At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.92 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Eduardo Salvio 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.
3 goals inside twenty minutes with Gonzalo Abrego in the middle of it, and Madryn unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Marked 8.08 — 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.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutEduardo Salvio has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mariano Gerez
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lanús lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Eduardo Salvio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Morales 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 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.
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 Marcelino Moreno is on it.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lanús lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marcelino Moreno was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcelino Moreno 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.
11 shut-outs in 27 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Evaristo Dieguiz has been having a lot of them.
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.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lanús lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Lanús will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Eduardo Salvio 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.
16 goals in 28 games at River Plate — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lanús updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Morales 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 Lanús has been clear about where Nicolás Retamar stands, which is more than many ever get.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lanús lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lanús 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 Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
200 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.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.88 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Eduardo Salvio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Iván Morales falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Nobody 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 dugout20 Sep 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Nahuel Losada
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Gimnasia y Esgrima will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Lanús were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
Eduardo Salvio 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 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Lanús and Gimnasia y Esgrima in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
16 goals in 27 games at River Plate — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lanús updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Abel Ruiz 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.
13 goals in 26 games at River Plate — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lanús updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Lanús 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 Lanús, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alexis González was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dylan Aquino signs something — a contract at Lanús or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Panserraikos had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Iván Morales falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I watch every Lanús game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zamora runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Nobody at Lanús 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Panserraikos waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lanús is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The name of Nicolás Retamar has come up in conversations Lanús were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
10 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Nahuel Losada
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The offer from Ekenäs IF for Jeremías Chavero 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.
Marked 7.18 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Marked 7.94. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout16 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.” Alejandro Pereyra kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Gonzalo Abrego scored, was marked 7.75, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
Eduardo Salvio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iván Morales 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.
400 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
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.
7.67, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Lanús will try again when the window opens; Ferro Carril Oeste may not be selling by then.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lanús have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Lanús, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Lanús close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 13 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Tomás Bais has agreed terms with Flandria for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jeremías Chavero reports back to Lanús with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and San Martín de Burzaco waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lanús is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Lanús, and it is not being withdrawn.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ignacio Vázquez has agreed terms with Barracas Central for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Eduardo Salvio 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 fee is $250.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Tristán Suárez drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Abel Ruiz was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $36.0M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Lanús will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The clubs have shaken hands with Girona; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Villa Dálmine had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lanús people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Once Caldas paid $7.4M and Lanús took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Yoshan Valois has gone, the accounts have $7.4M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
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.
Eduardo Salvio 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 Girona 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.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $410.0K — a club that wants Tomás Lecanda enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luciano Romero is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
12 goals in 19 games at River Plate — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lanús updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Southampton have kept their man, and Lanús go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lanús have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
He is going to Vélez, the club has $7.2M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from University of Pretoria for Octavio Ontivero 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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Sebastián Marfort has, at Lanús, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The fee is $440.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. San Telmo drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Carlos Izquierdoz and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Atromitos had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Iván Morales ended with $1.3M changing hands and Argentinos Juniors out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $618.8K — a club that wants Ulises Vera enough to be asked twice.
Eduardo Salvio and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The offer went to Racing 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.
$190.0K on the table at Quilmes. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Marcelino Moreno had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Godoy Cruz did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $9.6M for Gonzalo Abrego, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The clubs have shaken hands with Argentinos Juniors; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Eduardo Salvio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $9.6M for Gonzalo Abrego, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
The phone has started ringing about Leandro Mamut again, and this time the name on the line is Cobreloa. Lanús are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer went to Godoy Cruz 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 clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lanús people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Volos NPS for Brian Fernández was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The phone has started ringing about Lucas Besozzi again, and this time the name on the line is Sarmiento. Lanús are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Lanús have gone to Nueva Chicago 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Thiago Laplace is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
Squad31 May 2027
Walter Bou falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lanús, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Lanús will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Leandro Mamut has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Lucas Besozzi signs something — a contract at Lanús or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Eduardo Salvio 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 8.42 — 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Alejandro Pereyra on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Walter Bou is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Octavio Ontivero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lanús the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Eduardo Salvio 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 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
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 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.
Carlos Izquierdoz 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Walter Bou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Estudiantes next, and one man in the Lanús dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“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 Lanús, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.91 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Dylan Aquino 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 most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Lanús will quote 16 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Thiago Laplace 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.
In brief
SquadDylan Aquino is the division's best young player this month
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Eduardo Salvio and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Two 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.
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.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Eduardo Salvio 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alejandro Pereyra after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Lanús 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 Walter Bou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luciano Romero is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“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.
The dugout12 Apr 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 1‑2 Alejandro Pereyra left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Lanús 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 had been thinking. Walter Bou 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 a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Dylan Aquino was the best thing in any of them.
Two goals and a mark of 8.11 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 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Octavio Ontivero is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
6 matches without a win, and then this, against Gimnasia y Esgrima. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Dylan Aquino 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Thiago Laplace 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Lanús, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Lanús 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 Walter Bou 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 Ramiro Carrera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lanús know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
0‑1 away to the standard of Bragantino. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lanús is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Eduardo Salvio 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Alejandro Pereyra after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
0‑3 against Independiente, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Dylan Aquino 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The 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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Alejandro Pereyra to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Nahuel Losada
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Dylan Aquino is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody at Lanús 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 Walter Bou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
0‑3 against Bragantino. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Eduardo Salvio 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 chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Lanús, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Lanús pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Octavio Ontivero will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lanús the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Eduardo Salvio and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad22 Feb 2027
9 new faces, and Lanús 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Alejandro Pereyra to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Nobody at Lanús 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 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.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Walter Bou was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Lanús game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Independiente runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
Somebody else is better right now than Nahuel Losada
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“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.
Dylan Aquino and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
6 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Yoshan Valois has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A 2‑0 win over Deportivo Riestra, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gabriel Quiroga 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Chori has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Colo is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Lanús, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Lanús will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
In brief
The dugoutLucas Besozzi knocks on the manager's door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Eduardo Salvio and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Walter Bou 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
9 new faces, and Lanús are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
It 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 Lanús, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Lanús offered $1.3M; Arsenal 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.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lanús lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Liniers waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lanús is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Lanús ran out of time with Vélez. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Tomás Guidara is on it.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lanús lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Vélez have accepted the money. What Lanús do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lanús people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Nicolás Retamar had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Golden Arrows for Alexis Segovia 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 chase for Tomás Muia ended with $330.0K changing hands and Ferrocarril Midland out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Eduardo Salvio was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
In brief
The dugoutNahuel Losada has become a man the manager trusts
“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 Lanús, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Leandro Mamut had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have shaken hands with Ferrocarril Midland; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The name of Marcelino Moreno has come up in conversations Lanús were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Eduardo Salvio 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Eduardo Salvio is on it.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Ferrocarril Midland waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lanús is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Carlos Izquierdoz 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luciano Romero is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Lanús asked and Sarmiento 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lanús have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Dylan Aquino, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.28
A mark of 8.28 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.
Lanús offered $4.7M; 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.34 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Lanús have paid $1.4M for Nicolás Retamar, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $690.0K — a club that wants Leandro Mamut enough to be asked twice.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Lanús people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Lanús and Ferro Carril Oeste have settled on $1.4M. 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.
Argentinos Juniors wanted more than $5.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
$2.6M on the table at Belgrano. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Lanús have gone to Instituto 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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $742.5K — a club that wants Facundo Suárez enough to be asked twice.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lanús is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
0‑2 against Corinthians, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
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.
Eduardo Salvio 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.
Something was said to Agustín Cardozo and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout30 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 0‑2 Alejandro Pereyra left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Lanús 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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 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 Ramiro Carrera trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
4 clean sheets from 11 appearances at Tigre. 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.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús 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 Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Dylan Aquino and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 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 goals in 6 games at O'Higgins — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lanús updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Lanús, and it is not being withdrawn.
Eduardo Salvio 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lanús is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Eduardo Salvio and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Morgantini 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 dugout2 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 0‑1 Alejandro Pereyra left the room before anybody could ask which.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Franco Watson has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lanús has been clear about where Nicolás Morgantini stands, which is more than many ever get.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1‑0 against Deportes Tolima, 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dylan Aquino did not need any: 7.65, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.18 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lanús is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Carlos Izquierdoz 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yoshan Valois is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Yoshan Valois 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.
11 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.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Alejandro Pereyra could afford to be generous.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
Eduardo Salvio 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Nicolás Pelaez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lanús the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Thiago Laplace is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Morgantini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Lanús 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.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lanús have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lanús is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Eduardo Salvio 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Luciano Cingolani has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Lanús have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Brian Fernández provided it, and the 8.34 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Fabricio Acosta will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lanús the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Luciano Romero is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
He is 21 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.
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.
1‑0 against Corinthians, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Marcelino Moreno was at the centre of the description.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him 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 Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Gubbio for Agustín Medina 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Lanús and Gimnasia y Esgrima, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout14 Sep 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 2‑4 Alejandro Pereyra left the room before anybody could ask which.
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 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Eduardo Salvio 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 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Lanús will try not to make too much of it.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Barracas Central go through and Lanús go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Morgantini was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
Player ratingsDylan Aquino beats them one at a time
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Allam Wlk obliged against Almirante Brown. 3‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Lanús.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Independiente had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Lanús did not stop to explain themselves.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Renate had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Yoshan Valois did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lanús 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 Lanús this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
The offer from Shandong Taishan for José Canale 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. Lucas Besozzi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lanús the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Nicolás Pelaez 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.
Eduardo Salvio 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 21 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: Yoshan Valois. 1‑0 against Newell's Old Boys, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
In brief
SquadWords at Lanús training over how hard people work
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and San Lorenzo spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lanús they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and José Canale delivers — 7.66
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. José Canale scored, was marked 7.66, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Allam Wlk 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: José Canale. 1‑0 against San Lorenzo, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Ángel Martínez has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lanús can pretend not to have heard.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Brian Fernández has, at Lanús, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The offer from Celta for Dylan Aquino 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.
Eduardo Salvio 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.
Add another name to the list: Real Murcia have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Agustín Medina. The answer from Lanús has not changed — yet.