Marked for Ryu Yabiku
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Aug 2028
148 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Melgar know what they have.
Market7 Aug 2028
Ryu Yabiku 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 Melgar can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Universitario is saying, and nobody at Melgar is enjoying the guessing.
Squad7 Aug 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Walter Tandazo and Melgar agree another 4 years.
Squad7 Aug 2028
A falling-out at Melgar
Diego Campos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Aug 2028
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Market7 Aug 2028
So close: Vasco Espejo’s move dies late
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Sport Huancayo moved on, Vasco Espejo reports back to Melgar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Transfer targets7 Aug 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market7 Aug 2028
Eber Ocampos is 19, and Melgar 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market31 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market31 Jul 2028
The deal that would have taken Rafael Livia to Deportivo Municipal has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Melgar with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad31 Jul 2028
A falling-out at Melgar
Marcos Echeverría and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Melgar will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
José Sánchez gets picked when it counts
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 José Sánchez is on it.
The dugout31 Jul 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Angel De La Cruz, and the manager let it.
Market31 Jul 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Diego Campos’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Match31 Jul 2028
Continental football is in reach for Melgar
31 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Melgar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market17 Jul 2028
The bid was some way short and Melgar did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Melgar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
The deal with Olimpia 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words exchanged at Melgar
José Sánchez and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Melgar asked and Universitario said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Jul 2028
The medical room confirms 37 days on the sidelines for Anderson Pumacajia, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Transfer targets17 Jul 2028
Universitario have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market10 Jul 2028
The unthinkable, invoiced: Jhamir D'Arrigo sold
Universitario arrived with $2.8M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Match8 Jul 2028
Cruel end for UTC as Melgar pounce
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Melgar scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Match10 Jul 2028
Full time on the season at Melgar
Position 6 on 31 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.
Market10 Jul 2028
Terms done: Ryu Yabiku is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sport Huancayo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Melgar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings10 Jul 2028
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The terraces10 Jul 2028
Jhamir D'Arrigo has gone, the accounts have $2.8M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Market10 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Universitario keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets10 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Jun 2028
Melgar say no — this time
The offer from Alianza Lima for Gregorio Rodríguez 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.
Market5 Jun 2028
“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 Melgar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout5 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Melgar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad5 Jun 2028
José Sánchez 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market5 Jun 2028
The phone has started ringing about Rafael Livia again, and this time the name on the line is Ayacucho. Melgar are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings5 Jun 2028
The game went through Yimy Gamero — 6.88
Marked 6.88 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
A loan enquiry to Racing Club: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets5 Jun 2028
Vélez have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Melgar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Player ratings15 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 May 2028
A falling-out at Melgar
Diego Campos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout15 May 2028
“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.
Match13 May 2028
0‑1 to Alianza Lima, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market15 May 2028
Deval Muñóz is free to find somewhere else
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Melgar has been clear about where Deval Muñóz stands, which is more than many ever get.
The dugout15 May 2028
“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 dugout15 May 2028
Walter Tandazo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Melgar 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.
Squad15 May 2028
The division's best last weekend was a Melgar man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that José Sánchez was the best thing in any of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Melgar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Tempers go at Melgar
José Sánchez 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.
Match15 Apr 2028
Three points for Melgar, 2‑0 the final word against Ayacucho in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Marked 8.45 — 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
Jefferson Cáceres was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. 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.
Player ratings17 Apr 2028
A performance of 8.03 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Raul Caceda: “That is the standard”
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
Squad17 Apr 2028
A booking nobody needed, on a night the game was already won. Melgar lose a player for the most avoidable reason there is.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Mar 2028
A European night to remember for Melgar
0‑0 against Cerro Porteno, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Diego Campos decides it from twelve yards
2 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match19 Mar 2028
No end in sight to Melgar's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Melgar has to find a result from somewhere.
Match20 Mar 2028
Melgar are in real trouble now
Position 10, 5 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.
Market20 Mar 2028
Juan Camacaro 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 Melgar can pretend not to have heard.
Market20 Mar 2028
Only the photograph left for Ryu Yabiku
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ryu Yabiku will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Melgar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match19 Mar 2028
1‑2 to Cienciano, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Juan Escobar misses from twelve yards
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Melgar can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Javier Salas breaks a bone — 36 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 36 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market21 Feb 2028
Only the photograph left for Ryu Yabiku
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ryu Yabiku will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Melgar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Melgar
José Sánchez 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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Rodrigo Ortega arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Rodrigo Ortega has, at Melgar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Walter Tandazo back under a manager who knows him
The new man at Melgar has worked with Walter Tandazo before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Market21 Feb 2028
He is 18, and nobody at Melgar signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Half-satisfied: Raul Caceda on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 Melgar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Javier Salas breaks a bone — 67 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match24 Jan 2028
Melgar refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
A move Walter Tandazo would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Walter Tandazo is living that version at Melgar, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market24 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Ryu Yabiku
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ryu Yabiku will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Melgar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market24 Jan 2028
The shirt still fits. Walter Tandazo is back at Melgar, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Transfer targets24 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Melgar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Jan 2028
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Melgar know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jan 2028
Javier Salas breaks a bone — 75 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 75 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Melgar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market17 Jan 2028
Only the photograph left for Rafael Livia
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Rafael Livia will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Melgar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad17 Jan 2028
José Sánchez 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 Melgar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Melgar 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.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“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 dugout17 Jan 2028
Juan Escobar gets picked when it counts
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 Juan Escobar is on it.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Joaquín Romero's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad17 Jan 2028
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 Dec 2027
97 days out for Javier Salas after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Melgar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market27 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Melgar can pretend not to have heard.
Match27 Dec 2027
Melgar refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 52 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Market27 Dec 2027
Ryu Yabiku has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Melgar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
Everything agreed with Brown de Adrogué, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Melgar
Diego Campos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market27 Dec 2027
The phone has started ringing about Rafael Livia again, and this time the name on the line is Deportivo Municipal. Melgar are listening politely and promising nothing.
Transfer targets27 Dec 2027
Sport Huancayo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad20 Dec 2027
A fracture rules Javier Salas out for 105 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Melgar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market20 Dec 2027
Terms done: Ryu Yabiku is going
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sport Huancayo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Melgar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market20 Dec 2027
Gian García 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 Melgar can pretend not to have heard.
Market20 Dec 2027
Piero Covinos has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Melgar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad20 Dec 2027
A falling-out at Melgar
Diego Campos and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2027
Melgar asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Nicolás Quagliata 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.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2027
A loan move for Daniel Fuzato is in the works
Melgar have made the call to Bragantino. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets20 Dec 2027
A loan enquiry to Brown de Adrogué: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Nov 2027
Walter Tandazo damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 21 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match2 Nov 2027
A European night to remember for Melgar
1‑1 against Fluminense, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A falling-out at Melgar
Pablo Erustes and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Melgar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Quagliata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.94 on the card, and the Melgar support went home talking about one name.
Loan watch8 Nov 2027
“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 Melgar, and 3 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Defences have started doubling up on Nicolás Quagliata
3 goals and a season average of 7.30 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Market
No place for Piero Covinos in the plan
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The dugout
Ryu Yabiku gets it from the manager
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 55 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“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.
Match24 Apr 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Melgar and UTC in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match24 Apr 2027
It finished 4‑2, and it was Marcos Portillo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Melgar.
Match24 Apr 2027
Whatever happens, Melgar do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Marked 8.54 — 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
The medical room confirms 62 days on the sidelines for Javier Salas, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Marked 8.43 — 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
A row about effort at Melgar
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Nicolás Quagliata was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“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.
Market12 Apr 2027
Deval Muñóz has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Melgar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Melgar
Pablo Erustes 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Nicolás Quagliata 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 dugout12 Apr 2027
Jhamir D'Arrigo has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Melgar 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.
Boardroom12 Apr 2027
Belts tighten at Melgar
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Raul Caceda after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
Ryu Yabiku gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match10 Apr 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Universitario came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad19 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Abraham Aguinaga
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Melgar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market19 Oct 2026
Only the photograph left for Jorge Cabezudo
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jorge Cabezudo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Melgar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Deval Muñóz is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.