Marked for Eero Kamara
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market30 Jan 2034
“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.
Squad30 Jan 2034
Matías Benítez 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.
Squad30 Jan 2034
Words at San Miguel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Tefeleu 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.
The dugout30 Jan 2034
The manager makes an example of Tucu
“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.
Market30 Jan 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Esteban Zurita signs something — a contract at San Miguel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout30 Jan 2034
Luis Lopez 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 Luis Lopez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Jan 2034
Matías Benítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout16 Jan 2034
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Robert Tefeleu, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Jan 2034
Words at San Miguel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Araña 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.
Market16 Jan 2034
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Matías Benítez signs something — a contract at San Miguel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout16 Jan 2034
When it matters, Araña plays
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.
Market16 Jan 2034
San Miguel have made Fernando Cosciuc available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Squad16 Jan 2034
Tucu: “I am not a substitute”
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one San Miguel will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout16 Jan 2034
Jorge Aguirre 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.
Boardroom16 Jan 2034
The San Miguel production line keeps running
71 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
Uneasy
Boardroom2 Jan 2034
9 points gone: San Miguel in administration
This is the morning a town finds out what the accounts have been doing while it watched the football. The debt gets written down to something payable, and the football pays for it in points.
Squad2 Jan 2034
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matías Benítez
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. San Miguel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market2 Jan 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 Miguel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Jan 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniel Sappa and San Miguel agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Jan 2034
Matías Benítez 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.
Boardroom2 Jan 2034
$373.0K of the owner's money at San Miguel
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 targets2 Jan 2034
San Miguel asked and Brown de Adrogué said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market2 Jan 2034
Add another name to the list: Madryn have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Yaya. The answer from San Miguel has not changed — yet.
Squad2 Jan 2034
Robert Tefeleu 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Dec 2033
Matías Benítez 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.
Market12 Dec 2033
“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.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Transfer targets12 Dec 2033
The deal with Deportivo Riestra 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.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Matías Benítez 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.
Transfer targets12 Dec 2033
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.
The dugout12 Dec 2033
“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.
Match10 Dec 2033
0‑1 to Güemes, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad12 Dec 2033
Robert Tefeleu 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Market
No place for Eero Kamara in the plan
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Market
Daniel Sappa linked with a move away
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Oct 2033
Matías Benítez 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 dugout10 Oct 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Fernando Cosciuc, and the manager let it.
Squad10 Oct 2033
Words at San Miguel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Robert Tefeleu 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.
Squad10 Oct 2033
17 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad10 Oct 2033
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and San Miguel know it.
Market10 Oct 2033
Joaquín Ramírez is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at San Miguel has been clear about where Joaquín Ramírez stands, which is more than many ever get.
Market10 Oct 2033
The Daniel Sappa story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Daniel Sappa signs something — a contract at San Miguel or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout10 Oct 2033
When it matters, Araña plays
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 Oct 2033
“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 Miguel, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Aug 2033
50 days out for Miguel Herrera after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. San Miguel will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match6 Aug 2033
0‑4 to Deportivo Laferrere, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match6 Aug 2033
No end in sight to San Miguel's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at San Miguel has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 Aug 2033
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” João Mendes commits to San Miguel for another 4 years.
Match6 Aug 2033
The goals have deserted San Miguel
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at San Miguel can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad8 Aug 2033
Matías Benítez 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 Aug 2033
Wages swallow 303% of the San Miguel income
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The dugout8 Aug 2033
Daniel Sappa gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom8 Aug 2033
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.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad18 Jul 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings18 Jul 2033
Two goals and a mark of 8.74 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market18 Jul 2033
“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 Miguel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Jul 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 San Miguel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Jul 2033
Whatever happens, San Miguel do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match16 Jul 2033
It finished 3‑1, and it was Emiliano Tejera’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to San Miguel.
Transfer targets18 Jul 2033
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Banfield have kept their man, and San Miguel go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings18 Jul 2033
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad18 Jul 2033
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 Jun 2033
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market13 Jun 2033
“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 Miguel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match11 Jun 2033
5 matches without a win for San Miguel
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around San Miguel are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets13 Jun 2033
The deal with Lanús 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.
Squad13 Jun 2033
Matías Benítez 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.
Match11 Jun 2033
San Miguel 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.
Transfer targets13 Jun 2033
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.
Match11 Jun 2033
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom13 Jun 2033
234% of the income goes out in wages at San Miguel
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.
In brief
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Boardroom
San Miguel cannot sign anybody
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Squad
Eero Kamara wants to go home
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market30 May 2033
“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 Miguel, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout30 May 2033
“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.
Squad30 May 2033
Matías Benítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match28 May 2033
Emiliano Tejera scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Fénix, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad30 May 2033
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and San Miguel know it.
The dugout30 May 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Daniel Sappa, and the manager let it.
Market30 May 2033
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Danail Sarmov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at San Miguel.
The dugout30 May 2033
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout30 May 2033
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Fernando Cosciuc trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Apr 2033
A fracture rules Fernando Cosciuc out for 53 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason San Miguel will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad4 Apr 2033
Matías Benítez and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match2 Apr 2033
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The dugout4 Apr 2033
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Enzo Tamborelli, and the manager let it.
Match2 Apr 2033
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market4 Apr 2033
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at San Miguel, another week without a signature from Enzo Tamborelli.
The dugout4 Apr 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.
Squad4 Apr 2033
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and San Miguel know it.
Squad4 Apr 2033
Ivan Duris is no longer first choice
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Ivan Duris has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Mar 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match9 Mar 2033
A 1‑0 win over Maipú, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match12 Mar 2033
Chastening afternoon for San Miguel
A 0‑4 beating by Ferrocarril Midland was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Player ratings14 Mar 2033
Araña, 18, steals the show — 7.77
Marked 7.77 at 18, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad14 Mar 2033
Matías Benítez 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 terraces14 Mar 2033
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Eero Kamara 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 dugout14 Mar 2033
The manager makes an example of Miguel Herrera
“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 Mar 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.
Squad14 Mar 2033
“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 Miguel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Player ratings
Esteban Zurita beats them one at a time
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Squad
Robert Tefeleu falls out with a teammate over standards
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Jan 2033
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 116 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 Jan 2033
Emiliano Tejera 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.
Market31 Jan 2033
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at San Miguel, another week without a signature from Enzo Tamborelli.
Squad31 Jan 2033
“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 Miguel are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad31 Jan 2033
A row about effort at San Miguel
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Tefeleu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout31 Jan 2033
Esteban Zurita has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at San Miguel 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jul 2032
0‑5 to San Martín de Burzaco, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Match31 Jul 2032
The wait goes on for San Miguel
5 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.
Squad2 Aug 2032
Matías Benítez 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 targets2 Aug 2032
San Miguel asked and Instituto said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings2 Aug 2032
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 6.59, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Market2 Aug 2032
No place for Lucas Díaz in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Lucas Díaz has his answer from San Miguel; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout2 Aug 2032
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leonardo González, and the manager let it.
Boardroom2 Aug 2032
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Market2 Aug 2032
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.