“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Ulises Delgado 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Turraca 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and All Boys have no good answer.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ignacio Palacio signs something — a contract at All Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 The request is on a desk at All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ulises Delgado 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 Franco Quiroz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
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.
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.
“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 Deportivo La Coruña, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña 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 Adrià Altimira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Ulises Delgado and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Turraca 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.
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.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Ricardo Blanco is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
8 goals in 26 games at Deportivo Maldonado — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at All Boys updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“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 All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ulises Delgado 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 Franco Quiroz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Alejo Rodríguez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Claudio Campostrini has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
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 David López Pinto is on it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at All Boys can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Quiroz 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
8 goals in 26 games at Deportivo Maldonado — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at All Boys updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 42 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A brace, and Santiago Apa takes the afternoon — 8.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Santiago Apa provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Ulises Delgado 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 20 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 Deportivo La Coruña can pretend not to have heard.
Leo Román 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Teun Gijselhart is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denzel Dumfries 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Fabricio López wants continental football; whether Deportivo La Coruña can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ariel Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around All Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The phone has started ringing about Lucas Cano again, and this time the name on the line is Aktobe. All Boys are listening politely and promising nothing.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at All Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Quiroz 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.
Minute 87, against Güemes, 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at All Boys pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at All Boys can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Turraca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Gabriel Rey to a room that had heard them before.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. All Boys have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at All Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Lucas Cano was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Quiroz 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Ulises Delgado was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ariel Torres will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around All Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at All Boys 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 Gustavo Turraca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Lukas Ramil Sauer has come up in conversations All Boys were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Cano. 1‑0 against Almagro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Ulises Delgado and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Turraca 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.
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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Patronato had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Ulises Delgado 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.
Franco Quiroz 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.
A point taken on 95 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo La Coruña can pretend not to have heard.
193 appearances across 9 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Deportivo La Coruña know exactly what they have.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Deportivo La Coruña heard it as anything else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Osasuna have kept their man, and Deportivo La Coruña go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Deportivo La Coruña can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Adrià Altimira 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Deportivo La Coruña are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Ulises Delgado 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 Gustavo Turraca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Claudio Campostrini will call it something else in private.
Something was said to Gustavo Turraca and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Deportivo La Coruña, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Youness Lachhab has, at Deportivo La Coruña, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Espanyol have kept their man, and Deportivo La Coruña go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iñaki Rupérez 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 watch every Deportivo La Coruña game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Athletic Bilbao runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Deportivo La Coruña will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Ulises Delgado will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at All Boys escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around All Boys people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at All Boys 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 Gustavo Turraca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The offer from Valencia for Mario Soriano 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.
“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 Deportivo La Coruña, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sassuolo have kept their man, and Deportivo La Coruña go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Arnau Comas is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Deportivo La Coruña know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Deportivo La Coruña will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Deportivo La Coruña have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo La Coruña can pretend not to have heard.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Deportivo La Coruña they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo La Coruña this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miguel Loureiro 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joaquín Rivero trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Defensores waiting with a shirt. Nobody at All Boys is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Rosario Central pay $130.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Turraca 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 All Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ulises Delgado. 2‑0 against Atlanta, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.42 — 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.
“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 All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gustavo Turraca scored, was marked 7.80, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Turraca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Maximiliano Coronel 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Maipú scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
10 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason All Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 All Boys, 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.” All Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Turraca 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 won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.82, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at All Boys 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason All Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Quiroz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Claudio Campostrini scored in the 88th minute, Quilmes had already begun thinking about the journey home, and All Boys took the lot.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at All Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Quilmes were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
8.37. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether All Boys can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Turraca 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.
Maximiliano Coronel 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason All Boys 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 All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Astana had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Axel Abet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Patronato kept coming because nothing stopped them, and All Boys will be asked about the last half hour all week.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Claudio Campostrini provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Alejo Tabares 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.
5 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Turraca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 82 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nicolás Barrientos 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Turraca 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason All Boys will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Abet 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at All Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout25 Jan 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Lionel Jara'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.
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 Ezequiel Ramírez is on it.
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. All Boys will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at All Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
66 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Turraca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
73 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys 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 All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Gustavo Turraca 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 Axel Abet 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.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at All Boys argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. All Boys lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Maximiliano Coronel 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at All Boys argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lukas Ramil Sauer may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
88 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether All Boys can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Agustín Fernández has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Agustín Fernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around All Boys the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Turraca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Iván Zafarana 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.
“I watch every All Boys game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Okzhetpes runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gustavo Turraca trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
95 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 All Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Gustavo Turraca and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Franco Quiroz 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ricardo Blanco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at All Boys will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at All Boys that is a harder question to answer.
102 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys 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 All Boys can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around All Boys people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at All Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at All Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Lucas Cano is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
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.
In brief
The dugoutRicardo Blanco asks for a word with the manager
109 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. All Boys lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Turraca was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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 Lionel Jara'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.
In brief
The dugoutFelipe Coronel has become a man the manager trusts
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. All Boys scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at All Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at All Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Turraca 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ulises Delgado 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.
22 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
Santiago Apa 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Thiago Calone wants continental football; whether All Boys can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ulises Delgado 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.