Marked for Iván Ramírez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
47 days out for Iván Ramírez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Miguel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 Dec 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at San Miguel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market14 Dec 2026
Alexis Cruz is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at San Miguel has been clear about where Alexis Cruz stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Facundo Cardozo asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager makes Alexis Cruz a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at San Miguel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market14 Dec 2026
San Miguel have let the market know Lucas Delgado can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
54 days out for Iván Ramírez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Miguel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
44 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Market7 Dec 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Facundo Cardozo has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at San Miguel.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Matías Benítez 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout7 Dec 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 dugout7 Dec 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Open for business: San Miguel enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
61 days out for Iván Ramírez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Miguel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” San Miguel may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Nov 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Market30 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at San Miguel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
215% of the income goes out in wages at San Miguel
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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Matías Benítez 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 dugout30 Nov 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 dugout30 Nov 2026
Alexis Cruz asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad30 Nov 2026
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Iván Ramírez out for 68 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason San Miguel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market23 Nov 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 San Miguel can pretend not to have heard.
Market23 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for Tomás Jerez
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tomás Jerez will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around San Miguel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Nov 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 San Miguel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Lucas Delgado
“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 dugout23 Nov 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
75 days out for Iván Ramírez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Miguel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market16 Nov 2026
Mateo Reynoso has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around San Miguel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Máximo Oses 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Damián Adín, and the manager let it.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“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 Miguel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at San Miguel. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
82 days out for Iván Ramírez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Miguel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
72 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Máximo Oses 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 San Miguel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dixon Rentería, and the manager let it.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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 Matías Benítez has written the date down.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Damián Adín asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Iván Ramírez out for 89 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason San Miguel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The San Miguel board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Market2 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at San Miguel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 215% of everything San Miguel 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.
The dugout2 Nov 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 dugout2 Nov 2026
“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 Miguel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market2 Nov 2026
San Miguel have made Alexis Cruz available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The captaincy has been taken off Damián Adín. San Miguel will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Alexis Cruz has been promised minutes
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 Alexis Cruz has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Oct 2026
Iván Ramírez breaks a bone — 96 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 96 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market26 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 San Miguel can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” San Miguel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market26 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at San Miguel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Too much change too quickly at San Miguel
17 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.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leandro Desábato, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
103 days out for Iván Ramírez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Miguel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match17 Oct 2026
0‑3 against Colegiales, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market19 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at San Miguel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Cardozo, and the manager let it.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Matías Benítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom19 Oct 2026
Nobody left the San Miguel dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout19 Oct 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 0‑3 Matías Rodríguez left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The form table has caught Alexis Cruz
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
Every touch weighed, every quote parsed, every mistake replayed. Some players grow into that; some are quietly finished by it; nobody knows which until afterwards.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Iván Ramírez out for 110 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason San Miguel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” San Miguel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Matías Benítez 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexis Cruz, and the manager let it.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Colegiales in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Leandro Desábato asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mateo Serra wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and San Miguel will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Iván Ramírez out for 117 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason San Miguel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market5 Oct 2026
Matías Escobar has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around San Miguel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
309% of the income goes out in wages at San Miguel
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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Daniel Juárez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Matías Benítez 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 dugout5 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Máximo Oses
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Máximo Oses has come out of that comparison in the side, and San Miguel have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 Sep 2026
124 days out for Iván Ramírez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Miguel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.49 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market28 Sep 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 Miguel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market28 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at San Miguel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market28 Sep 2026
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Facundo Cardozo wants continental football; whether San Miguel can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Máximo Oses 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Alvarado made San Miguel work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout28 Sep 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Sep 2026
Iván Ramírez breaks a bone — 131 days out
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.
Boardroom21 Sep 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mateo Reynoso has agreed terms with Excursionistas for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market21 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at San Miguel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Máximo Oses 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Madryn left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Daniel Sappa 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.
Market21 Sep 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Lio 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 dugout21 Sep 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Matías Rodríguez after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
139 days out for Iván Ramírez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Miguel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 7.78. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of David Muller
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Gimnasia y Tiro leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“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 Miguel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. 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 dugout14 Sep 2026
The plan did not have a place for Leandro Desábato
Nobody at San Miguel is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Sep 2026
Iván Ramírez breaks a bone — 146 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 146 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market7 Sep 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 Miguel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market7 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at San Miguel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Leandro Desábato is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Peter Grance Martínez, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Facundo Cardozo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Dixon Rentería has moved up it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Matías Escobar has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at San Miguel.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Both jobs done by Iván Ramírez — 7.26
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. 15 actions, 7.26, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Máximo Oses 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
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Gustavo Castro 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
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Cobra 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
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Raúl Bianchi 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
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Carlos Alberto 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. 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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Marked 7.73 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, San Miguel had the best player on the pitch.
Match8 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.