Marked for Marquinhos
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 Jan 2031
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad20 Jan 2031
The medical room confirms 59 days on the sidelines for Nicolás Avalos, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad20 Jan 2031
Facundo Lima 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.
Transfer targets20 Jan 2031
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.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
Marquinhos 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.
Market20 Jan 2031
The Alejo Tello talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Argentino de Merlo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
Franco Aguirre 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 Franco Aguirre trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market20 Jan 2031
Argentino de Merlo have let the market know Ezequiel Bacher can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout20 Jan 2031
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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market4 Nov 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Argentino de Merlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings4 Nov 2030
Enzo Lopetegui, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78
A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Alejo Tello 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.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Lima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad4 Nov 2030
A month that belonged to Uriel Pepe
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Argentino de Merlo who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Squad4 Nov 2030
Diego Ursino slips down the pecking order
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Diego Ursino is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Match2 Nov 2030
It needed Enzo Lopetegui to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Chaco For Ever, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
Alejo Tello 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 Alejo Tello trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout4 Nov 2030
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” José Aguirre was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Argentino de Merlo dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Aug 2030
“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 Argentino de Merlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market26 Aug 2030
Mark Palomino has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Argentino de Merlo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Tomás Asprea 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.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Lima was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” José Aguirre after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
Uriel Pepe 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 Uriel Pepe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings26 Aug 2030
14 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Market26 Aug 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Luis Santa Cruz has his answer from Argentino de Merlo; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
Marquinhos 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market28 Jan 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Argentino de Merlo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Matías Bittner gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matías Bittner has just signed for Argentino de Merlo, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Alejo Tello 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.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Tomás Asprea 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 Argentino de Merlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Jan 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Matías Bittner and Argentino de Merlo agree another 3 years.
Market28 Jan 2030
Juan Carlos Moreno is 17, and Argentino de Merlo have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market28 Jan 2030
He is 17, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alejandro Araque, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Jan 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Joaquín Morrone trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout21 Jan 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Argentino de Merlo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Gonzalo Masuero gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Gonzalo Masuero has just signed for Argentino de Merlo, and for once the answer mattered.
Market21 Jan 2030
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Argentino de Merlo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad21 Jan 2030
Alejo Tello and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Jan 2030
Argentino de Merlo offered $9.0K; Racing Club said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Squad21 Jan 2030
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Boardroom21 Jan 2030
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
Squad21 Jan 2030
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Argentino de Merlo know which stage they are at.
The dugout21 Jan 2030
The manager makes an example of Marquinhos
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market14 Jan 2030
Elias Prieto has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Argentino de Merlo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and Sarmiento were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at Argentino de Merlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alejo Tello 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Diego Ursino 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marquinhos and Argentino de Merlo agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
Uriel Pepe 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.
Squad14 Jan 2030
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Argentino de Merlo know which stage they are at.
Market14 Jan 2030
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Facundo Cipresso’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
Facundo Lima 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 Facundo Lima trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout7 Jan 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Argentino de Merlo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market7 Jan 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Lautaro Amarelle will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Argentino de Merlo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets7 Jan 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Barracas Central have kept their man, and Argentino de Merlo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets7 Jan 2030
Aldosivi wanted more than $460.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Alejo Tello 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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Tomás Asprea 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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marquinhos and Argentino de Merlo agree another 3 years.
The dugout7 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Tomás Asprea, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Jan 2030
The captaincy has been taken off Cristian Medina. Argentino de Merlo will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Nov 2029
Alejo Tello 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 Nov 2029
Leandro Moreira 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
27 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Loan watch19 Nov 2029
“I did not go to Sevlievo to sit and watch. I want to come back to Argentino de Merlo and fight for my place.” 14 appearances in 42 matches say the rest.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
“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.
The dugout19 Nov 2029
Gastón Scisci 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.
Squad19 Nov 2029
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Alexis González has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Looking ahead19 Nov 2029
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Pedro García’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Argentino de Merlo needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market19 Nov 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Facundo Cipresso’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Nov 2029
4 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Market12 Nov 2029
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Argentino de Merlo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Alejo Tello 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.
Player ratings12 Nov 2029
Marked 10.00 — 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.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Bautista Tagliani arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bautista Tagliani has, at Argentino de Merlo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad12 Nov 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro Moreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Nov 2029
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑0, Andrés Arce could afford to be generous.
Boardroom12 Nov 2029
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market10 Sep 2029
“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 Argentino de Merlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market10 Sep 2029
Only the photograph left for Elias Prieto
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elias Prieto will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Argentino de Merlo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Alejo Tello 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 Argentino de Merlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leandro Moreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom10 Sep 2029
148% of the income goes out in wages at Argentino de Merlo
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emiliano Rigoni and Argentino de Merlo agree another 1 years.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Leandro Moreira trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Squad10 Sep 2029
No place for Marquinhos in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Argentino de Merlo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
The manager makes an example of Estiven Sánchez
“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.