7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Atlético Tucumán has to find a result from somewhere.
1 for Gianluca Ferrari, marked 7.76, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Leandro Díaz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Ortiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I did not go to Ferrocarril Midland to sit and watch. I want to come back to Atlético Tucumán and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
It needed Gianluca Ferrari to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Gimnasia La Plata, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.07 for the rest of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Tucumán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Ortiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
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 Fernando Pereyra to a room that had heard them before.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Tucumán have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“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 The request is on a desk at Atlético Tucumán, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pichi 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.
Leandro Díaz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin 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.
“I watch every Atlético Tucumán game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Danubio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Atlético Tucumán 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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Kevin Ortiz’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Atlético Tucumán needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Leonel Di Plácido 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.
“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 Atlético Tucumán, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tomás Bustos 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.
Nobody at Atlético Tucumán 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
The dugoutJuan Rodríguez asks for a word with the manager
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin 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.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alexis Canelo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Atlético Tucumán. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Mauro Carrizo has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Atlético Tucumán the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
18 goals in 21 games at Queretaro — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Atlético Tucumán updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Leandro Díaz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Kevin Ortiz 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.
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 Manuel Brondo is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tomás Durso signs something — a contract at Atlético Tucumán or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Atlético Tucumán will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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 Juan Rodríguez has written the date down.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Atlético Tucumán that is a harder question to answer.
In brief
The dugoutGastón Nazar knocks on the manager's door
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Juan Pablo Posse has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Leandro Díaz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Ortiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody at Atlético Tucumán saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
12 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Atlético Tucumán lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Moisés Brandán had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. German Vallejo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Racing Club paid $1.3M and Atlético Tucumán took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Leandro Díaz 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Tucumán will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
He is going to Lanús, the club has $5.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Thomas Rearte has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Tucumán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Tucumán will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Tucumán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Atlético Tucumán people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Tucumán have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Talleres paid $2.2M and Atlético Tucumán took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The name of Renzo Tesuri has come up in conversations Atlético Tucumán were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The deal with Boca Juniors is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Tucumán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sportivo Italiano waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Atlético Tucumán have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Tucumán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Leandro Díaz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Tucumán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“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 Atlético Tucumán, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Leandro Díaz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Ortiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Atlético Tucumán 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.
In brief
The dugoutLautaro Godoy knocks on the manager’s door
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Tucumán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Tucumán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Ortiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Atlético Tucumán 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Tucumán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Tucumán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gianluca Ferrari 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlético Tucumán, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Atlético Tucumán 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.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Atlético Tucumán could ask drops and the wages Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez can ask rise.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tomás Durso signs something — a contract at Atlético Tucumán or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Atlético Tucumán will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ramiro González will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Tucumán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Leandro Díaz 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Renzo Tesuri for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Atlético Tucumán will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 76 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Tucumán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Leonel Di Plácido 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Atlético Tucumán can tell you which week it ends in.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 85 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Tucumán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin 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.
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.
16 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Tucumán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Tucumán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Atlético Tucumán is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Kevin Ortiz 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.
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 101 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ramiro González has agreed terms with Sacachispas for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Leandro Díaz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez 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.
Nobody at Atlético Tucumán 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlético Tucumán, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 110 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luciano Vallejo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Atlético Tucumán the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Luis Ingolotti and Atlético Tucumán agree another 4 years.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Leandro Díaz 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.
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.
In brief
The terracesEverybody has an opinion about Tomás Durso
The dugoutLautaro Godoy asks for a word with the manager
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Tucumán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A brace, and Manuel Brondo takes the afternoon — 8.70
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Manuel Brondo provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Tucumán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Atlético Tucumán will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Luciano Vallejo has agreed terms with Brown de Adrogué for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Atlético Tucumán they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Tomás Durso: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Carlos Abeldaño had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Omonoia Aradippou for Maximiliano Alanís 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.
Leandro Díaz 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.
22 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Kevin Ortiz 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.
Leonel Di Plácido 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kevin Ortiz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
15 new faces, and Atlético Tucumán are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Atlético Tucumán, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Manuel Brondo is on it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.47 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Gastón Nazar did not need any: 8.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
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.
Successful dribbles: 23. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Tucumán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The name of Luis Ingolotti has come up in conversations Atlético Tucumán were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Leandro Díaz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Kevin Ortiz 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Atlético Tucumán is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Maximiliano Alanís had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Kevin Ortiz delivers — 7.35
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Kevin Ortiz scored, was marked 7.35, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
18 combined actions and 7.85. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Leandro Díaz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gianluca Ferrari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lucas Román has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Carlos Abeldaño had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez has agreed terms with Vélez for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Tucumán this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Maximiliano Ortiz 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Facundo Ojeda 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.
The offer from Maccabi Netanya for Ramiro Ruiz Rodríguez 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.
Leandro Díaz 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Gimnasia La Plata scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.