The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Chacarita Juniors 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 Chacarita Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lisandro Montenegro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Chacarita Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Iberia 1999 runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The phone has started ringing about Santiago Daniele again, and this time the name on the line is Godoy Cruz. Chacarita Juniors are listening politely and promising nothing.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lisandro Montenegro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Something was said to Thomas Correa and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Gonzalo Dell Aquila 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.
Nobody at Chacarita Juniors 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Chacarita Juniors, another week without a signature from Julián Domke.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Simón Ávalos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Chacarita Juniors have no good answer.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Santiago Daniele may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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.
Tomás Migliore 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.
“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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Gonzalo Dell Aquila has come out of that comparison in the side, and Chacarita Juniors have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Nobody at Chacarita Juniors is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Chacarita Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Sanabria 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chacarita Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Julián Domke has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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 Federico Losas is on it.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jorge Flores was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Chacarita Juniors dressing room was either.
13 matches without a win, and then this, against Defensores Unidos. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Chacarita Juniors 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 Chacarita Juniors, 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.” Chacarita Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Chacarita Juniors asked and Gimnasia y Esgrima said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
11 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Sergio Vittor 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 had been thinking. Mario Sanabria 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 Chacarita Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ezequiel Gerez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Chacarita Juniors 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 Chacarita Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Axel Guerra 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Federico Losas'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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sergio Vittor trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Pablo Ortiz is on it.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Chacarita Juniors could ask drops and the wages Axel Guerra can ask rise.