74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Talleres lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bruno Barticciotto 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.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Words at Talleres training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Franco Cristaldo 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.
Marked 5.60. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Talleres this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Joaquín Soria will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Talleres the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad27 Dec 2027
7 new faces, and Talleres are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Facundo Lucero has agreed terms with Argentinos Juniors for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Mirlind Daku 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Talleres is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 ambition story running the other way, and the one nobody tells: a footballer asking for a smaller stage, fewer cameras and a crowd that does not turn. It is not weakness and it is very rarely reported as anything else.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Bruno Juncos’s exile
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Valentín Dávila’s exile
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Talleres hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Mirlind Daku 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Talleres they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
“I did not go to Sporting Kansas City to sit and watch. I want to come back to Talleres and fight for my place.” 13 appearances in 32 matches say the rest.
Squad1 Nov 2027
5 new faces, and Talleres are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Talleres has been clear about where Matías Ruíz stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Bruno Juncos’s exile
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Martín SJ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 2, 62 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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 SJ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2‑3 to Temperley, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at San Martín SJ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Jaurena 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 words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Sebastián González 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 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.
13 goals in 27 games at Vissel Kobe — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at San Martín SJ updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. San Martín SJ deserved better, and so did he.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Giovanni Baroni, 18, plays like he has been here for years — 8.66
A mark of 8.66 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 18-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Talleres have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mirlind Daku 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 18-year-old it feels ownership of. Giovanni Baroni 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.
“I watch every Talleres game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at IFK Goteborg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Talleres know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Martín SJ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Sebastián González 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 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.
8.34. 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 board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
“I watch every San Martín SJ game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Sanfrecce Hiroshima runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The words a physio says slowly. 72 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.
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 SJ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at San Martín SJ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Jaurena 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 finished 2‑1, and it was Bruno Juncos’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to San Martín SJ.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Nazareno Funez was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.45. 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.
Marked 8.39 — 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.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
The words a physio says slowly. 79 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 2-goal deficit was real and so was the recovery. Nazareno Funez was at the centre of it, Nueva Chicago were at the end of it, and everybody who left early will hear about this one for years.
Two goals and a mark of 7.94 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Sebastián González 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 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 words a physio says slowly. 86 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.
“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 SJ, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 SJ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at San Martín SJ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Jaurena 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.
“I watch every San Martín SJ game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at IFK Goteborg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Martín SJ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Position 2, 49 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There were 89 minutes on the clock and Defensores Unidos had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and San Martín SJ did not stop to explain themselves.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
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 SJ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Words at San Martín SJ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Jaurena 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.
He is going to Wolverhampton, the club has $3.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Sebastián González 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 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.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. San Martín SJ found something the first half had given no notice of, and Chacarita Juniors could not hold what they had.
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 SJ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A 3‑2 win over Chacarita Juniors, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Words at San Martín SJ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Jaurena 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.
“I did not go to IFK Goteborg to sit and watch. I want to come back to San Martín SJ and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
Position 3, 33 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
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 SJ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at San Martín SJ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sebastián Jaurena 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.
“I did not go to Sanfrecce Hiroshima to sit and watch. I want to come back to San Martín SJ and fight for my place.” 7 appearances in 18 matches say the rest.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 87 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 SJ, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.62 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Sebastián González 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 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.
“I watch every San Martín SJ game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at IFK Goteborg runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Martín SJ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 108 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what San Martín SJ can pretend not to have heard.
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 SJ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Martín SJ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Sebastián González 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.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at San Martín SJ training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Juncos 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Nea Salamis will make the call about Jeremías Castro this week. San Martín SJ have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Martín SJ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what San Martín SJ can pretend not to have heard.
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 SJ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Bruno Juncos 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” San Martín SJ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 SJ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Bruno Juncos 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.