Marked for Mathias Ramirez
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Jan 2030
56 days out for Lucas Modernell after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alto Peru will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom14 Jan 2030
Pressure builds in the Alto Peru boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Transfer targets14 Jan 2030
Alto Peru asked and Fenix said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Jan 2030
A row about effort at Alto Peru
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Facundo Laviano was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom14 Jan 2030
Alto Peru are $3.7M in the red
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Squad14 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alto Peru this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market14 Jan 2030
Alto Peru have let the market know Steven Chiazaro can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
Gonzalo Cardozo asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad14 Jan 2030
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Alto Peru know which stage they are at.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match30 Oct 2028
Alto Peru are in real trouble now
Position 9, 12 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Alto Peru lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad30 Oct 2028
16 days out for Andrés Acuña after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Alto Peru will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market30 Oct 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 Alto Peru, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Facundo Laviano and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mathias Fernandez
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Alto Peru lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Andrés Acuña breaks a bone — 23 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Lucas Ibarra 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 Alto Peru this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Alto Peru training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Facundo Laviano 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 dugout23 Oct 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.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Reymond de Morales'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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Jul 2028
Andrés Acuña breaks a bone — 107 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 107 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Facundo Laviano and Alto Peru agree another 3 years.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Lucas Ibarra 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
Facundo Laviano 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marcelo Ramirez 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.
Market31 Jul 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Mathias Ramirez has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market31 Jul 2028
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Agustin Santos is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market31 Jul 2028
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Rafael Ramirez 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.