Marked for Alan Cisnero
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Nov 2027
The small margins put Empoli out
Out, 0‑2 to Torres, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Market8 Nov 2027
Thomas Henry 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 Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market8 Nov 2027
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.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mariano Bareiro and Empoli agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Lorenzo Ignacchiti 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Three points for Empoli, 2‑0 the final word against Spezia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad8 Nov 2027
50 goals for this club, and somewhere in the stand there is a person who can still tell you where they were for most of them.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
A performance of 8.33 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Aug 2027
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Empoli lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market9 Aug 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Pergolettese had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Cagliari wanted more than $5.6M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
Empoli have gone to Reggiana with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Market9 Aug 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Empoli can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Filippo Distefano is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Tempers go at Empoli
Filippo Bandinelli 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 Aug 2027
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets9 Aug 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Dec 2026
Leonardo Monroy damages knee ligaments — 97 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 97 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.
Market14 Dec 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 Martín, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Darío Sand and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at San Martín training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Pons 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 dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Santiago Briñone, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Diego Diellos knocks on the manager's door
“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, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market14 Dec 2026
San Martín have made Álvaro Veliez available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
The dugout14 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.
Market14 Dec 2026
The name of Felipe Rivarola keeps appearing in other people's back pages. San Martín say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Leonardo Monroy
119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Martín lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Darío Sand 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 Martín this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Facundo Pons 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Darío Sand 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.
Market23 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nahuel Manganelli signs something — a contract at San Martín or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout23 Nov 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
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Age has not caught Nicolás Castro yet — 7.82
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.82 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Darío Sand 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 Martín this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
A goal on 93 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Güemes leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Marcos López 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 Marcos López trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at San Martín training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Cisnero 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match15 Aug 2026
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Darío Sand 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 dugout17 Aug 2026
Kevin López 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marcos López was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. 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.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The form table has caught Darío Sand
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 dugout17 Aug 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Federico Ruiz on a 4‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The one goal every signing is asked about until it comes. It has come, and a press-conference question has been retired.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at San Martín training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Cisnero 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 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. San Martín have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.