The offer from Granada for Valente Pierani was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Máximo Desábato will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estudiantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Brian Aguirre 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 Nahitan Nández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Estudiantes can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Estudiantes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 93. San Lorenzo had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
In brief
Loan watchMatías Mansilla’s loan is measured in nothing happening
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Krylya Sovetov had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The deal that would have taken Lucas Alario to Independiente has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Estudiantes with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Estudiantes 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 Estudiantes 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 Nahitan Nández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Brian Aguirre and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Getting past Fernando Muslera has become the hardest job in the division
9 clean sheets and counting. Forwards used to back themselves here; now they shoot early, shoot wide, and look for somebody to blame.
Tiago Palacios wins it after the whistle should have gone
94 minutes played. Tiago Palacios found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Talleres went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Anorthosis waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Estudiantes 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 Estudiantes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Brian Aguirre 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahitan Nández 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 goals in 26 games at Colón — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Estudiantes updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.75 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
Fabricio Pérez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Estudiantes 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.
Estudiantes offered $1.9M; Talleres 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 Estudiantes, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Máximo Desábato 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Máximo Desábato will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estudiantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Estudiantes have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Estudiantes offered $2.8M; Gimnasia La Plata 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.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Martín Pino has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Martín Pino has just signed for Estudiantes, and for once the answer mattered.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Estudiantes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Matías Godoy’s exile
The deal with Godoy Cruz 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Estudiantes can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Estudiantes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer went to Gimnasia La Plata 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.
$1.7M on the table at Talleres. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Banfield have kept their man, and Estudiantes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
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.
The offer from Crvena Zvezda for Nahitan Nández 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Estudiantes people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Estudiantes can pretend not to have heard.
$2.8M was the most the club would pay and Defensa y Justicia 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabricio Iacovich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estudiantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nahitan Nández and Estudiantes agree another 4 years.
Brian Aguirre was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
In brief
SquadNahitan Nández falls out with a teammate over standards
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Estudiantes, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Estudiantes people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Estudiantes asked and San Martín SJ 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 offer went to Defensa y Justicia 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.
Defensa y Justicia wanted more than $2.8M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
The most awkward business a club does is signing tomorrow's answer while today's is still in the building. Martín Garnerone comes from Estudiantes for exactly that purpose, and the handover will not be discussed publicly by anybody.
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.
In brief
Transfer targetsAn offer of $320.0K for Juan Morán
Estudiantes asked and Blackburn Rovers said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Estudiantes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with Estudiantes 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.
Estudiantes have gone to Defensa y Justicia 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.
Pachuca paid $4.2M and Estudiantes took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Estudiantes can pretend not to have heard.
Racing Club go through. The table said this team was good enough for months and the format does not care what the table said, which is the argument every eliminated club has had with itself since playoffs were invented.
A 3‑0 win over Gimnasia y Esgrima, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings14 Jun 2027
A brace, and Santino Crego takes the afternoon — 9.57
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Santino Crego provided it, and the 9.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Estudiantes have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Valente Pierani had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Santino Daneri did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Estudiantes, and it is not being withdrawn.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
1‑1 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Estudiantes are entitled to ignore.
The name of Joaquín Correa has come up in conversations Estudiantes were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
1 for Valentín Vada, marked 7.96, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Ezequiel Piovi 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.
2‑1 on the night and the tie is theirs. Somebody else’s season ended in the same ninety minutes, which the celebrations at Estudiantes are entitled to ignore.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Adolfo Gaich scored in the 89th minute, Independiente Rivadavia had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Estudiantes took the lot.
Player ratings31 May 2027
A brace, and Adolfo Gaich takes the afternoon — 8.89
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adolfo Gaich provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“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 Estudiantes, and it is not being withdrawn.
Ezequiel Piovi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Santino Daneri has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Estudiantes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Estudiantes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nahitan Nández 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 Edwuin Cetré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
4 goals in 14 games at San Lorenzo — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Estudiantes updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boca Juniors left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Edwuin Cetré 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.” Felipe Morales after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
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 Nahitan Nández is on it.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Eric Meza'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.
7 goals in 15 games at Colón — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Estudiantes updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Ezequiel Piovi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahitan Nández is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Estudiantes will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Lanús; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
The dugout10 May 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Felipe Morales to a room that had heard them before.
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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 26 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Ezequiel Piovi 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 May 2027
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahitan Nández is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I watch every Estudiantes game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vancouver Whitecaps runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
A mark of 8.23 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Estudiantes is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Instituto will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Estudiantes were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Instituto were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The phone has started ringing about Santino Crego again, and this time the name on the line is New York City. Estudiantes are listening politely and promising nothing.
Marked 8.27 — 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.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Ezequiel Piovi 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 Nahitan Nández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 90 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Estudiantes had all but put away. Defensa y Justicia will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Estudiantes heard it as anything 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 Estudiantes 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 Edwuin Cetré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Nahitan Nández and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabricio Iacovich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estudiantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahitan Nández is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Valente Pierani'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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Santiago Núñez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
8 appearances at Unión de Santa Fe and the goals have stopped going in. Estudiantes lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahitan Nández 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 Eros Mancuso is on it.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
0‑1 against Flamengo, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Ezequiel Piovi 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 Edwuin Cetré was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Felipe Morales to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nahitan Nández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ezequiel Piovi 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.
Three points for Estudiantes, 2‑0 the final word against San Lorenzo in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings8 Mar 2027
Joaquín Correa was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.48. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.44 — 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.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” GIF Sundsvall had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Estudiantes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahitan Nández is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Ezequiel Piovi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Felipe Morales to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Jalil Elías
1‑2 against Flamengo. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
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 offer from Dorados for Pedro González 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.
Ezequiel Piovi 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 Nahitan Nández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Baltasar Rodríguez. 1‑0 against Deportivo Riestra, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matías Magdaleno and Estudiantes agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
A brace, and Edwuin Cetré takes the afternoon — 8.44
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Edwuin Cetré provided it, and the 8.44 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 Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Roberto Castro has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Federico Escobar has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Iván Muñoz has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bautista Luna has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
SquadWords at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Estudiantes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabricio Iacovich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estudiantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nahitan Nández 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.
Nobody at Estudiantes 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 conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Tiago Palacios has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Edwuin Cetré signs something — a contract at Estudiantes or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Estudiantes have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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 name of Benjamín Sagües Barreiro has come up in conversations Estudiantes were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Nobody at Estudiantes will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Estudiantes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ezequiel Piovi 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 Nahitan Nández was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Haifa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Rodrigo Borzone. The answer from Estudiantes has not changed — yet.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Estudiantes, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Estudiantes will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Joaquín Correa had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Ezequiel Piovi 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 Leandro González Pírez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
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 Fernando Muslera is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Tiago Palacios has written the date down.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Estudiantes will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabricio Iacovich will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estudiantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Estudiantes hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nahitan Nández is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Estudiantes told Edwuin Cetré something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Estudiantes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from River Plate for Joaquín Tobio Burgos was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Alexis Castro has his answer from Estudiantes; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutJoaquín Correa has become a man the manager trusts
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Estudiantes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Estudiantes people have started saying his name in the past tense.
$9.9M was the most the club would pay and Toluca 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.
Cerro Largo did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $1.9M for Pedro González, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
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 Estudiantes have had the benefit of it.
The offer from Iquique for Santiago Flores 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.
$660.0K on the table at Godoy Cruz. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Estudiantes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Estudiantes have paid $8.8M for Nahitan Nández, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boca Juniors have kept their man, and Estudiantes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Federico Milo is living that version at Estudiantes, and it tends to show in the first month.
Ezequiel Piovi 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.
$490.0K was the most the club would pay and Gimnasia La Plata 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Estudiantes have done the hard part with Al-Qadisiyah, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Estudiantes have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rosario Central have kept their man, and Estudiantes go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The clubs have shaken hands with Godoy Cruz; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Estudiantes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
0‑2 against Vasco da Gama, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Something was said to Fernando Muslera and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ramiro Funes Mori will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estudiantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ezequiel Piovi 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.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Estudiantes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Gabriel Neves 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 Leandro González Pírez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Estudiantes will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Valente Pierani'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.
12 appearances at Unión de Santa Fe and the goals have stopped going in. Estudiantes lent out a goalkeeper and are watching somebody else’s season get better every week.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Estudiantes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
1‑2 against Juventud. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Estudiantes 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.
Something was said to Eros Mancuso and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Felipe Morales left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 Leandro González Pírez.
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Estudiantes will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Something was said to Guido Carrillo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I watch every Estudiantes game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Rotor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Fernando Muslera is on it.
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
1‑0 against Juventud, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Gabriel Neves was at the centre of the description.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 124 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Estudiantes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ezequiel Piovi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Three points for Estudiantes, 1‑0 the final word against Boca Juniors in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro González Pírez 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 ratingsTiago Palacios was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsGabriel Neves was on a different afternoon to everybody else
70 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 133 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Leandro González Pírez 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Gonzalo Errecalde has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Estudiantes have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Nobody at Estudiantes will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The words a physio says slowly. 88 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Estudiantes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
2‑1 against San Luis, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro González Pírez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Alexis Castro was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.02. 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Estudiantes pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
6 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ramiro Funes Mori will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estudiantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Nobody at Estudiantes 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.
9 goals in 8 games at Colón — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Estudiantes updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Estudiantes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A brace, and Adolfo Gaich takes the afternoon — 9.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adolfo Gaich provided it, and the 9.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
0‑1 against Vasco da Gama, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Eros Mancuso 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Brian Aguirre was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 97. Defensa y Justicia had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Estudiantes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Paulo Lima is living that version at Estudiantes, and it tends to show in the first month.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Felipe Morales chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
In brief
The dugoutNicolás Gaitán dropped after a run of poor form
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Matías Godoy’s exile
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Tomás Palacios's mistake
The words a physio says slowly. 121 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.
Out, 2‑3 to Almirante Brown, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Two goals and a mark of 9.18 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Fabricio Iacovich has agreed terms with Racing Club for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Leandro González Pírez 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
In brief
SquadEdwuin Cetré falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 130 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.
Successful dribbles: 36. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 117th minute. Morón will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Two goals and a mark of 9.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ramiro Funes Mori will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Estudiantes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ramiro Funes Mori has agreed terms with Racing Club for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
140 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Estudiantes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kifisia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Estudiantes is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Fabricio Pérez did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The phone has started ringing about Joaquín Correa again, and this time the name on the line is Atlético Madrid. Estudiantes are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Adolfo Gaich was on a different afternoon to everybody else
10.00. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Ezequiel Piovi 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
149 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Estudiantes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A brace, and Brian Aguirre takes the afternoon — 9.00
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brian Aguirre provided it, and the 9.00 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The name of Benjamín Sagües Barreiro has come up in conversations Estudiantes were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Leandro González Pírez 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Mauricio Cardillo has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Estudiantes have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Brian Aguirre. 2‑0 against San Lorenzo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutSantino Crego knocks on the manager’s door
The dugoutNicolás Gaitán dropped after a run of poor form
Ezequiel Piovi 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.
Marked 7.89 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Estudiantes had the best player on the pitch.
Squad10 Aug 2026
10 new faces, and Estudiantes 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
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.” Felipe Morales kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Estudiantes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Brian Aguirre has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Estudiantes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leandro González Pírez 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.