A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colegiales will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom1 Oct 2029
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Colegiales
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“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 The request is on a desk at Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Enzo Trinidad 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Colegiales told Benjamín Figueredo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 19 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colegiales will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 31 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
8 goals in one match, Leonardo González on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Colegiales and Estudiantes.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonardo Rodríguez after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Leonardo González is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colegiales will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 9.13 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Colegiales and Alvarado in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonardo Rodríguez after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Colegiales has been clear about where Luciano stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Colegiales 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colegiales will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Colegiales can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Franco Malagueño 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colegiales will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑3 against Gimnasia y Tiro, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Franco Hanashiro 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonardo Rodríguez after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Emilio Di Fulvio is on it.
In brief
SquadA Colegiales teenager takes the young player award
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 35 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Benjamín Figueredo 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.
7.43, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Colegiales had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout20 Aug 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.” Leonardo Rodríguez kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Colegiales 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colegiales will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Enzo Trinidad 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Franco Malagueño is on it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad13 Aug 2029
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Máximo Suazo 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fernando Miranda 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Colegiales, another week without a signature from Fernando Miranda.
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.
1‑2 to Ferro Carril Oeste, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout30 Jul 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 1‑2 Leonardo Rodríguez left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Enzo Trinidad’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Colegiales needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Boardroom23 Jul 2029
Deadline passes with 0 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Colegiales 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 were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Colón is saying, and nobody at Colegiales is enjoying the guessing.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Colegiales
SquadThe division's best last weekend was a Colegiales man
Two goals and a mark of 9.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The 88th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Leonardo González decided nobody was going anywhere. Racing had no time left to answer.
Colegiales had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Nueva Chicago, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Franco Malagueño 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.
9.25. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Leonardo Rodríguez on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Colegiales have made the call to Nueva Chicago. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Colegiales, another week without a signature from Fernando Miranda.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Franco Hanashiro has come out of that comparison in the side, and Colegiales have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Leonardo Rodríguez, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Enzo Trinidad signs something — a contract at Colegiales or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leonardo González provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fernando Miranda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The goal that put Quilmes ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Colegiales equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonardo Rodríguez after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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
SquadMáximo Suazo falls out with a teammate over standards
“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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Nueva Chicago keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Franco Malagueño 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Leonardo Rodríguez could afford to be generous.
In brief
SquadMáximo Suazo falls out with a teammate over standards
14 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and San Miguel were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by 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 Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 18 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑0, Leonardo Rodríguez could afford to be generous.
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.
Franco Malagueño 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Máximo Suazo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colegiales, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Luis Varela’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Colegiales needing him to play as if none of it matters.
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
Franco Hanashiro 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.
Squad21 May 2029
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Máximo Suazo 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 Franco Malagueño is on it.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 15 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout14 May 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Leonardo Rodríguez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Colegiales 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.
13 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Emilio Di Fulvio and Colegiales agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Enzo Trinidad was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Máximo Suazo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Colegiales, another week without a signature from Máximo Suazo.
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.
Fernando Miranda 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Máximo Suazo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.09 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout30 Apr 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 1‑2 Leonardo Rodríguez left the room before anybody could ask which.
Position 17 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout23 Apr 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 Leonardo Rodríguez left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Máximo Suazo 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Leonardo González is on it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Federico Marín scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Franco Malagueño 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Máximo Suazo 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.
Atlanta held the lead for 1 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Colegiales answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
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.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Colegiales will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colegiales, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Máximo Suazo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Mateo Ramírez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Máximo Suazo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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 Leonardo González is on it.
Fernando Miranda 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.
Nobody at Colegiales 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Colegiales. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Franco Malagueño 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mateo Ramírez is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Valentín Quevedo has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Successful dribbles: 24. 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Benjamín Figueredo 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Leonardo Rodríguez could afford to be generous.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Leonardo Rodríguez after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Emilio Di Fulvio is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Colegiales have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
2 academy players handed senior numbers at Colegiales
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Animal is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bruno Silva 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.
Nobody at Colegiales will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colegiales, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Facundo Montiel has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Colegiales would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Franco Malagueño 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 doing his job and he is not settling. Colegiales were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
Nobody at Colegiales 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 much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Colegiales told Ezequiel Vidal something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Colegiales that is a harder question to answer.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Nueva Chicago keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Enzo Trinidad 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 doing his job and he is not settling. Colegiales were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Colegiales told Máximo Suazo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colegiales, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentín Quevedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Colegiales have made the call to Nueva Chicago. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Benjamín Figueredo is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Aditya Sentosa has moved up it.
Colegiales have let the market know Leonardo González can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market1 Jan 2029
The window shut and Mateo Ramírez is still in the building
Colegiales spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
In brief
The dugoutMario García asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Rodrigo Monserrat has agreed terms with Banfield for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Franco Hanashiro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentín Quevedo 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 Leonardo González is on it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colegiales is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
19 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Colegiales has been clear about where Mateo Ramírez stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Emilio Di Fulvio is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colegiales people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Colegiales have done the hard part with Colón, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Franco Zicarelli trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Carlos Barba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales 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.
Nobody at Colegiales 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.
“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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Leonardo González is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gustavo Calderari will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo 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 Emilio Di Fulvio is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Colegiales could ask drops and the wages Franco Zicarelli can ask rise.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colegiales, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colegiales will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Zicarelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Franco Malagueño was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentín Quevedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Carlos Barba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Franco Hanashiro 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 was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Colegiales has been clear about where Facundo Montiel stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 Franco Zicarelli is on it.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Colegiales than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colegiales will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales 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.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Colegiales will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nobody at Colegiales 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Franco Hanashiro and Colegiales agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Enzo Trinidad was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Zicarelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Colegiales, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colegiales 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 Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Fernando Miranda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colegiales, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colegiales will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Emilio Di Fulvio and Colegiales agree another 2 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 Colegiales 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.
Nobody at Colegiales 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Colegiales. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutGabriel Gomez knocks on the manager’s door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emilio Di Fulvio and Colegiales agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo 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 club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Nobody at Colegiales 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Franco Malagueño and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Zicarelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Carlos Barba.
Nobody at Colegiales 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.
The dugout25 Sep 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Leonardo Rodríguez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Estudiantes defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
94 minutes played. Rodrigo Monserrat found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Tristán Suárez went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colegiales 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 Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Benjamín Figueredo 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colegiales is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales 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.
“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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Enzo Trinidad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Mario García 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.79, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Colegiales is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Franco Zicarelli has agreed terms with San Lorenzo for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Fernando Miranda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Benjamín Herrera and Colegiales agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Franco Zicarelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Marked 7.97. There is a kind of forward whose value only shows up when you count what he was involved in rather than what he finished, and this is the day that argument makes itself.
Franco Malagueño 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo 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.
Marked 8.56 — 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.
0‑3 to All Boys, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Carlos Barba will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ricardo Muñoz 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Benjamín Herrera 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. Pedro Vega 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Zicarelli 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Santiago Strasorier will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales 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 Valentín Quevedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He signed expecting a bigger stage than the one he found. It has not taken long, and it has not taken the dressing room long to notice either.
The dugout7 Aug 2028
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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Leonardo Rodríguez to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 90% of the Colegiales income
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Franco Zicarelli provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Colegiales and Ferro Carril Oeste, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
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 2‑4 defeat, delivered by Leonardo Rodríguez to a room that had heard them before.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Unión de Santa Fe waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colegiales is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Franco Zicarelli reports back to Colegiales with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Lautaro Gordillo was one of the reasons people came, and $1.1M does not replace that by itself.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Gustavo Calderari 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.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
“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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mauricio Camargo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
15 clean sheets and counting. Strikers leave this ground muttering his name, which is exactly how a goalkeeper measures a good season.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo 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.
“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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Augusto Alcorcel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales 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 Valentín Quevedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Leonardo Rodríguez chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Los Andes had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Franco Malagueño 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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Getting past Emilio Di Fulvio has become the hardest job in the division
13 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Nobody at Colegiales 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.
The dugout3 Jul 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Leonardo Rodríguez was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Colegiales dressing room was either.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Rodrigo Monserrat decided nobody was going anywhere. San Martín had no time left to answer.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentín Quevedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match24 Jun 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Colegiales. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rodrigo Monserrat. 1‑0 against San Martín, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mauricio Camargo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Franco Malagueño and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo 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.
9 combined actions and 6.79. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Valentín Quevedo provided it, and the 8.85 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Augusto Alcorcel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Augusto Alcorcel has agreed terms with Godoy Cruz for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Franco Hanashiro 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Valentín Quevedo. 2‑0 against Los Andes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Getting past Emilio Di Fulvio has become the hardest job in the division
11 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Marked 8.00 — 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.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
106% of the income goes out in wages at Colegiales
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
8.00. 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.
10 shut-outs and counting. Goalkeepers are only noticed when they fail, and Emilio Di Fulvio has given nobody the chance.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Leonardo Rodríguez, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Enzo Trinidad 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 left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo 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.
8.48. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Zicarelli 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
7.84, 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Colegiales and Alvarado 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.
Marked 8.33 — 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 16 actions, 6.74, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo 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.
Minute 89, against Madryn, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Lautaro Gordillo is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Colegiales rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Gimnasia y Tiro had no answer to any of it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
A 3‑2 win over Gimnasia y Tiro, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 May 2028
Mario García 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Facundo Rivero
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colegiales will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Out, 2‑4 to Defensa y Justicia, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Leonardo González provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mauricio Camargo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Franco Hanashiro 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colegiales will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Enzo Trinidad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom17 Apr 2028
101% of the income goes out in wages at Colegiales
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Colegiales has been clear about where Mauricio Camargo stands, which is more than many ever get.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“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.
In brief
SquadGetting past Emilio Di Fulvio has become the hardest job in the division
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colegiales will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Enzo Trinidad 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 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.
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 point taken on 90 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colegiales will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
Fernando Miranda and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Valentín Quevedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 17 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Colegiales will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mauricio Camargo 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 Valentín Quevedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Emanuel Insúa
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Racing will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Enzo Trinidad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Mario García 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
6 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.
Franco Malagueño was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mateo Ramírez, and the manager let it.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Enzo Trinidad's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Leonardo Rodríguez to a room that had heard them before.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
3 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emilio Di Fulvio and Colegiales agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
San Martín made Colegiales work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Zicarelli 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Leonardo Rodríguez on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Colegiales 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 version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.46, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
Fernando Miranda was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
10 combined actions and 7.24. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“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.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Valentín Quevedo will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Colegiales escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Gustavo Calderari had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Franco Malagueño 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.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario García 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 date was given and it came and went. Nobody upstairs will call it a broken promise, and nobody downstairs will call it anything else for a long time.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo 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 Emilio Di Fulvio is on 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 Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo 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 phone has started ringing about Gustavo Calderari again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Batumi. Colegiales are listening politely and promising nothing.
Boardroom24 Jan 2028
108% of the income goes out in wages at Colegiales
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lautaro Gordillo signs something — a contract at Colegiales or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Colegiales that is a harder question to answer.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Colegiales could ask drops and the wages Mauricio Camargo can ask rise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Zicarelli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Colegiales have no good answer.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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.
Enzo Trinidad 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentín Quevedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Benjamín Moreno 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. General is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Colegiales are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Leones for Gustavo Calderari 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.
Enzo Trinidad was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Colegiales will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He is 17, and nobody at Colegiales signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Franco Malagueño and Colegiales agree another 4 years.
Franco Malagueño 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rosario Central have kept their man, and Colegiales go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Federico Marín 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.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Colegiales are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales 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 Elías Ocampo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Rosario Central have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 91 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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Colegiales they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Estudiantes will make the call about Mauro Albertengo this week. Colegiales have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Elías Ocampo 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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 Colegiales will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Franco Malagueño 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Colegiales has been clear about where Emanuel Insúa stands, which is more than many ever get.
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. 26 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. Colegiales will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Colegiales can pretend not to have heard.
Fernando Miranda 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Elías Ocampo 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Colegiales 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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Elías Ocampo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Colegiales lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Toloza will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales 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 Federico Marín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ignacio Vallejos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Colegiales know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
Franco Malagueño 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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Elías Ocampo 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 Colegiales 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ignacio Vallejos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The coaching staff have set Franco Zicarelli something separate to do. Whether it is a weakness being addressed or a strength being sharpened, nobody outside the building will know until it shows up on a Saturday.