Marked for Victor Thiago
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom30 Aug 2038
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Juan Aurich
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad30 Aug 2038
Ricardo Bettocchi 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 Aug 2038
15 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The terraces31 May 2038
Anger at Juan Aurich spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market31 May 2038
“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 The request is on a desk at Juan Aurich, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad31 May 2038
Víctor Cumpa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juan Aurich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2038
Bryan Rivas 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.
Squad31 May 2038
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings31 May 2038
Marked 8.20 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match19 Apr 2038
Juan Aurich are in real trouble now
Position 11, 7 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market19 Apr 2038
Victor Thiago hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juan Aurich can pretend not to have heard.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Victor Thiago: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Juan Aurich have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings19 Apr 2038
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Víctor Cumpa in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juan Aurich this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market19 Apr 2038
Nelson Pena has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Juan Aurich they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad19 Apr 2038
Bryan Rivas 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.
Match17 Apr 2038
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad19 Apr 2038
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Juan Ayqqe, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match20 Jun 2037
No end in sight to Juan Aurich's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Juan Aurich has to find a result from somewhere.
Match22 Jun 2037
13 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings22 Jun 2037
A brace, and Aquiles Mansilla takes the afternoon — 7.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aquiles Mansilla provided it, and the 7.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Ricardo Bettocchi 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.
Match20 Jun 2037
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad22 Jun 2037
Bryan Rivas 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.
Squad22 Jun 2037
“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.
Squad22 Jun 2037
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.
Player ratings22 Jun 2037
5.56 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jan 2037
Joaquín Carranza damages knee ligaments — 108 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 108 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.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Juan Ayqqe breaks a bone — 99 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 99 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Jan 2037
Interim Coach has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Juan Aurich can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Boardroom5 Jan 2037
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad5 Jan 2037
Victor Thiago: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Juan Aurich have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Jan 2037
178 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Juan Aurich know what they have.