Marked for Francisco Sciarini
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Sep 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Matheus Albino: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match8 Sep 2027
Francisco Scarpeccio had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Defensa y Justicia were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad13 Sep 2027
93 days out for Juan Blas Samán after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Newell's Old Boys will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Newell's Old Boys have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Guillermo Balzi and Newell's Old Boys agree another 3 years.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Newell's Old Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milton Delgado 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.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.19 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad26 Jul 2027
Joaquín Amadio damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Market26 Jul 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Match24 Jul 2027
Instituto will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Newell's Old Boys were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market26 Jul 2027
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Newell's Old Boys people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
The deal with Godoy Cruz is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Francisco Scarpeccio did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market1 Feb 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 Newell's Old Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Walter Mazzantti 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newell's Old Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“I watch every Newell's Old Boys game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Botafogo-PB runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Felipe Frazzi
“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.
Looking ahead1 Feb 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Defensa y Justicia in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Squad1 Feb 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 dugout1 Feb 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Newell's Old Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Walter Mazzantti 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newell's Old Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
10 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 dugout18 Jan 2027
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 dugout18 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.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
Nicolás Goitea 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 Nicolás Goitea trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Newell's Old Boys, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad11 Jan 2027
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
The clock did what Vélez would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Walter Mazzantti was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Armando Méndez and Newell's Old Boys agree another 3 years.
Squad11 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Newell's Old Boys this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Liberato, and the manager let it.
Market11 Jan 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jherson Mosquera signs something — a contract at Newell's Old Boys or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Felipe Frazzi gets picked when it counts
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 Felipe Frazzi is on it.