Marked for Iván Castillo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Feb 2029
Javier Iritier damages knee ligaments — 47 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 47 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market19 Feb 2029
Facundo Blasco has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around San Telmo they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom19 Feb 2029
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Nicolás Baigorria has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Words exchanged at San Telmo
Elías Brítez 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.
Squad19 Feb 2029
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 dugout19 Feb 2029
“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 dugout19 Feb 2029
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 1‑2 Tomás Bruno left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
Tobías Schilman 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Feb 2029
Javier Iritier damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market12 Feb 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at San Telmo is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Market12 Feb 2029
San Telmo say no — this time
The offer from Atlanta for Dante Capriati 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.
Squad12 Feb 2029
Elías Brítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom12 Feb 2029
Still no name above the door at San Telmo
Day 11 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad12 Feb 2029
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.
Match10 Feb 2029
0‑1 to Sportivo Italiano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
The manager makes an example of Máximo Munarriz
“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 dugout12 Feb 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Tomás Bruno after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words exchanged at San Telmo
Leonel Pollacchi 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 dugout22 Nov 2027
This is not rotation. Carlos Casas has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at San Telmo is pretending otherwise.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Words at San Telmo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rodrigo Dinocco 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.
Market22 Nov 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Leonel Pollacchi’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market22 Nov 2027
The shop window has Elías Brítez in it
San Telmo have let the market know Elías Brítez can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.