Marked for Manuel Mónaco
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Manuel García: 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.” Sarmiento have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market9 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.
Squad9 Nov 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.
Squad9 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Manuel Mónaco. 2‑1 against Gimnasia La Plata, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad9 Nov 2026
4 groups that do not mix, and 2 players belonging to none of them. Nothing here can be fined or dropped, which is why it lasts longer than any row that can.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Junior Marabel
“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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Manuel Mónaco at his very best
Marked 8.17. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Sarmiento.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Oct 2026
Jeremías Vallejos damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The dugout19 Oct 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Sarmiento
Junior Marabel 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Matías Rosales is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad19 Oct 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Aldosivi, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout19 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.
Market19 Oct 2026
Manuel García is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sarmiento has been clear about where Manuel García stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Sep 2026
3‑0, and Manuel Mónaco took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Sarmiento tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.26 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad14 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Sarmiento
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Manuel Insaurralde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad14 Sep 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.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Santiago Salle has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Manuel Mónaco
“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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Marked 8.24 — 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
25 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Pedro Costa on a 3‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Sarmiento
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Manuel Insaurralde was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Carlos Villalba, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Nicolás Pasquini has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Manuel Mónaco 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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Belgrano next, and one man in the Sarmiento dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Pablo Magnín has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Sarmiento 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.