Marked for Sebastian Jimenez
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market14 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Parque del Plata waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mar de Fondo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Match12 Jun 2027
No end in sight to Mar de Fondo's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Mar de Fondo has to find a result from somewhere.
Market14 Jun 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Mar de Fondo can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout14 Jun 2027
Daniel Martinez: 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.” Mar de Fondo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Jun 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 Mar de Fondo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets14 Jun 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bella Italia have kept their man, and Mar de Fondo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Brian Mancini 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.
Loan watch14 Jun 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Mar de Fondo, and 1 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2027
Brian Mancini 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Denilson Mena was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Edilson Pérez
“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.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
117% of the income goes out in wages at Mar de Fondo
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.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
“I did not go to Frontera Rivera to sit and watch. I want to come back to Mar de Fondo and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Squad29 Mar 2027
5 new faces, and Mar de Fondo 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Feb 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Andres Torres had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market15 Feb 2027
“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 Mar de Fondo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Mar de Fondo
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at Mar de Fondo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denilson Mena 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.
Market15 Feb 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bruno Gonzalez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market15 Feb 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Bruno Pellistri has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Boardroom15 Feb 2027
Mar de Fondo board go back on their word
Something was promised, a deadline passed, and it did not arrive. Trust inside a football club is built over years and spent in an afternoon.
Squad15 Feb 2027
16 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad15 Feb 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 Mar de Fondo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market18 Jan 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Denilson Mena 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Mar de Fondo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Santiago Diaz 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mar de Fondo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Jan 2027
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
Everything agreed with Rampla Juniors, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Market11 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Los Halcones have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Nicolas Barrios. The answer from Mar de Fondo has not changed — yet.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Santiago Diaz and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
River Plate have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Mar de Fondo are still strangers to each other
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad11 Jan 2027
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Mar de Fondo will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Market11 Jan 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Mar de Fondo, another week without a signature from Fabriccio Butrón.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Mar de Fondo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Juan Ramirez 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.