Marked for Oscar Arango
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Ayacucho
Jorge Bosmediano 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.
Squad30 Sep 2030
Words at Ayacucho training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jean Pierre Archimbaud is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
Nobody at Ayacucho 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.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
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 Jose Carrillo has written the date down.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
The manager plants his flag on Jiries Salem
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jiries Salem’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Sep 2030
Sergio Farfan has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Ayacucho can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad2 Sep 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jorge Bosmediano and Ayacucho agree another 2 years.
Squad2 Sep 2030
A falling-out at Ayacucho
Jean Pierre Archimbaud and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout2 Sep 2030
Carlos Gómez 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.
The dugout2 Sep 2030
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 Jean Pierre Vílchez is on it.
The dugout2 Sep 2030
Gerson Iraola loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Gerson Iraola's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad5 Aug 2030
A falling-out at Ayacucho
Jean Pierre Archimbaud and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Aug 2030
Oscar Arango gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Oscar Arango has just signed for Ayacucho, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad5 Aug 2030
A row about effort at Ayacucho
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jamilton Isuiza was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Aug 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oscar Arango and Ayacucho agree another 3 years.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
The manager's exit leaves Junior Aguirre exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Junior Aguirre is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
The dugout5 Aug 2030
The manager makes an example of Santino Robles
“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 dugout5 Aug 2030
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 Jean Pierre Vílchez is on it.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
Ayacucho trim $2.1M from the budget
The money the manager was told he had is now money the manager used to have. $2.1M, gone from the table without a statement, and a dressing room that understands what it means.