Marked for Facundo Luna
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jan 2033
A fracture rules Lucas Bernal out for 129 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Gimnasia y Esgrima will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Jan 2033
“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 The request is on a desk at Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout24 Jan 2033
This is not rotation. Paragua has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Jan 2033
Rolo signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rolo commits to Gimnasia y Esgrima for another 3 years.
The dugout24 Jan 2033
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 Alan Villarruel is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2033
136 days out for Lucas Bernal after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Gimnasia y Esgrima will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market17 Jan 2033
Ricardo Paz 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 Gimnasia y Esgrima can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout17 Jan 2033
This is not rotation. Pedro Ferreyra has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending otherwise.
Market17 Jan 2033
The Chedi Afifeh story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Chedi Afifeh signs something — a contract at Gimnasia y Esgrima or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The terraces17 Jan 2033
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Gimnasia y Esgrima would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Market17 Jan 2033
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad17 Jan 2033
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Gimnasia y Esgrima would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
The dugout17 Jan 2033
Facundo Luna asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market27 Dec 2032
“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.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2032
The clubs have shaken hands with Barracas Central; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2032
The offer went to Atlético Tucumán this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. San Lorenzo have kept their man, and Gimnasia y Esgrima go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
This is not rotation. Paragua has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending otherwise.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2032
Newell's Old Boys 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.
The dugout27 Dec 2032
Alan Villarruel has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima 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 dugout27 Dec 2032
Luis Gutierrez asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout22 Nov 2032
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Gimnasia y Esgrima may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market22 Nov 2032
“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 dugout22 Nov 2032
This is not rotation. Pedro Ferreyra has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending otherwise.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gimnasia y Esgrima, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market22 Nov 2032
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Gimnasia y Esgrima could ask drops and the wages Benjamín Sachelaridi can ask rise.
The dugout22 Nov 2032
The manager makes an example of Pedro Ferreyra
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Oct 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout4 Oct 2032
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match2 Oct 2032
Defensores Unidos left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Match2 Oct 2032
4 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
The dugout4 Oct 2032
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 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Jorge Ferrari to a room that had heard them before.
Squad4 Oct 2032
A place in the month's best eleven for Chedi Afifeh
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Chedi Afifeh has come out of that comparison in the side, and Gimnasia y Esgrima have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout4 Oct 2032
Alan Villarruel has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima 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.
Market4 Oct 2032
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Gimnasia y Esgrima, another week without a signature from Enzo Romero.
The dugout4 Oct 2032
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Gimnasia y Esgrima, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Aug 2032
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The dugout23 Aug 2032
This is not rotation. Nicolás Romano has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima is pretending otherwise.
Match21 Aug 2032
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Gimnasia y Esgrima are no longer polite ones.
Match21 Aug 2032
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Match21 Aug 2032
Sportivo Italiano left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout23 Aug 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad23 Aug 2032
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Facundo Luna commits to Gimnasia y Esgrima for another 3 years.
The terraces23 Aug 2032
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
The dugout23 Aug 2032
Enzo Romero has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Gimnasia y Esgrima 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Feb 2032
“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 Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Feb 2032
18 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
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.
Market2 Feb 2032
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Valentino Rossi has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market2 Feb 2032
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nicolás Cohen is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market2 Feb 2032
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Facundo Luna is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The dugout2 Feb 2032
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.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luis Aguirre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.