Marked for Brandon Verón
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at San Lorenzo
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at San Lorenzo is running low.
Boardroom4 Jan 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Valentino Otero has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market4 Jan 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad4 Jan 2027
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 Lorenzo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. San Lorenzo will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Gustavo Del Prete 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 dugout4 Jan 2027
Something was said to Nicolás Tripichio and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“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 dugout4 Jan 2027
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Nicolás Tripichio was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around San Lorenzo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Alexis Cuello and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Nahuel Romero is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Tripichio was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market28 Dec 2026
The name of Brandon Verón has come up in conversations San Lorenzo were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager makes an example of Facundo Gulli
“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 Dec 2026
Gastón Hernández 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.
Market28 Dec 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexis Cuello signs something — a contract at San Lorenzo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Nov 2026
Only the photograph left for José Devecchi
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. José Devecchi will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around San Lorenzo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad2 Nov 2026
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Alexis Cuello and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at San Lorenzo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gustavo Del Prete 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nahuel Barrios commits to San Lorenzo for another 3 years.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Market2 Nov 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexis Cuello signs something — a contract at San Lorenzo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at San Lorenzo, another week without a signature from José Devecchi.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Aug 2026
Nimes come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and San Lorenzo did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mathías de Ritis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around San Lorenzo the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mathías de Ritis has agreed terms with Estudiantes for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad17 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 San Lorenzo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Nicolás Tripichio 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Rodrigo Auzmendi. 2‑1 against Estudiantes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Brandon Verón
“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.