Marked for Daniel Sánchez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Dec 2035
Every point is an argument now for San Telmo
Position 16 and 22 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market31 Dec 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at San Telmo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets31 Dec 2035
Door shut on Coco
San Telmo asked and Sarmiento said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Boardroom31 Dec 2035
No signings allowed at San Telmo
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Transfer targets31 Dec 2035
A loan move for Kevin Cuadrado is in the works
San Telmo have made the call to Arsenal. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets31 Dec 2035
A loan enquiry to Talleres: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout31 Dec 2035
Miguel Villalba 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.
Market31 Dec 2035
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Isaías Jofré’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market31 Dec 2035
San Telmo have let the market know Angel Tunchev can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom10 Dec 2035
Pressure builds in the San Telmo boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market10 Dec 2035
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around San Telmo people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market10 Dec 2035
“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 The request is on a desk at San Telmo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets10 Dec 2035
San Telmo asked and Godoy Cruz said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Dec 2035
The clock does Luis Montecinos’s negotiating for him
1 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee San Telmo could ask drops and the wages Luis Montecinos can ask rise.
Market10 Dec 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. San Telmo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout10 Dec 2035
Daniel Sánchez 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 Daniel Sánchez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom10 Dec 2035
The San Telmo production line keeps running
74 graduates out of an academy now rated 4 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Nov 2035
“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.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
This is not rotation. Miguel Villalba has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at San Telmo is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Juan Cruz Zurbriggen and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom26 Nov 2035
San Telmo are $16.5M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
“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.
The dugout26 Nov 2035
“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.
Market26 Nov 2035
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Cruz Zurbriggen signs something — a contract at San Telmo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market26 Nov 2035
San Telmo have let the market know Sergio Serrano can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Squad26 Nov 2035
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and San Telmo will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Oct 2035
“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.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
This is not rotation. Miguel Villalba has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at San Telmo is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom29 Oct 2035
The borrowing at San Telmo reaches $17.1M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $17.1M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Squad29 Oct 2035
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 Telmo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout29 Oct 2035
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Emiliano Rodríguez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market29 Oct 2035
The name of Franco Aguirre keeps appearing in other people's back pages. San Telmo say nothing, which says plenty.
Market29 Oct 2035
San Telmo have made Sergio Serrano available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad29 Oct 2035
The training reports on Gustavo Navarro are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
Squad29 Oct 2035
The least glamorous thing a foreign signing ever does and the one that decides most of them. A player who can hear the shout behind him is a different footballer from one who cannot.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces22 Oct 2035
Supporters organise against the San Telmo board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Market22 Oct 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what San Telmo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad22 Oct 2035
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Boardroom22 Oct 2035
165% of the income goes out in wages at San Telmo
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.
The dugout22 Oct 2035
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Ezequiel Marino is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom15 Oct 2035
Pressure builds in the San Telmo boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market15 Oct 2035
“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 San Telmo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad15 Oct 2035
Juan Cruz Zurbriggen 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.
Squad15 Oct 2035
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 34 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
A promise honoured at San Telmo
Something was said to Ivo Cabrera Branford and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market15 Oct 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. San Telmo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Market15 Oct 2035
3 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs San Telmo money.
The dugout15 Oct 2035
Cristian Herrera has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at San Telmo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Squad15 Oct 2035
A season on the outside for Angel Tunchev
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at San Telmo has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Sep 2035
“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.
Boardroom10 Sep 2035
San Telmo cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad10 Sep 2035
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; San Telmo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout10 Sep 2035
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Words exchanged at San Telmo
Valentino Ferreyra 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.
The dugout10 Sep 2035
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at San Telmo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market10 Sep 2035
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. San Telmo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The dugout10 Sep 2035
Cristian Herrera has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at San Telmo will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market10 Sep 2035
4 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs San Telmo money.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Aug 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match11 Aug 2035
Nowhere to hide for San Telmo
0‑3 against Flandria, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market13 Aug 2035
“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 San Telmo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Aug 2035
Juan Cruz Zurbriggen 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.
The dugout13 Aug 2035
The manager makes an example of Lautaro Ibarra
“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.
Boardroom13 Aug 2035
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Boardroom13 Aug 2035
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout13 Aug 2035
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Market13 Aug 2035
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Juan Cruz Zurbriggen may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom6 Aug 2035
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Player ratings6 Aug 2035
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.06, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad6 Aug 2035
337 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and San Telmo know exactly what they have.
The dugout6 Aug 2035
This is not rotation. Miguel Villalba has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at San Telmo is pretending otherwise.
Market6 Aug 2035
“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.
Boardroom6 Aug 2035
$760.7K from the owner keeps San Telmo afloat
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
Match4 Aug 2035
San Telmo rescue it on 94 minutes
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 94. Almirante Brown had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Boardroom6 Aug 2035
The borrowing at San Telmo reaches $17.2M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $17.2M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Squad6 Aug 2035
The medical room confirms 21 days on the sidelines for Pedro Luna, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Jul 2035
“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.
Match14 Jul 2035
5 matches without a win for San Telmo
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around San Telmo are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
San Telmo had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at San Lorenzo, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match14 Jul 2035
The goals have deserted San Telmo
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at San Telmo can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2035
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.
Match14 Jul 2035
0‑2 to Estudiantes, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout16 Jul 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lautaro Ibarra, and the manager let it.
Boardroom16 Jul 2035
San Telmo cannot sign anybody
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Squad16 Jul 2035
Words at San Telmo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Rossi 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
Crisis
Squad18 Jun 2035
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.
Market18 Jun 2035
“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.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. San Telmo have done the hard part with Lanús, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad18 Jun 2035
Juan Cruz Zurbriggen 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 targets18 Jun 2035
San Telmo asked and Lanús said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match16 Jun 2035
0‑2 to Dock Sud, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom18 Jun 2035
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
The dugout18 Jun 2035
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
Transfer targets18 Jun 2035
A loan enquiry to Defensa y Justicia: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market11 Jun 2035
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Temperley waiting with a shirt. Nobody at San Telmo is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad11 Jun 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings11 Jun 2035
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.99 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Market11 Jun 2035
“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.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2035
The deal with Godoy Cruz is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad11 Jun 2035
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 Telmo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets11 Jun 2035
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.
Match9 Jun 2035
Colón made San Telmo work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The terraces11 Jun 2035
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Sánchez has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces4 Jun 2035
The mood at San Telmo has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market4 Jun 2035
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what San Telmo can pretend not to have heard.
Squad4 Jun 2035
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match4 Jun 2035
San Telmo are in real trouble now
Position 16, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Match2 Jun 2035
5 matches without a win for San Telmo
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around San Telmo are no longer polite ones.
Match2 Jun 2035
San Telmo are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Boardroom4 Jun 2035
$691.9K of the owner's money at San Telmo
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
Transfer targets4 Jun 2035
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gimnasia La Plata have kept their man, and San Telmo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Dec 2034
San Telmo are in real trouble now
Position 16, 23 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market25 Dec 2034
“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 San Telmo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market25 Dec 2034
San Telmo say no — this time
The offer from Morón for Juan Cruz Zurbriggen 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.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Juan Cruz Zurbriggen 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 targets25 Dec 2034
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boca Juniors have kept their man, and San Telmo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout25 Dec 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Sergio García, and the manager let it.
Market25 Dec 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Franco Aguirre’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market25 Dec 2034
5 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what San Telmo could get for him.
The dugout25 Dec 2034
Daniel Sánchez 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout11 Sep 2034
This is not rotation. Gonzalo Gamarra has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at San Telmo is pretending otherwise.
Squad11 Sep 2034
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 Telmo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
No fees may be paid for anybody, whatever the squad needs. Every rumour about this club until it lifts is a rumour about a deal that cannot be done.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
The borrowing at San Telmo reaches $18.7M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $18.7M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
The dugout11 Sep 2034
“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.
Market11 Sep 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Franco Aguirre signs something — a contract at San Telmo or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market11 Sep 2034
3 months left and the two sides are nowhere near each other. Every week this drags on takes money off what San Telmo could get for him.
The dugout11 Sep 2034
Sergio García 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 Sergio García trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom11 Sep 2034
The San Telmo academy earns its keep
60 graduates, from a department now rated 4 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.