Position 3, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Valentín Quevedo. 1‑0 against Güemes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Rivero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Ignacio Vallejos wants continental football; whether Colegiales can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not 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.
A 2‑0 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.
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Fernández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
2 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
The clubs have 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.
Santiago Valenzuela 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.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Arsenal spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Iván Fernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Santiago Valenzuela 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. 2‑1 against All Boys, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Emilio Di Fulvio, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Rivero 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.” José García on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Santiago Valenzuela trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Enzo Trinidad
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.
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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lautaro Gordillo 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 Santiago Valenzuela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lautaro Gordillo and Colegiales agree another 3 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.
Squad2 Apr 2029
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Rivero 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 Iván Fernández is on it.
Ferro Carril Oeste next, and one man in the Colegiales dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Rivero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Iván Fernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colegiales can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ignacio Vallejos 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Valenzuela 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 86, against Alvarado, 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.
5 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.
0 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.30 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Valentín Quevedo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Rivero 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.
In brief
Player ratingsIván Fernández was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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 Facundo Rivero was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Colegiales can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emilio Di Fulvio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Gian Piaggio will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colegiales can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Enzo Trinidad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Valenzuela 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.
Three points for Colegiales, 3‑1 the final word against San Martín in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout26 Feb 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.” José García, on a 3‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Iván Fernández will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Santiago Valenzuela 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.
7 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.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by José García to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Colegiales
The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
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.
“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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucio Castillo. 3‑2 against San Miguel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Colón have kept their man, and Colegiales go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
22 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.
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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Joaquín Sevegnani reports back to Colegiales with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
29 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colegiales have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Liniers for Gian Piaggio 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.
Ignacio Vallejos 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Valenzuela 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Colón have kept their man, and Colegiales go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Santiago Valenzuela 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Independiente Rivadavia have kept their man, and Colegiales go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
44 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.
“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. Valentín Quevedo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Colegiales people have started saying his name 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 Santiago Valenzuela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Colón have kept their man, and Colegiales go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Jan 2029
7 new faces, and Colegiales are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The words a physio says slowly. 51 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colegiales have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
Colegiales have gone to Colón with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Colegiales asked and Barracas Central said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The 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. 58 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colegiales have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Colegiales, and it is not being withdrawn.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Colegiales have had the benefit of it.
Colegiales have gone to San Lorenzo with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Santiago Valenzuela 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.
Add another name to the list: Alvarado have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Iván Fernández. The answer from Colegiales has not changed — yet.
65 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.
“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.
$370.0K was the most the club would pay and Estudiantes were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Ignacio Vallejos 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 offer went to Colón this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Hanashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
72 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colegiales have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Colegiales have had the benefit of it.
$370.0K on the table at Estudiantes. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Darius Kazlauskas has just signed for Colegiales, and for once the answer mattered.
79 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Central Norte waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colegiales is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Villa San Carlos keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
The offer went to Atlético Tucumán this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
86 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Hanashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barracas Central have kept their man, and Colegiales go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
93 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. Franco Zicarelli will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Colegiales told Federico Marín something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Franco Malagueño trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
100 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.
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.
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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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.
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.
107 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.
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 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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 Iván Fernández 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.
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.
Ignacio Vallejos 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Colegiales are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Calderari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“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 Federico Marín.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Federico Marín trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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.
“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.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Ignacio Vallejos may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Lautaro Gordillo plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Colegiales can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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 Lautaro Gordillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Calderari 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.
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.
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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Franco Malagueño may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
Position 4 on 49 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
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.
“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 Emilio Di Fulvio.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Calderari is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colegiales, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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 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.
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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Calderari 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.
“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.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lautaro Gordillo may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Montiel 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 Franco Hanashiro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“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.
Ignacio Vallejos 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 dugout11 Sep 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Ignacio Vallejos'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.
“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 Federico Marín.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 49 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
“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. Franco Zicarelli 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. Gustavo Calderari has agreed terms with Comunicaciones for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Ignacio Vallejos 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 Hanashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 Hanashiro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Montiel 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 Enzo Trinidad is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colegiales, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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.
“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 dugout21 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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by José García to a room that had heard them before.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Colegiales can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Leonel Ortíz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Hanashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“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.
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.
Colegiales had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Belgrano, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Montiel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Colegiales the goodbyes have quietly begun.
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucio Castillo. 3‑1 against Arsenal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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.
Colegiales asked and Vélez said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 2 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Leonel Ortíz has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at 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 Franco Hanashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Quilmes tried to reorganise, Colegiales did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
“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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Argentinos Juniors is saying, and nobody at Colegiales is enjoying the guessing.
Ignacio Vallejos 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 offer went to Instituto this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Colegiales offered $40.0K; Colón said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“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, wages agreed, and Liniers waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colegiales is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Belgrano keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
Ignacio Vallejos 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.
Colegiales asked and Barracas Central said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and San Miguel waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Colegiales is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Argentinos Juniors have accepted the money. What Colegiales do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Valentín Quevedo provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
The deal with Nueva Chicago is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
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.
Colegiales offered $12.0K; Instituto said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The phone has started ringing about Joaquín Sevegnani again, and this time the name on the line is Liniers. Colegiales are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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.
Colegiales and Colón have settled on $190.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
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.
Colegiales offered $190.0K; Boca Juniors said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Güemes left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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 were 89 minutes on the clock and San Martín had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Colegiales did not stop to explain themselves.
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Colegiales had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Newell's Old Boys, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mauricio Camargo has agreed terms with Brown de Adrogué for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Ignacio Vallejos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
$12.0K on the table at Instituto. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
In brief
SquadWords at Colegiales training over how hard people work
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Montiel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A loan enquiry to Newell's Old Boys: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Emilio Di Fulvio has come out of that comparison in the side, and Colegiales have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Colegiales told Franco Zicarelli something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
“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 Franco Malagueño.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lautaro Gordillo provided it, and the 8.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
This is not rotation. Mauricio Camargo has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Colegiales is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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.” José García on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
“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.
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.
Ignacio Vallejos 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Patronato; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” José García after 0‑2, 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 Enzo Trinidad is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Colegiales, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Colegiales are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, José García could afford to be generous.
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.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Federico Marín scored, was marked 7.92, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
7 goals in one match, Valentín Quevedo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Colegiales and Madryn.
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.
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 89th, and Gimnasia y Tiro spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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.
Ignacio Vallejos 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 Hanashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 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.
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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lautaro Gordillo provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Montiel was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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. 10 actions, 7.12, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“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 Franco Malagueño.
The dugout17 Apr 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.” José García, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutEnzo Trinidad has become a man the manager trusts
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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lautaro Gordillo. 1‑0 against Quilmes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, José García could afford to be generous.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valentín Quevedo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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. 52 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Montiel 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.
Atlanta next, and one man in the Colegiales dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought 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 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.
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.
“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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 66 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Gustavo Calderari: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“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 terraces13 Mar 2028
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 25 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Hanashiro 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. 73 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ignacio Vallejos and Colegiales agree another 4 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.
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.
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.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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 were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” José García after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
“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.
Ignacio Vallejos 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.
Colegiales ran out of time with River Plate. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
5 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.
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.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Calderari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Colegiales will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from San Telmo for Mauricio Camargo was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to Nueva Chicago this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Colegiales have done the hard part with River Plate, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Belgrano is saying, and nobody at Colegiales is enjoying the guessing.
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.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
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 given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
$180.0K settles it between the clubs for Uriel Funes
Atlético Tucumán have accepted the money. What Colegiales do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Colegiales had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Huracán, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
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.
Colegiales asked and Boca Juniors said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Federico Marín
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.
“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 medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Colegiales have done the hard part with Belgrano, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Colegiales asked and Independiente said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The 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 Ignacio Vallejos trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colegiales have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Belgrano is saying, and nobody at Colegiales is enjoying the guessing.
Ignacio Vallejos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Ferrocarril Midland is saying, and nobody at Colegiales is enjoying the guessing.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. All Boys have kept their man, and Colegiales go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Franco Malagueño.
5 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.
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 Enzo Trinidad is on it.
16 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Colegiales had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
Colegiales and Ferrocarril Midland have settled on $180.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucio Castillo wants continental football; whether Colegiales can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not 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 fee is $73.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Colón drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gustavo Calderari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Colegiales have done the hard part with Huracán, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
15 clean sheets from 34 appearances at Persib. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Valentín Quevedo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Colegiales have lost him in all but the paperwork.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Colegiales have had the benefit 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Alejandro Chiavetto has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Joaquín Sevegnani and Colegiales agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The clubs have shaken hands with Huracán; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Lanús is saying, and nobody at Colegiales is enjoying the guessing.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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 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.
“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.
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 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
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.
34 appearances at Persib and the goals have stopped going in. Colegiales lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Malagueño 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Malagueño 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 Franco Hanashiro trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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.
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.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Colegiales would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Ignacio Vallejos 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 Hanashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Lautaro Gordillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Alejandro Chiavetto.
The terraces15 Nov 2027
Supporters make their feelings known about Lucio Castillo
The speculation has reached the stands, and the stands have answered. Colegiales would like this settled before it becomes the only thing anybody asks about.
San Martín de Burzaco watched Lucio Castillo again at the weekend, and this time they did not bother hiding it. Clubs only stop hiding when they want the price to start moving.
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 Franco Malagueño was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Lautaro Gordillo has come out of that comparison in the side, and Colegiales have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“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.
“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 Facundo Montiel.
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 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.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Lucio Castillo wants continental football; whether Colegiales can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
34 appearances at Persib and the goals have stopped going in. Colegiales lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Enzo Trinidad and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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 will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
“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.
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.
Patronato held the lead for 2 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Malagueño 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.
Something was said to Lucio Castillo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad11 Oct 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Colegiales man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Lautaro Gordillo was the best thing in any of them.
Alvarado will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Colegiales were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mauro Albertengo and Colegiales agree another 2 years.
15 shut-outs in 33 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Gustavo Calderari has been having a lot of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Hanashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” José García on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
90 minutes played. Mauro Albertengo found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Central Córdoba SdE went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
“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.
Ignacio Vallejos 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.
Marked 7.46 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Malagueño 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mauro Albertengo. 2‑1 against Central Córdoba SdE, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.86 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Ignacio Vallejos 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 Sep 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Malagueño 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.
14 clean sheets from 31 appearances at Persib. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
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 Valentín Quevedo.
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 point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” José García after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Gimnasia y Tiro will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Colegiales were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Position 2, 50 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Matías Ferreira scored, was marked 7.77, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
9.60. 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Hanashiro 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.
13 shut-outs in 30 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Gustavo Calderari has been having a lot of them.
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.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Nicolás Toloza has agreed terms with Brown de Adrogué for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Malagueño 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 Valentín Quevedo.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Franco Malagueño trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is 26, he is from here, and the shirt he was raised to wear has gone to somebody bought for it. The academy staff have noticed, and so has the town.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lautaro Gordillo provided it, and the 8.72 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Colegiales can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Malagueño 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lautaro Gordillo. 2‑0 against Arsenal, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
12 clean sheets from 29 appearances at Persib. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” José García on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
7.83, 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.
Ignacio Vallejos was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Vallejos, and the manager let it.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Nobody left the Colegiales dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
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 1‑4 José García left the room before anybody could ask which.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Federico Marín will call it something else in private.
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.
Beaten 4 times, with 3 saves for company. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines on their record whoever actually caused them, which is the quiet injustice of the job.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.61 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Colegiales and Atlanta, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Atlanta made Colegiales work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Malagueño 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lucio Castillo and Colegiales agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Malagueño is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Colegiales has been clear about where Franco Malagueño stands, which is more than many ever get.
A 1‑0 win over Ferro Carril Oeste, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Mauro Albertengo 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.
At 18 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.
Marked 8.06 — 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.
25 appearances at Persib and the goals have stopped going in. Colegiales lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
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.” José García kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Sebastián Silguero is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.84 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 0 arrived, 3 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Malagueño 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.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Racing Club is saying, and nobody at Colegiales is enjoying the guessing.
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 Hanashiro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
11 shut-outs in 23 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Gustavo Calderari has been having a lot of them.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Belgrano is saying, and nobody at Colegiales is enjoying the guessing.
Colegiales have gone to Racing Club with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
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.
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.
“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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Facundo Rivero and Colegiales agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Malagueño 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.
Ignacio Vallejos 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 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.
Barracas Central have accepted the money. What Colegiales do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Franco Malagueño was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Sebastián Silguero 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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Colegiales and Belgrano have settled on $260.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Defensores keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Colegiales this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody at Colegiales saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Something was said to Lautaro Gordillo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iván Fernández 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 Lautaro Gordillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1 for Facundo Montiel, marked 7.03, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Belgrano keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Colegiales training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Malagueño 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.