Marked for Benjamín Giménez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Oct 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Words at Arsenal training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentino Ferreyra 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 dugout15 Oct 2035
Hernán Navarro has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Arsenal 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Dec 2034
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Arsenal can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets11 Dec 2034
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Arsenal have done the hard part with Boca Juniors, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets11 Dec 2034
Fla will not be coming to Arsenal
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Talleres is saying, and nobody at Arsenal is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets11 Dec 2034
$600.00 on the table at Patronato. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets11 Dec 2034
Arsenal asked and Defensa y Justicia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market11 Dec 2034
The name of Felipe Álvarez keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Arsenal say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
Liam Lucero gets picked when it counts
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 Liam Lucero is on it.
Squad11 Dec 2034
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Arsenal will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout11 Dec 2034
“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.