Marked for Valentín Dávila
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market31 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Marvelous Nakamba 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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Olaf Kobacki 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match29 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Birmingham leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Market31 Aug 2026
Sheffield have made Olaf Kobacki available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Di'Shon Bernard keeps the shirt for now, at Sheffield's convenience rather than his own.
Squad31 Aug 2026
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Sheffield has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 Aug 2026
The wait goes on for Talleres
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad31 Aug 2026
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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Augusto Schott
“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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Shots: 4, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bruno Barticciotto trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Shots: 7, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Squad31 Aug 2026
At 34 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Talleres have a decision that made itself.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Aug 2026
The cup run ends for Talleres
0‑1 against Morón, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Talleres's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Talleres has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The name of Valentín Dávila has come up in conversations Talleres were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“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.
Boardroom24 Aug 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Matías Catalán 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Deportivo Riestra left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Martín Río
“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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Talleres dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Emiliano Daghero and Talleres agree another 5 years.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Shots: 8. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
The one thing Diego Valoyes could not do
Shots: 5, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Aug 2026
Girona come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Talleres did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matías Galarza and Talleres agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“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.
Market10 Aug 2026
24 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.