Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Díaz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Patronato the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Juan Salas 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.
Facundo Heredia 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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Salas signs something — a contract at Patronato or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Patronato have no good answer.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Inti Borghetto’s negotiating for him
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Patronato they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Santiago Piccioni has agreed terms with San Martín de Burzaco for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Patronato this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juan Pablo Barinaga was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Patronato, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Alejandro Leiva's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Salas signs something — a contract at Patronato or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Franco Soldano will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Patronato escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Patronato can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Facundo Díaz will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Patronato the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Two of the goals had his name somewhere on them, which is the afternoon a manager wants from anybody asked to both create and finish. 7.66, and 2 involvements.
Juan Pablo Barinaga 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Juan Salas 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Patronato, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Inti Borghetto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Patronato the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Gabriel Díaz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Patronato training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Salas 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.
Madryn left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Facundo Aguirre to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at Patronato 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Gabriel Díaz signs something — a contract at Patronato or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Words at Patronato training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Salas 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.
Franco Soldano 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Patronato, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Inti Borghetto has his answer from Patronato; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Franco Meritello’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Patronato needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Patronato know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Juan Pablo Barinaga may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Patronato this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Patronato training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Maximiliano Rueda 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Patronato, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Patronato that is a harder question to answer.
“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.