Marked for Leonel Martín
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad28 May 2029
Luciano Herrera 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.
Market28 May 2029
Mateo Serra has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Newell's Old Boys they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 May 2029
Words at Newell's Old Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ignacio Ramírez 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 May 2029
The manager makes an example of Guillermo Balzi
“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 dugout28 May 2029
Leandro Lucero 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 Newell's Old Boys, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market28 May 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Rodrigo Herrera’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout13 Nov 2028
Martín Ortega: that is not what I was promised
“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.
Market13 Nov 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newell's Old Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Luciano Herrera 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Ignacio Ramírez 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 dugout13 Nov 2028
Oscar Salomón 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.
Market13 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Lucas Carrizo’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Jul 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and ENPPI waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Newell's Old Boys is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market24 Jul 2028
The offer from Belgrano for Matías Cóccaro was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market24 Jul 2028
“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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at Newell's Old Boys until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Ignacio Ramírez 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A move Lorenzo Cores would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Lorenzo Cores is living that version at Newell's Old Boys, and it tends to show in the first month.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Granada have kept their man, and Newell's Old Boys go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Newell's Old Boys will try again when the window opens; Temperley may not be selling by then.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Words at Newell's Old Boys training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Herrera 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 30. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market17 Jul 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Newell's Old Boys have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Newell's Old Boys is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market17 Jul 2028
Luca Regiardo 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 Newell's Old Boys can pretend not to have heard.
Squad17 Jul 2028
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.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
$55.0K on the table at Temperley. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Leonel Martín 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. Leonel Martín has, at Newell's Old Boys, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ignacio Ramírez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.