and it is not being withdrawn.
Emiliano González 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Almagro can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gonzalo Asis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout15 May 2028
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 0‑1 Joaquín Villalba left the room before anybody could ask which.
23 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almagro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
A brace, and Tobias Canale takes the afternoon — 8.74
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tobias Canale provided it, and the 8.74 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Gino Barbieri 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 2‑0 win over Agropecuario Argentino, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Gonzalo Asis 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout24 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.” Joaquín Villalba, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Almagro lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces17 Apr 2028
The mood at Almagro has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Emiliano González 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Almagro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gonzalo Asis 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.
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Almagro lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Almagro can pretend not to have heard.
Emiliano González 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 Gonzalo Asis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gianfranco Joannaz trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Comunicaciones watched Emiliano González again at the weekend, and this time they did not bother hiding it. Clubs only stop hiding when they want the price to start moving.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gino Barbieri was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Words at Almagro training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gino Barbieri 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.
Uriel Villalobos 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.