26 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Racing Club has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Vasilj 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.
Matías Pérez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Francisco Fraga and Racing Club agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
7.17, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Racing Club had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout10 May 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Federico Peralta was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Racing Club dressing room was either.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than José Canale
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Vancouver Whitecaps 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 Racing Club 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.” Racing Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Marco Di Cesare was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Racing Club will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
Successful dribbles: 51. 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.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Club can pretend not to have heard.
Match17 Apr 2027
After 10 games, Racing Club finally taste it again
The first defeat in 10 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Aldosivi; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
23 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Matías Pérez 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: Vancouver Whitecaps have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matías Daniele. The answer from Racing Club has not changed — yet.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.52 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
At 19 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Nikola Vasilj falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Nikola Vasilj 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Club 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 Gastón Lodico is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Soufiane Rahimi signs something — a contract at Racing Club or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Racing Club 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 Marcos Rojo has written the date down.
4 clean sheets from 9 appearances at Trujillanos. 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.
In brief
The dugoutLeandro Milito asks for a word with the manager
“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 offer from Colorado Rapids for Francisco Fraga 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 run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 6 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 Marco Di Cesare was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ignacio Galván and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Benjamín Borowik and Racing Club agree another 5 years.
5 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 offer from IA for Thiago De Bellis 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Vasilj 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.
Marcos Rojo 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: Colorado Rapids have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Francisco Fraga. The answer from Racing Club has not changed — yet.
3 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Racing Club scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing Club can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The 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 has re-ordered his thinking and Facundo Cambeses 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Racing Club will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Club will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Vasilj is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Ignacio Galván 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 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Padova will make the call about Matías Daniele this week. Racing Club have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
The dugoutJosé Canale dropped after a run of poor form
The dugoutMarcos Rojo knocks on the manager’s door
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Racing Club will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sebastián Rossi 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. Juan Ramos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Pablo Aguirre 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. Agustín Otero 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Club will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Racing Club have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Racing Club hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Vasilj 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 Racing Club 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 Ignacio Rodríguez is on it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Racing Club will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Matías Acevedo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Matías Daniele had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Matías Pérez 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marco Di Cesare 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
13 new faces, and Racing Club 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.
Nobody at Racing Club 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 Andrés Vombergar has written the date down.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matías Daniele trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
$410.0K was the most the club would pay and Boca Juniors 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Matías Pérez 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 phone has started ringing about Matías Daniele again, and this time the name on the line is Padova. Racing Club are listening politely and promising nothing.
Still no offer on the table, and Santiago Quiros’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Racing Club have lost him in all but the paperwork.
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.
$700.0K was the most the club would pay and Huracán 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nikola Vasilj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Club can pretend not to have heard.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Francisco González Metilli had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Racing Club have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Racing Club offered $6.9M; Gimnasia y Esgrima said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The offer from Atletico Bucaramanga for Francisco Fraga 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Leandro Milito is 19, 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 Matías Zaracho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Valentín Carboni 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Racing Club are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
Al Ain did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $10.5M for Soufiane Rahimi, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The deal with Gimnasia y Esgrima 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Racing Club people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Caracas had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Al-Diriyah did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $4.3M for Nikola Vasilj, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Transfer targets21 Dec 2026
$330.0K settles it between the clubs for Raúl Loaiza
Lanús have accepted the money. What Racing Club do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
$410.0K on the table at Boca Juniors. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
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.
Racing Club and Al Ain have settled on $10.5M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Racing Club have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to Gimnasia y Esgrima 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 fee is $1.3M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Belgrano drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
$1.2M on the table at Defensa y Justicia. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.3M — a club that wants Lucas Souto enough to be asked twice.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías Zaracho and Racing Club agree another 5 years.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Racing Club people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Everything agreed with San Lorenzo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
$1.3M 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.
The offer from Union Espanola for Matko Miljevic was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to Independiente Rivadavia 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.6M — a club that wants Francisco González Metilli enough to be asked twice.
$400.0K on the table at Banfield. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Zaracho 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Zaracho is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing Club can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Matko Miljevic was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Elías Torres is on it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Racing Club have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Matías Pérez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Racing Club 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 Andrés Vombergar has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Racing Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadMarcos Acuña is training like a man with a point to make
Matías Pérez 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Zaracho is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Racing Club 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 want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Club heard it as anything else.
Valentín Carboni 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.
3 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Zaracho is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Federico Peralta after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Racing Club 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 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.
Matko Miljevic was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I watch every Racing Club game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Dorados runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Federico Peralta left the room before anybody could ask which.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Club can pretend not to have heard.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Matías Pérez 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Federico Peralta after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.15 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Racing Club can pretend not to have heard.
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.
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.
Matías Pérez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adrián Martínez. 2‑0 against Gimnasia La Plata, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Zaracho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Federico Peralta, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Racing Club can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Matko Miljevic 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.
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.
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.
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 Gastón Lodico is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Racing Club. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Racing Club are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
0‑1 to Argentinos Juniors, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Zaracho 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.
“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 dugout5 Oct 2026
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 Federico Peralta to a room that had heard them before.
The first defeat in 9 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Rosario Central; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Matías Pérez 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 Tomás Conechny was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Argentinos Juniors.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tomás Conechny trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Duván Vergara’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Racing Club needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Out, 0‑0 to Atlético Tucumán, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
1 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.18 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adrián Martínez. 1‑0 against Tigre, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Conechny was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Thiago De Bellis reports back to Racing Club with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Conechny was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Racing Club will try not to make too much of it.
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Racing Club 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.
Nobody at Racing Club 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 Racing Club, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tigre in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Valentín Carboni scored in the 89th minute, Independiente Rivadavia had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Racing Club took the lot.
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Valentín Carboni, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Valentín Carboni. 1‑0 against Independiente Rivadavia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Racing Club scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The offer from Bari for Elías Torres 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.
Matías Pérez was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Add another name to the list: Dorados have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tomás Pérez. The answer from Racing Club has not changed — yet.
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 shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The offer from Cesena for Tomás Conechny 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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.02 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Matko Miljevic 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.
Belgrano made Racing Club work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Racing Club training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matías Zaracho is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 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 dugout17 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.” Federico Peralta kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Club heard it as anything else.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías Zaracho and Racing Club agree another 4 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Racing Club this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Federico Peralta after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Racing Club scored in the 90th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The offer from Levante for Alan Forneris was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Racing Club heard it as anything else.
Valentín Carboni 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matías Zaracho was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.