Marked for Thyago Ayala
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Sarmiento, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market11 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Agustín San Juan is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad11 Jan 2027
A row about effort at Sarmiento
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mauricio Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Carlos Villalba 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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout11 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“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.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
The manager makes Diego Churín a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sarmiento. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Nov 2026
Thyago Ayala 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 Sarmiento can pretend not to have heard.
Market30 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sarmiento is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 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 Sarmiento this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Sarmiento
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mauricio Martínez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Junior Marabel 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 dugout30 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 Carlos Villalba has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
Junior Marabel 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Sarmiento training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mauricio Martínez 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 dugout23 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Sarmiento. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Market23 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sarmiento know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Thyago Ayala 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
Steady
Squad21 Sep 2026
39 days out for Adrián Balboa after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sarmiento will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Mauricio Martínez 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Carlos Villalba 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 dugout21 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
A promise honoured at Sarmiento
Something was said to Manuel Mónaco and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sarmiento are still strangers to each other
20 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 dugout21 Sep 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 Matías Rosales is on it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Lucas Suárez knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lucas Suárez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market21 Sep 2026
Sarmiento have let the market know Francisco Razzeto can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.