Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Sives 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.
7 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutTomás Akimenco asks for a word with the manager
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Méndez 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 captaincy has been taken off Tomás Akimenco. Villa San Carlos will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
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.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Thiago Martínez has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Villa San Carlos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
David Fleitas 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.
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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Tomás Sives 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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings19 Mar 2029
Alan Velázquez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.09
A mark of 8.09 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
David Fleitas 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Sives 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 general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Méndez 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.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Player ratingsTomás Sives beats them one at a time
136Edition
The Villa San Carlos Post
5 Mar 2029
From our football correspondentTriumph
Player ratings5 Mar 2029
Alan Velázquez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.12
A mark of 8.12 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
11 seasons and 163 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tomás Akimenco and Villa San Carlos agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Nicolas is living that version at Villa San Carlos, and it tends to show in the first month.
At 21 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Christian Soria has his answer from Villa San Carlos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christian Soria will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Villa San Carlos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
David Fleitas 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.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Tomás Sives 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.
A 2‑0 win over Gimnasia y Esgrima, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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 name of Tomás Sives has come up in conversations Villa San Carlos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
7.91, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
David Fleitas 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Méndez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Sives was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 2‑1 win over Deportivo Merlo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Valentín Flores, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugoutThe plan did not have a place for Alejo Lloyaiy
132Edition
The Villa San Carlos Post
5 Feb 2029
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Player ratings5 Feb 2029
Alan Velázquez, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Tomás Sives 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.
He is 23 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Felipe Flores 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Carlos Vidal 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Ricardo Paz is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Christian Soria will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Villa San Carlos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
David Fleitas 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Méndez 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.
Everybody at Villa San Carlos saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nicolás Vivas has his answer from Villa San Carlos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Juan Villagra trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Villa San Carlos would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
David Fleitas 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.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Tomás Sives 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nicolás Vivas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Villagra signs something — a contract at Villa San Carlos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Kevin Gutiérrez wants continental football; whether Villa San Carlos can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Sives 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.
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Villa San Carlos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Villa San Carlos that is a harder question to answer.
Market15 Jan 2029
The window shut and David Fleitas is still in the building
Villa San Carlos spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Maipú moved on, Leonardo Zabala reports back to Villa San Carlos, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Simón Ávalos commits to Villa San Carlos for another 4 years.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Nicolás Vivas 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.
The young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Villa San Carlos who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
Villa San Carlos opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Luciano Machín stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Villa San Carlos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Villa San Carlos will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Villa San Carlos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The offer went to Boca Juniors this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
David Fleitas 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Méndez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Kevin Gutiérrez 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.
The offer from Lanús for Tomás Sives 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Villa San Carlos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The terraces25 Dec 2028
Supporters turn on the $340.0K sale of Zago Zegarra
He is going to Rosario Central, the club has $340.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Rosario Central pay $340.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Sives was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Barracas Central will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Bruno Mascheroni has pre-agreed a move to Villa San Carlos, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Gimnasia y Esgrima waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Villa San Carlos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Villa San Carlos have had the benefit of it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Boca Juniors is saying, and nobody at Villa San Carlos is enjoying the guessing.
The offer went to Boca Juniors this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
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.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Paysandu for Leonardo Zabala 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.
The deal with Boca Juniors 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Isaías Aguirre is living that version at Villa San Carlos, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Boca Juniors have kept their man, and Villa San Carlos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Tomás Sives 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Sives was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Deportivo Riestra will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Dylan Ledesma has pre-agreed a move to Villa San Carlos, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Villa San Carlos asked and Morón said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 23 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.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Yerry Murillo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Minute 88, against Fénix, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Aguerre was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Valentín Flores to a room that had heard them before.
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 Tomás Akimenco is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Villa San Carlos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Tomás Sives 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Villa San Carlos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nehemías Almaraz has his answer from Villa San Carlos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Fleitas signs something — a contract at Villa San Carlos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Villa San Carlos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Villa San Carlos the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zago Zegarra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Villa San Carlos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Villa San Carlos can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Yerry Murillo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Tomás Sives 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.
He is 23 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Valentín Flores on a 3‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Two goals and a mark of 8.17 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
11 seasons and 272 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
Yerry Murillo 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.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Villa San Carlos and Defensores in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Méndez 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kevin Gutiérrez 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.
In brief
Player ratingsYerry Murillo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Yerry Murillo 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 Oct 2028
Tomás Sives 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.
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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The terracesThe stands have heard the Tomás Akimenco talk too
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Tomás Sives 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Villa San Carlos pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Flandria.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zago Zegarra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Villa San Carlos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Aguerre 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Nicolás Avalos has his answer from Villa San Carlos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Villa San Carlos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Villa San Carlos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Los Andes will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Villa San Carlos were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Tomás Sives 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.
At 22 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.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Yerry Murillo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.45. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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 dugout9 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Valentín Flores kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Alan Velázquez, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Tomás Sives 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.
Instituto will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. René Fuentes has pre-agreed a move to Villa San Carlos, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Lucas Morales has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Villa San Carlos have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Juan Villagra. 1‑0 against Excursionistas, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Aguerre 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.
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.
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 Tomás Akimenco is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Villa San Carlos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
At 23 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.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Tomás Sives’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Villa San Carlos.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Yerry Murillo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.46. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Marked 8.32. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Villa San Carlos.
The dugout18 Sep 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Valentín Flores kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Bruno Méndez 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.
Liniers next, and one man in the Villa San Carlos dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ignacio Peluffo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Villa San Carlos. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Yerry Murillo 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 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.
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 dugout4 Sep 2028
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 Valentín Flores left the room before anybody could ask which.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Villa San Carlos told Leandro Milito something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
UAI Urquiza will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Villa San Carlos were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Sives 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Alan Velázquez 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.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Zago Zegarra will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Villa San Carlos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Sives was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
UAI Urquiza next, and one man in the Villa San Carlos dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Yerry Murillo 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.
He is 23 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.
Marked 8.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Villa San Carlos is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
10 combined actions and 6.87. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
157 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Villa San Carlos know what they have.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Up for the corner, and Alejo Lloyaiy delivers — 7.86
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alejo Lloyaiy scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Méndez 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.
“I did not go to Excursionistas to sit and watch. I want to come back to Villa San Carlos and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Add another name to the list: Yantra have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Leonardo Zabala. The answer from Villa San Carlos has not changed — yet.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simón Cañete will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Villa San Carlos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Sives 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.
Villa San Carlos ran out of time with Estudiantes. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Villa San Carlos know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
7 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.
Bruno Méndez is 20, and Villa San Carlos 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Villa San Carlos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The clubs have shaken hands with Estudiantes; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
Deadline passes with 6 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Villa San Carlos until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Unión de Santa Fe is saying, and nobody at Villa San Carlos is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The chase for Emiliano Casanova ended with $65.0K changing hands and Boca Juniors out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Tomás Sives 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.
Huracán will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Axel Gauna has pre-agreed a move to Villa San Carlos, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
BoardroomNobody left the Villa San Carlos dressing room in a hurry
103Edition
The Villa San Carlos Post
17 Jul 2028
From our football correspondentUpbeat
Player ratings17 Jul 2028
A brace, and Tomás Sives takes the afternoon — 8.80
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tomás Sives provided it, and the 8.80 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have shaken hands with Boca Juniors; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Villa San Carlos have gone to Boca Juniors with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Yerry Murillo 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Villa San Carlos have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
$290.0K on the table at Unión de Santa Fe. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Yerry Murillo 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 offer went to Estudiantes this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Enzo Galizzi has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Villa San Carlos have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have shaken hands with Lanús; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Villa San Carlos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Arsenal have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Zago Zegarra. The answer from Villa San Carlos has not changed — yet.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Villa San Carlos have done the hard part with Racing Club, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The offer went to Unión de Santa Fe this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Villa San Carlos asked and Belgrano said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 22 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.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. David Fleitas scored in the 88th minute, Sacachispas had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Villa San Carlos took the lot.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Sives 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Deportivo Merlo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Villa San Carlos is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Simón Ávalos has just signed for Villa San Carlos, and for once the answer mattered.
Villa San Carlos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Colón, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
$560.0K was the most the club would pay and Godoy Cruz were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The fee is $130.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Liniers drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Sives was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs have shaken hands with Colón; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Villa San Carlos they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The name of Nehemías Almaraz has come up in conversations Villa San Carlos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
200 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.
In brief
SquadFrancisco Cairo falls out with a teammate over standards
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Juan Villagra had Villa San Carlos level again within 3 minutes, and Real Pilar never got to play with a lead at all.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Villa San Carlos has been clear about where Santino Fabi stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout29 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Valentín Flores chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Yerry Murillo 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Santino Fabi 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.
Everybody at Villa San Carlos saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mateo Araujo and Villa San Carlos agree another 4 years.
In brief
Player ratingsThe afternoon belonged to Juan Villagra
Yerry Murillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Sives was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
12 combined actions and 6.83. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Valentín Flores after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Los Andes next, and one man in the Villa San Carlos dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutAlejo Lloyaiy asks for a word with the manager
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simón Cañete will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Villa San Carlos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
A 1‑1 draw with Argentino de Merlo leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout8 May 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Valentín Flores chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Nicolás Vivas's mistake
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Yerry Murillo 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.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Up for the corner, and Nicolás Vivas delivers — 5.96
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Nicolás Vivas scored, was marked 5.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Yerry Murillo 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.
This is not rotation. Franco Ojeda has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Villa San Carlos is pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Tomás Sives 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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with UAI Urquiza the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Villa San Carlos will enjoy reviewing.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomás Sives 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Valentín Flores after 2‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Simón Cañete will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Villa San Carlos the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Villa San Carlos has been clear about where Zago Zegarra stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutYerry Murillo knocks on the manager’s door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Cairo 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 offer from Tromso for David Fleitas 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.
Yerry Murillo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Tomás Akimenco trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Juan Manuel Crespo has written the date down.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Yerry Murillo 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 easiest signature of my career.” Leonardo Zabala and Villa San Carlos agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
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 dugout20 Mar 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Valentín Flores was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Villa San Carlos dressing room was either.
Successful dribbles: 11. 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.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Villa San Carlos is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kevin Gutiérrez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Francisco Cairo 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Leandro Lacunza’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Villa San Carlos needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Augusto Pontón trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until David Fleitas signs something — a contract at Villa San Carlos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Yerry Murillo 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yerry Murillo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
5 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
A brace, and David Fleitas takes the afternoon — 8.59
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Fleitas provided it, and the 8.59 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francisco Cairo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It needed David Fleitas to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Deportivo Merlo, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
At 22 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with David Fleitas in the middle of it, and Deportivo Laferrere unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
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 words a physio says slowly. 18 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Villa San Carlos moved before anybody else could: a new deal for Valentín Flores, agreed quietly and announced loudly. Boards extend managers for many reasons; the good one is the one this looks like.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Villa San Carlos has to find a result from somewhere.
4 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Villa San Carlos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
The name of Juan Villagra has come up in conversations Villa San Carlos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francisco Cairo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Fleitas trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Villa San Carlos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Yerry Murillo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francisco Cairo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Christian Soria trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
The offer from Dalian Yingbo for David Fleitas 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
13 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Villa San Carlos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Villa San Carlos asked and Deportivo Riestra said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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. Villa San Carlos will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Villa San Carlos know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 6, 62 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
37 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Villa San Carlos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Tombense for Juan Villagra 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The fee is $110.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Rosario Central drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
San Lorenzo will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Joaquín Orrantia has pre-agreed a move to Villa San Carlos, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Machín 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Independiente Rivadavia have kept their man, and Villa San Carlos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Temperley, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $128.1K — a club that wants Kevin Gutiérrez enough to be asked twice.
Baltasar Rodríguez 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.
Villa San Carlos have gone to Rosario Central with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Independiente have kept their man, and Villa San Carlos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Villa San Carlos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Villa San Carlos and Talleres have settled on $310.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Aldosivi keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Villa San Carlos have done the hard part with Universitario Popayan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tigre have kept their man, and Villa San Carlos go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camilo Alessandria 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.
Position 6 on 62 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Aldosivi for Bruno Mariani 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Talleres keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Facundo Aguerre is living that version at Villa San Carlos, and it tends to show in the first month.
The offer went to Tigre this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Leandro Lacunza and Villa San Carlos agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Tomás Sives was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Tristán Suárez have accepted the money. What Villa San Carlos do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Baltasar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camilo Alessandria 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Mateo Monserrat has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Villa San Carlos have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Villa San Carlos pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and 8 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
Baltasar Rodríguez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camilo Alessandria 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.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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 0‑1 Valentín Flores left the room before anybody could ask which.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Villa San Carlos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Zahir Yunis 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Machín 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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 6.68, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Baltasar Rodríguez. 1‑0 against Fénix, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.22 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 7.28, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Valentín Flores could afford to be generous.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Villa San Carlos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Juan Villagra signs something — a contract at Villa San Carlos or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 6 on 57 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Villa San Carlos would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.98 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Baltasar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Alessandria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A mark of 7.99, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Valentín Flores, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Something was said to Alejo Lloyaiy and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
Baltasar Rodríguez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Francisco Cairo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Hans Salinas is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Successful dribbles: 13. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
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 Tomás Akimenco is on it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
In brief
The dugoutBruno Mariani knocks on the manager’s door
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Marked 7.01 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Valentín Flores could afford to be generous.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Franco Ojeda
The dugoutZago Zegarra dropped after a run of poor form
The dugoutKevin Pavía asks for a word with the manager
Baltasar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Machín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Villa San Carlos, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Real Pilar in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
50 points from position 6. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
1 for Zahir Yunis, marked 7.73, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alejandro Lugones and Villa San Carlos agree another 2 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Alessandria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Zahir Yunis 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Zahir Yunis. 1‑0 against Gimnasia y Esgrima, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Villa San Carlos pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Villa San Carlos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
San Martín SJ will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Lisandro Tejada has pre-agreed a move to Villa San Carlos, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
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.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Villa San Carlos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.11 for the rest of it.
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.
Level with 88 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Villa San Carlos had all but put away. Argentino de Merlo will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Baltasar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camilo Alessandria 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.
At 37, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout13 Sep 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Valentín Flores to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Baltasar Rodríguez 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 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Bruno Mariani has his answer from Villa San Carlos; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for David Fleitas
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. David Fleitas has come out of that comparison in the side, and Villa San Carlos have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Something was said to Bruno Mariani and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
44 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Villa San Carlos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Machín 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 board was up, the win was priced in, and then Liniers scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Nobody at Villa San Carlos 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.
51 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Villa San Carlos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Alessandria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Tomás Sives was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Kevin Pavía has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Villa San Carlos.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Valentín Flores, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
59 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Villa San Carlos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Baltasar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Alessandria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Fernando Farías 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.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Valentín Flores on a 3‑2 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
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.
67 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Villa San Carlos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Baltasar Rodríguez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Machín 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Leonardo Zabala commits to Villa San Carlos for another 4 years.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
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 0‑1 Valentín Flores left the room before anybody could ask which.
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Villa San Carlos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
221 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Mauricio Almirón has come up in conversations Villa San Carlos were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Alessandria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 84 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.
Player ratings26 Jul 2027
A brace, and Bruno Mariani takes the afternoon — 8.55
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Bruno Mariani provided it, and the 8.55 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
Villa San Carlos close the window on a squad of their own making
0 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Villa San Carlos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Talleres, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The offer from América de Natal for Leonardo Zabala 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Alessandria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
91 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Villa San Carlos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Boca Juniors keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Baltasar 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.
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.
98 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Villa San Carlos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Everything agreed with San Lorenzo, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Baltasar Rodríguez 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.
A 3‑2 win over Deportivo Armenio, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Alessandria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Fernando Farías 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.
106 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Villa San Carlos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Defensa y Justicia keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Everything agreed with Comunicaciones, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camilo Alessandria 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.
Villa San Carlos asked and Sportivo Luqueno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Villa San Carlos lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have shaken hands with Defensa y Justicia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The offer from Brasil de Pelotas for Tomás Hornos 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 33 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Villa San Carlos is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luciano Machín 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.
122 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Villa San Carlos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Juan Villagra scored in the 87th minute, San Martín de Burzaco had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Villa San Carlos took the lot.
“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 Villa San Carlos, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from América de Natal for Leonardo Zabala 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Talleres is saying, and nobody at Villa San Carlos is enjoying the guessing.
Baltasar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Alessandria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A 1‑0 win over San Martín de Burzaco, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
130 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Villa San Carlos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Villa San Carlos had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at River Plate, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Baltasar Rodríguez 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 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.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 37 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
The words a physio says slowly. 139 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The offer from Latina for Bruno Mariani 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Villa San Carlos this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Villa San Carlos can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Camilo Alessandria was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Valentín Flores after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Villa San Carlos have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Baltasar 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Camilo Alessandria 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Valentín Flores on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Villa San Carlos 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.
Baltasar Rodríguez 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luciano Machín was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 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.
Real Pilar made Villa San Carlos work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings17 May 2027
Zahir Yunis was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Valentín Flores could afford to be generous.