Marked for Benjamín Mellado
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Dec 2027
104 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Huachipato lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market6 Dec 2027
Rafael Caroca hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Huachipato can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Ezequiel Cañete 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A row about effort at Huachipato
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Claudio Sepúlveda was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Gutiérrez, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Sebastián Pino commits to Huachipato for another 3 years.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
A loan move for Nahuel Estévez is in the works
Huachipato have made the call to AC Milan. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets6 Dec 2027
A loan enquiry to Universidad de Concepcion: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Huachipato have gone to Gimnasia y Esgrima with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market21 Dec 2026
The offer from Universidad Catolica for Benjamín Mellado 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.
Market21 Dec 2026
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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Ezequiel Cañete and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad21 Dec 2026
At 21 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Claudio Sepúlveda 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.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
Huachipato asked and Vélez said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luis Cabrera, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
A loan enquiry to Racing Club: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Fee done, terms next for Lucas Soto
Huachipato and Colo-Colo have settled on $1.1M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
An offer of $700.0K for Diego Ulloa
Huachipato have gone to Colo-Colo with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Huachipato this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Harold Antiñirre and Huachipato agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market14 Dec 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Guillermo Riquelme is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Transfer targets14 Dec 2026
Vélez have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Nelson Guaiquil 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Huachipato will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.