Marked for Hernán Suárez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 May 2033
42 days out for Uriel Rodríguez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Merlo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom30 May 2033
Pressure builds in the Deportivo Merlo boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Match28 May 2033
4 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.
Squad30 May 2033
Jailson Mathey 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.
Match28 May 2033
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Deportivo Merlo and Ferrocarril Midland, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Match28 May 2033
2‑4 to Ferrocarril Midland, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 May 2033
A muscle injury and 17 days out for Matías Billordo
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Deportivo Merlo will quote 17 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout30 May 2033
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 2‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout30 May 2033
The manager has not finished forgetting Natanael Martínez's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 May 2033
A fracture rules Uriel Rodríguez out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Deportivo Merlo will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout16 May 2033
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Deportivo Merlo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 May 2033
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Merlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 May 2033
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings16 May 2033
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad16 May 2033
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Boardroom16 May 2033
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The dugout16 May 2033
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
Squad16 May 2033
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jefferson Garcia was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Apr 2033
91 days out for Uriel Rodríguez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Merlo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The dugout11 Apr 2033
David Lindner: 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.” Deportivo Merlo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad11 Apr 2033
Jailson Mathey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings11 Apr 2033
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Boardroom11 Apr 2033
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.
The dugout11 Apr 2033
The manager makes an example of Alexis Coman
“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 dugout11 Apr 2033
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad11 Apr 2033
A Deportivo Merlo teenager takes the young player award
Alejandro Castillo is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
Match9 Apr 2033
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Gimnasia y Esgrima will be the happier side with the point.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Apr 2033
98 days out for Uriel Rodríguez after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Merlo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Deportivo Merlo is running low.
Player ratings4 Apr 2033
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alejandro Castillo did not need any: 7.83, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad4 Apr 2033
“The easiest signature of my career.” Román Peralta and Deportivo Merlo agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom4 Apr 2033
$309.7K from the owner keeps Deportivo Merlo 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.
Squad4 Apr 2033
Alexis Coman in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Merlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces4 Apr 2033
At 20 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.
Match2 Apr 2033
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Alejandro Castillo. 1‑0 against San Miguel, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings4 Apr 2033
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match8 Feb 2033
Beaten 0‑3 by Argentino de Quilmes, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad14 Feb 2033
23 days out for Matías Billordo after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Deportivo Merlo will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market14 Feb 2033
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Deportivo Merlo can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom14 Feb 2033
13 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.
Squad14 Feb 2033
Alexis Coman 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 dugout14 Feb 2033
The manager makes an example of Máximo Ferulano
“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.
Boardroom14 Feb 2033
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.
Boardroom14 Feb 2033
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
Upbeat
Squad20 Dec 2032
A move Natanael Martínez would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Natanael Martínez is living that version at Deportivo Merlo, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market20 Dec 2032
“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 Deportivo Merlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 Dec 2032
Jailson Mathey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2032
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Tucumán have kept their man, and Deportivo Merlo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2032
Deportivo Merlo have made the call to Lanús. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2032
A loan enquiry to Villa Dálmine: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Market20 Dec 2032
Jefferson Garcia is 20, and Deportivo Merlo have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market20 Dec 2032
Alejandro Castillo is 20, and Deportivo Merlo have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Market20 Dec 2032
He is 20, and nobody at Deportivo Merlo signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Nov 2032
Facundo Gómez damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Match20 Nov 2032
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Gimnasia y Esgrima, and it could have been more.
Player ratings22 Nov 2032
No sign of nerves from Hernán Suárez at 19 — 7.86
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Hernán Suárez did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings22 Nov 2032
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market22 Nov 2032
“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 dugout22 Nov 2032
Joaquín Otero: 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.” Deportivo Merlo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match20 Nov 2032
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Deportivo Merlo have 3 straight wins of it.
The terraces22 Nov 2032
He is 19 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Squad22 Nov 2032
Agustín Rodríguez 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Matías Kranevitter
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
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The dugout
Ignacio Núñez asks for a word with the manager
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Nov 2032
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Deportivo Merlo lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match30 Oct 2032
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against Quilmes, and it could have been more.
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
Both of them Yoel Gerez's — 8.60
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.60, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings1 Nov 2032
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad1 Nov 2032
Jailson Mathey and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match30 Oct 2032
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Quilmes were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The dugout1 Nov 2032
“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 ratings1 Nov 2032
A performance of 8.09 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom1 Nov 2032
The borrowing at Deportivo Merlo reaches $22.1M
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $22.1M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 May 2032
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nicolás Linares
137 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Deportivo Merlo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The dugout10 May 2032
Hernán Suárez: 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.” Deportivo Merlo have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 May 2032
Nahuel González 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.
Match8 May 2032
2‑3 to Villa San Carlos, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout10 May 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jailson Mathey, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 May 2032
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 2‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Market10 May 2032
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Deportivo Merlo has been clear about where Rorisang Raborife stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout10 May 2032
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Máximo Ferulano trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market10 May 2032
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Deportivo Merlo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings15 Mar 2032
Amer Ismail, 19, steals the show — 7.86
Marked 7.86 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad15 Mar 2032
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Deportivo Merlo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings15 Mar 2032
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The terraces15 Mar 2032
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Amer Ismail 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.
The dugout15 Mar 2032
The manager makes an example of Jailson Mathey
“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 ratings15 Mar 2032
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.82 on the card, and the Deportivo Merlo support went home talking about one name.
Squad15 Mar 2032
Words at Deportivo Merlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Motta 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
Boardroom8 Dec 2031
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Deportivo Merlo can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom8 Dec 2031
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Market8 Dec 2031
“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 Deportivo Merlo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Alexis Coman 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.
Boardroom8 Dec 2031
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Transfer targets8 Dec 2031
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Villa Dálmine have kept their man, and Deportivo Merlo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match6 Dec 2031
1‑2 to Real Pilar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout8 Dec 2031
The manager makes an example of Román Peralta
“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.
Squad8 Dec 2031
Words at Deportivo Merlo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Uriel Rodríguez 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.