Marked for Daniel Ramirez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market12 Mar 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Estudiantes can pretend not to have heard.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Siro Rosané 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matías Ormart commits to Estudiantes for another 1 years.
Match10 Mar 2029
0‑1 to Colón, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
“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.
Player ratings12 Mar 2029
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.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Estudiantes are still strangers to each other
6 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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Daniel Ramirez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces11 Dec 2028
The mood at Estudiantes 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.
Boardroom11 Dec 2028
Pressure builds in the Estudiantes boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market11 Dec 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Francisco Romero has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Estudiantes is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets11 Dec 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boca Juniors have kept their man, and Estudiantes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francisco Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch11 Dec 2028
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Estudiantes, and 4 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Transfer targets11 Dec 2028
A loan move for Ramiro García is in the works
Estudiantes have made the call to Boca Juniors. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Valentín Ramos has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom4 Dec 2028
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Match4 Dec 2028
Every point is an argument now for Estudiantes
Position 13 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market4 Dec 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Mauro Valiente 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.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Agustín Lastra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
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.
Transfer targets4 Dec 2028
A loan enquiry to Boca Juniors: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout4 Dec 2028
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Alejandro Cabrera is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Valentín Ramos has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom6 Nov 2028
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Match6 Nov 2028
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market6 Nov 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad6 Nov 2028
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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Mauro Valiente 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
3 matches without a goal for Estudiantes
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Match4 Nov 2028
0‑2 to River Plate, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Francisco Romero 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market31 Jul 2028
“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 Estudiantes, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Alejo Mainero has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Estudiantes is pretending otherwise.
Market31 Jul 2028
The name of Alejo Mainero has come up in conversations Estudiantes were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad31 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Estudiantes will try again when the window opens; Atlético Tucumán may not be selling by then.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Romero 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Market31 Jul 2028
He is 18, and nobody at Estudiantes signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Ramirez and Estudiantes agree another 3 years.