Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Mauricio Benítez scored, was marked 7.81, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
6 goals in one match, Gonzalo Morales on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Boca Juniors and Deportivo Riestra.
Player ratings13 Aug 2029
Gonzalo Morales was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.58. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Estudiantes moved on, Valentino Simoni reports back to Boca Juniors, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I watch every Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Santa Fe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Juan Augusto Pussetto 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.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Fénix waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
7.61, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Cortés will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and San Martín SJ waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $132.2K of what Boca Juniors paid for Ricardo Solbes is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
The bid was some way short and Boca Juniors did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 30 gone
That is the business done at Boca Juniors until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastián Villa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Leandro Brey 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.
“I watch every Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Brown de Adrogué runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Boca Juniors have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 dugoutAlan Velasco asks for a word with the manager
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Caracas waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Milton Delgado 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 Jul 2029
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Benítez 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.
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 Marco Pellegrino is on it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Boca Juniors told Agustín Martegani something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Boca Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Milton Delgado and Boca Juniors agree another 5 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The tie is over and the right side of it is theirs. 1‑0 on the night, a dressing room that will not come down for a day and a half, and a next round nobody has thought about yet.
25 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Boca Juniors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 56 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The offer from Central Córdoba SdE for Leandro Brey 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.
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 7.65 for the rest of it.
2‑0, and a name the town will attach to this for as long as anybody remembers the season. Agustín Martegani did it in the one match where doing it is worth more than doing it beautifully.
33 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Boca Juniors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There were 85 minutes on the clock and Tigre had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Boca Juniors did not stop to explain themselves.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Velurtas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
In brief
SquadWords at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
The tie is over and the right side of it is theirs. 3‑0 on the night, a dressing room that will not come down for a day and a half, and a next round nobody has thought about yet.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Boca Juniors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A 1‑0 win over Deportivo Riestra, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Boca Juniors have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Barinaga will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer from San Martín SJ for Mauricio Benítez 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.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
1‑0 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Boca Juniors are entitled to ignore.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors 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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Leandro Brey 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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastián Villa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Santa Fe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Iker Zufiaurre has his answer from Boca Juniors; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Boca Juniors, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Lucas Janson scored in the 87th minute, Estudiantes had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Boca Juniors took the lot.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Iker Zufiaurre 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.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Leandro Brey now has 25 of them across 130 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
Sebastián Villa 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Brian Aguirre
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Squad14 May 2029
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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 is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Brandon Cortés will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ayrton Costa 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout7 May 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Enzo Ferreyra left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gonzalo Maroni provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.94 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Velurtas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Boca Juniors and Defensores in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
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 Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him 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.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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.
Leandro Brey 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.
San Lorenzo left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom16 Apr 2029
Nobody left the Boca Juniors dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Enzo Ferreyra to a room that had heard them before.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Milton Delgado is on 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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastián Villa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“I watch every Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Santa Fe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Boca Juniors will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Boca Juniors prefer.
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.43 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Velurtas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Julián Carrasco 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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 2‑0 win over Unión de Santa Fe, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
30 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.30 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Boca Juniors has been clear about where Mateo Mendia stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Enzo Ferreyra kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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.
29 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.00 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Sebastián Villa will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
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.
In brief
Squad27 new faces, and Boca Juniors are still learning each other
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Leandro Brey 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Milton Delgado trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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.
28 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Alan Velasco 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.
27 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Match10 Feb 2029
After 25 games, Boca Juniors finally taste it again
The first defeat in 25 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Central Córdoba SdE; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Brandon Cortés 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 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boca Juniors moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Enzo Ferreyra, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Pedro Velurtas has agreed terms with Independiente Rivadavia for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
6 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 thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ayrton Costa 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Juan Pablo Arias is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Maximiliano Martínez 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Milton Delgado signs something — a contract at Boca Juniors or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Boca Juniors have no good answer.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Hapoel Haifa for Mateo Morro 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Boca Juniors, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gonzalo Maroni has his answer from Boca Juniors; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Aarón Quiros is on it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Boca Juniors have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Independiente for Ignacio 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.
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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
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 Ayrton Costa is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Boca Juniors have no good answer.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $264.9K of what Boca Juniors paid for Lucas Cornejo is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The offer from Palestino for Gonzalo Maroni 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.
The deal that would have taken Ramiro García to Estudiantes has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Boca Juniors with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leandro Brey commits to Boca Juniors for another 4 years.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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.
Ayrton Costa 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 offer from Belgrano for Leandro Brey 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Boca Juniors will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Platense paid $390.0K and Boca Juniors took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Add another name to the list: Independiente have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ignacio Rodríguez. The answer from Boca Juniors has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jeremías Merlo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gimnasia y Esgrima waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boca Juniors have gone to River Plate with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Real Pilar have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about David Sotelo. The answer from Boca Juniors has not changed — yet.
“I watch every Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nacional runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
The dugoutAarón Quiros has become a man the manager trusts
27 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Racing Club go through and Boca Juniors go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Position 2, 30 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Boca Juniors have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Boca Juniors have had the benefit of it.
The offer from Central Córdoba SdE for Malcom Braida 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Boca Juniors have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Talleres paid $27.8M and Boca Juniors took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Mitre had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Gonzalo Gelini has gone, the accounts have $27.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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.
Ayrton Costa 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 offer from Sportivo Luqueno for Mateo Mendia 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.
The name of Juan Barinaga has come up in conversations Boca Juniors were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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 Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sportivo Luqueno runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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.
26 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
1‑1, and Rosario Central go on. Nine months of work settled by a couple of evenings, which is what a playoff is and what nobody designing one thinks about.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Giménez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Cruz Payal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
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 Aarón Quiros is on it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Boca Juniors has been clear about where Franco Torres stands, which is more than many ever get.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Ayrton Costa 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Gonzalo Gelini has his answer from Boca Juniors; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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.
34 appearances at Ponte Preta and the goals have stopped going in. Boca Juniors lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
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.
“I did not go to Sportivo Luqueno to sit and watch. I want to come back to Boca Juniors and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
9 goals in 19 games at Operário Ferroviário — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Boca Juniors updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
25 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Argentinos Juniors are out and Boca Juniors go through, 1‑0 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Kevin Giménez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 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 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Gonzalo Morales decided nobody was going anywhere. Lanús had no time left to answer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Cruz Payal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ayrton Costa 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Matías Arias 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Gonzalo Morales. 1‑0 against Lanús, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Sotelo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ayrton Costa 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 Boca Juniors, and 4 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Milton Delgado is on it.
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 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.
“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 Boca Juniors, and 11 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Boca Juniors, and 0 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Agustín Marchesín is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
Player ratingsJuan Barinaga beats them one at a time
22 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Jabes Saralegui. 1‑0 against San Lorenzo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.37 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Boca Juniors, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Aarón Quiros’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Boca Juniors needing him to play as if none of it matters.
20 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bnei Sakhnin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.21 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado 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 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Milton Delgado 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.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Juan Cruz Payal will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ayrton Costa 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 phone has started ringing about Dylan Gorosito again, and this time the name on the line is Bnei Sakhnin. Boca Juniors are listening politely and promising nothing.
Three points for Boca Juniors, 1‑0 the final word against Instituto in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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 Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Nacional runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. David Sotelo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Juan Cruz Payal has agreed terms with Tigre 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 Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Joaquín Ruiz 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Fabián Chazarreta 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors 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.
18 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
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.
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at Boca Juniors where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to Excursionistas until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns him.
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. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.80 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Gadiel Paoli 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 Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 38 gone
That is the business done at Boca Juniors until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Boca Juniors 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dylan Gorosito had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Matías Baroni 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors 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 Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Boca Juniors have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Academia Puerto Cabello for Agustín Martegani 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Kevin Giménez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutLeandro Paredes has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
A 4‑0 win over Gimnasia y Esgrima, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Guarani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
0‑0 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Boca Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors 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.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Agustín Marchesín: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
1‑0 does it. One match from everything the season was for — the largest morning a club can have without having actually won anything, and the one every supporter would take right now anyway.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Deportivo Armenio moved on, Juan Barinaga reports back to Boca Juniors, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑1 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Position 2, 30 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The tie is over and the right side of it is theirs. 3‑0 on the night, a dressing room that will not come down for a day and a half, and a next round nobody has thought about yet.
50 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Boca Juniors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Montevideo City Torque for Alan Velasco 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.
The phone has started ringing about Agustín Martegani again, and this time the name on the line is Guarani. Boca Juniors are listening politely and promising nothing.
In brief
SquadWords at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
59 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ayrton Costa 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.
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 Carlos Palacios is on 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 Boca Juniors, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
MarketNobody mentions the fee for Milton Delgado any more
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Boca Juniors lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Aarón Quiros 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 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.
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors 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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Agustín Marchesín and Boca Juniors agree another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Boca Juniors will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
28 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.17 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonel Flores will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Milton Delgado 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Leandro Paredes. 1‑0 against Newell's Old Boys, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The words a physio says slowly. 101 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.40 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A mark of 7.96 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ignacio Rodríguez 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.
109 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Successful dribbles: 36. 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.
Position 2, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 10 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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 words a physio says slowly. 117 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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Leandro Paredes will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Boca Juniors escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Milton Delgado 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 words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Marco Pellegrino, marked 7.95, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonel Flores will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Aarón Quiros 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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 Boca Juniors 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
The division's best last weekend was a Boca Juniors man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Carlos Palacios was the best thing in any of them.
The dugout27 Mar 2028
Lucas Janson is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Simón Rivero’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Boca Juniors needing him to play as if none of it matters.
1‑0 against Independiente, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Aarón Quiros was at the centre of the description.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Carlos Palacios provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Gonzalo Gelini, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.93
A mark of 7.93 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Up for the corner, and Aarón Quiros delivers — 7.87
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Aarón Quiros scored, was marked 7.87, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlos Palacios was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1 for Ayrton Costa, marked 7.96, 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Ayrton Costa 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 watch every Boca Juniors game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Excursionistas runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Talleres tried to reorganise, Boca Juniors did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Boca Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Nothing has been signed and nothing has been denied. Supporters who have lived through one of these before know the quiet part lasts months and the loud part lasts a week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leandro Paredes and Boca Juniors agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonel Flores will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ayrton Costa 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ignacio Rodríguez. 1‑0 against Atlanta, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Agustín Marchesín: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Gonzalo Gelini, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The offer from Portland Timbers for Matías Fuentes 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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Deportivo Riestra spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Boca Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.25 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
He is 22 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 offer from Maccabi Petach Tikva for Iker Zufiaurre 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonel Flores will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The board have signed the man in the dugout to a longer contract, which says more than any statement of support. Stability is easy to promise and costly to keep.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Joaquín Ferreyra 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 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 Agustín Marchesín is on it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Carlos Torres 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Bruno López is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Boca Juniors told Agustín Marchesín something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 Boca Juniors, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Leandro Paredes is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Cristian Pavón
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kaizer Chiefs had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Milton Delgado is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Iker Zufiaurre trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Brian Aguirre had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Position 3, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
Milton Delgado 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 medical room confirms 18 days on the sidelines for Alan Velasco, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Battaglia 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.
47 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.
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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonel Flores will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boca Juniors offered $1.0M; Vélez said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.1M — a club that wants Alexis Pereyra enough to be asked twice.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Milton Delgado and Boca Juniors agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Boca Juniors 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 Milton Delgado was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Boca Juniors have had the benefit of it.
The offer from Coquimbo Unido for Facundo Jainikoski 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.
Boca Juniors have gone to Vélez with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Add another name to the list: Sarmiento have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Juan Barinaga. The answer from Boca Juniors has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Boca Juniors training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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.
Ayrton Costa 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.
27 games, 7 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Boca Juniors now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
16 goals in 30 games at Atlanta — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Boca Juniors updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Ciro Spalletta is living that version at Boca Juniors, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boca Juniors asked and Independiente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Facundo Jainikoski has come up in conversations Boca Juniors were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Ayrton Costa 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Boca Juniors people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Boca Juniors will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
River Plate go through. The table said this team was good enough for months and the format does not care what the table said, which is the argument every eliminated club has had with itself since playoffs were invented.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Deportes Limache waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leandro Paredes provided it, and the 8.35 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Boca Juniors have gone to Elche with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
He is going to Racing Club, the club has $13.3M 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.
1‑0, and a name the town will attach to this for as long as anybody remembers the season. Leandro Paredes did it in the one match where doing it is worth more than doing it beautifully.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Unión de Santa Fe waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Boca Juniors is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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 Boca Juniors, and it is not being withdrawn.
1 for Leandro Paredes, marked 7.74, 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.
Lautaro Di 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.
1‑0 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Boca Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
1‑2 against Defensor Sporting. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
16 goals in 30 games at Atlanta — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Boca Juniors updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Ayrton Costa 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.
12 goals in 27 games at Tigre — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Boca Juniors updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
11 goals in 22 games at Alianza Lima — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Boca Juniors updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
1‑0 settles it, and a club that spent a season earning the right to play these games has won one of them. Somebody else's season ended tonight, which is the part nobody mentions in the celebrations.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match17 Nov 2027
Juan Ramírez wins it after the whistle should have gone
97 minutes played. Juan Ramírez found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Rosario Central went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Facundo Herrera 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Mateo Campos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Juan Martín Núñez 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Boca Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Boca Juniors 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ángel Romero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
1‑0 against Aguilas Doradas, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors 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. Adam Bareiro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Leandro Paredes scored, was marked 7.66, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Lautaro Di 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.
Estudiantes held the lead for 2 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Boca Juniors answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Boca Juniors can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Matías Arias, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.82
A mark of 7.82 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Lautaro Di Lollo 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Matías Arias 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.
1‑0 against Aguilas Doradas, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 83 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 2, 24 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Boca Juniors will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Matías Arias 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Boca Juniors will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
16 goals in 32 games at San Miguel — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Boca Juniors updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Boca Juniors can tell you which week it ends in.
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 words a physio says slowly. 17 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors 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. Adam Bareiro will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Boca Juniors the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ayrton Costa 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.
Newell's Old Boys next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Matías Arias 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.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
0‑1 against Olimpia. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Boca Juniors have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Lautaro Di Lollo 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Boca Juniors heard it as anything else.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Boca Juniors lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Boca Juniors will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
15 goals in 28 games at Atlanta — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Boca Juniors updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Carlos Palacios. 2‑1 against San Lorenzo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Marked 8.07 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The words a physio says slowly. 43 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.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 Boca Juniors this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 21 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.