Marked for Tim Payne
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
Richard Sánchez damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market28 Dec 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market28 Dec 2026
“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.
Market28 Dec 2026
Banfield come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Olimpia did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Market28 Dec 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Olimpia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Olimpia
Derlis Gonzalez 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Olimpia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Richard Ortiz 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 dugout28 Dec 2026
“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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
94 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Olimpia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market9 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Olimpia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Luciano Lollo 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Olimpia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Leguizamón 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
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.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Richard Ortiz has written the date down.
Market9 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Olimpia, another week without a signature from Esteban Matus.
Market9 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Olimpia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Juan Ángel Vera 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
Upbeat
Market31 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Víctor Palacios will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Olimpia the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A falling-out at Olimpia
Derlis Gonzalez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market31 Aug 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Alex Franco 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Olimpia is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Derlis Gonzalez 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Imanol Enríquez again, and this time the name on the line is Slask. Olimpia are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Olimpia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Leguizamón 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
“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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Olimpia know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.