Marked for Facundo Nadalín
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jan 2028
“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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
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 Martín SJ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at San Martín SJ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Paz 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
12 new faces, and San Martín SJ 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.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“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 Martín SJ, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market17 Jan 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. San Martín SJ know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The manager makes Alan Olinick a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at San Martín SJ. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market17 Jan 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lautaro Garzón may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
Squad17 Jan 2028
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Sep 2027
Nahuel Tejada breaks a bone — 87 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” San Martín SJ may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at San Martín SJ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Paz 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.
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Dante Álvarez 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 dugout27 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Facundo Nadalín, and the manager let it.
Match25 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Boardroom27 Sep 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2027
151 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. San Martín SJ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match20 Mar 2027
Nobody wants to play San Martín SJ right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at San Martín SJ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nicolás Paz 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Mauro Osores 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
A 1‑0 win over Defensores, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad22 Mar 2027
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Marked 7.64. 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bruno Juncos, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sergio Cabrera, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Guillermo Acosta
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Martín SJ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Dante Álvarez: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” San Martín SJ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Nazareno Funez 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Paz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 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.
Market16 Nov 2026
The name of Lautaro Garzón keeps appearing in other people's back pages. San Martín SJ say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Deportivo Merlo go through and San Martín SJ 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Athens Kallithea for Facundo Nadalín 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market24 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether San Martín SJ can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Guillermo Acosta and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 4‑3, and it was Nazareno Funez’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to San Martín SJ.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Paz was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Guillermo Acosta 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Colón left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the San Martín SJ 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Diego Mercado 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
San Martín SJ are still strangers to each other
22 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.