Marked for Ignacio Neira
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
Laureano Puñet 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.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maximiliano Viera, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Aarón Acosta
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Rampla Juniors will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
Laureano Puñet knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Laureano Puñet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Match26 Feb 2028
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Cerrito? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Looking ahead28 Feb 2028
Fenix next, and one man in the Rampla Juniors dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad28 Feb 2028
“If we are going to be beaten, let it not be because somebody in here could not be bothered.” He stood up and said it in front of everybody, which is a thing a squad remembers about a man for years.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout25 Oct 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rampla Juniors may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Yamil García 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.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
Ignacio Neira knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ignacio Neira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Oct 2027
Brian Mancini 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 Rampla Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Yamil García 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Laureano Puñet 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2027
39 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rampla Juniors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match6 Sep 2027
24 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The terraces6 Sep 2027
Anger at Rampla Juniors spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market6 Sep 2027
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Pressure builds in the Rampla Juniors boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Yamil García and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Laureano Puñet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
“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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Rampla Juniors trim $613.9K from the budget
The money the manager was told he had is now money the manager used to have. $613.9K, gone from the table without a statement, and a dressing room that understands what it means.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Aug 2027
“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 Rampla Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
Fodé Doumbouya: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rampla Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Yamil García 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Jul 2027
Nicolás Royón breaks a bone — 28 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 28 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match10 Jul 2027
0‑4 to Cerrito, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market12 Jul 2027
The offer from Fenix for Lautaro Rinaldi 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
“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 targets12 Jul 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with Deportivo Maldonado; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
No thanks: Martín García rejects the move
Rampla Juniors had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Nacional, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad12 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets12 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Danubio have kept their man, and Rampla Juniors go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yhojan Díaz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Brian Mancini
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rampla Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Laureano Puñet and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ignacio Neira and Rampla Juniors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Laureano Puñet 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Rampla Juniors asked and Agropecuario Argentino said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The window shuts on the Brian Lapaz deal
Rampla Juniors ran out of time with Oriental. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 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 Rampla Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Nov 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nahuel Nunez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market9 Nov 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Matias Gomez 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Ignacio Neira commits to Rampla Juniors for another 3 years.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Laureano Puñet knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Laureano Puñet trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Rampla Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Johnson Ayaane 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.