Marked for Javier Iritier
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
82 days out for Leonel Pollacchi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Telmo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market19 Oct 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at San Telmo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Match17 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for San Telmo
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around San Telmo are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 39, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at San Telmo
Leonel Pollacchi 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Matías Salerno
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Juan Motroni 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Player ratings
Javier Iritier beats them one at a time
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The dugout
Juan Yangali knocks on the manager’s door
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Leonel Pollacchi out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason San Telmo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexis Orellano is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Leonel Pollacchi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Renzo Uriburu 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.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
“I did not go to Zhetysu to sit and watch. I want to come back to San Telmo and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Emanuel Díaz knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at San Telmo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 Gabriel Ratalín is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad31 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 131 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around San Telmo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Up for the corner, and Juan Yangali delivers — 7.84
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Juan Yangali scored, was marked 7.84, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at San Telmo
Juan Cruz Zurbriggen 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Three points for San Telmo, 2‑1 the final word against Mitre in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
A row about effort at San Telmo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Motroni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
Emanuel Díaz gets it from the manager
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
16 new faces, and San Telmo 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
138 days out for Leonel Pollacchi after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Telmo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Match19 Aug 2026
San Telmo bow out of the cup
Instituto go through and San Telmo go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to San Telmo's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at San Telmo has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Juan Cruz Zurbriggen 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at San Telmo
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Motroni was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Motroni, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 Aug 2026
60 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at San Telmo
Juan Cruz Zurbriggen 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gabriel Romano 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Carlos Luna has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Sergio Domínguez is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valentino García 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at San Telmo training over how hard people work
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Leonel Pollacchi
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The dugout
The view from the dugout