Nicolás Malvacio and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Talleres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Rodríguez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Malvacio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 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 Atlético Tucumán.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Talleres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Talleres is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A 2‑1 win over Gimnasia y Esgrima, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Juan Pablo Arango has come out of that comparison in the side, and Talleres have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout5 Apr 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.” Roberto Ponce kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Malvacio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Milton Cantero was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The dugout15 Mar 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.” Roberto Ponce kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Marked 4.84. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Lautaro Bursich: 1 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 17 actions, 7.03, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Federico Versaci 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.
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Talleres lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Talleres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maximiliano Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mario Ramírez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Fernando Lucero has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Chori has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Talleres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías Samaniego and Talleres agree another 4 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Talleres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Rodríguez is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
It needed Ignacio Colombini to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Estudiantes, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Roberto Ponce after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.37 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Federico Versaci was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Talleres, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Talleres 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.
15 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Talleres lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Rodrigo Vélez 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 Eugenio Olivera was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Sep 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 Roberto Ponce to a room that had heard them before.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Malvacio trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Chaco For Ever next, and one man in the Talleres dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
8 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Talleres lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.97 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maximiliano Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Milton Cantero 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.
Something was said to Maximiliano Rodríguez and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
14 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Alcione Milano had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Talleres will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Federico Versaci was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It 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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Central Norte? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Federico Versaci 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Talleres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Rodríguez 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 name of Lautaro Bursich has come up in conversations Talleres were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Agropecuario Argentino scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Lautaro Bursich: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Talleres can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Federico Ulayar scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maximiliano Rodríguez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Talleres will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
In brief
Player ratingsThe kick that got away from Milton Cantero
A mark of 9.03 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Ignacio Colombini 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 19 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.