Marked for Gianfranco Lillo
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Mitre
Ignacio Pietrobono 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
Words at Mitre training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Rosales 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 dugout9 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 Mitre, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout9 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
The name of Oscar Garrido keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Mitre say nothing, which says plenty.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Matías Batule has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Mitre 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Mitre may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Mitre
Ignacio Pietrobono 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Santiago Rosales 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.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
229% of the income goes out in wages at Mitre
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maximiliano Romero, and the manager let it.
Market2 Nov 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Favio Cabral’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
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.
Market2 Nov 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.
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 Mitre, and both men came out saying it was fine.