Marked for Manuel Lanzini
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tiziano Croci damages knee ligaments — 22 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 22 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market7 Sep 2026
Vélez say no — this time
The offer from Pumas UNAM for Ignacio Cellerino 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Vélez
Emanuel Mammana 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Vélez training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín García 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Doors closed at Vélez
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The award goes to Florián Monzón, and nobody around here is inclined to argue with the choice.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
Athletic Bilbao pay $3.5M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Market10 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emanuel Mammana and Vélez agree another 4 years.
Squad10 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vélez this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomás Marchiori, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Elías Gómez 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.65. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Emanuel Mammana delivers — 7.98
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Emanuel Mammana scored, was marked 7.98, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Vélez heard it as anything else.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vélez this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rodrigo Aliendro commits to Vélez for another 2 years.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 3‑2, and it was Emanuel Mammana’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Vélez.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Vélez have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Vélez training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joaquín García 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.