Marked for Alejandro Gutiérrez
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Madryn
Marcelo Meli 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The medical room confirms 37 days on the sidelines for Alejandro Gutiérrez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Gabriel Gudiño 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 Madryn, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market1 Feb 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Madryn know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad25 Jan 2027
Marcelo Meli in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Madryn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom25 Jan 2027
159% of the income goes out in wages at Madryn
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Madryn
Marcelo Meli 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Peinipil, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A wage question at Madryn
Pío Bonacci has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market4 Jan 2027
Pío Bonacci hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Madryn can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Madryn
Marcelo Meli 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
65 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Joaquín Obdrzalek and Madryn agree another 4 years.
Market4 Jan 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Madryn know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Dec 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 Madryn, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Dec 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Madryn
Marcelo Meli 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
93 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nehemías Rodríguez and Madryn agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market7 Dec 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Diego Martínez has his answer from Madryn; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Marcelo Meli in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Madryn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 435% of everything Madryn earn
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market9 Nov 2026
Pío Bonacci hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Madryn can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Madryn
Marcelo Meli 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The medical room confirms 121 days on the sidelines for Alejandro Gutiérrez, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market19 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Madryn can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Marcelo Meli in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Madryn this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
44 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Tempers go at Madryn
Marcelo Meli 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad24 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Yair Bonnín
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Madryn
Rodrigo Ayala 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Granada are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Madryn will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Madryn, 2‑1 the final word against Racing in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Marked 9.01 — 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.