Titi

Striker - Arsenal
23 Oct 2035
Tuesday
Process

Marked for Titi

478 Edition

The Arsenal Chronicle

24 Sep 2035
From our football correspondent Crisis

The terraces

Anger at Arsenal 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Arsenal

Tobias Pettersson 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.

Market

The Ramiro Breccia story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ramiro Breccia signs something — a contract at Arsenal or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

When it matters, Juan Bianchi plays

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 dugout

Alejandro Sánchez knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Alejandro Sánchez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Market

The shop window has Alejandro Sánchez in it

Arsenal have let the market know Alejandro Sánchez can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.

In brief

  • Boardroom The Arsenal production line keeps running
  • Squad Questions about Titi on the training pitch
Back issues
446 Edition

The Arsenal Chronicle

12 Feb 2035
From our football correspondent Steady

The terraces

The mood at Arsenal has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Player ratings

What a way to start for Valentino Ferreyra — 7.79

1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.79 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.

Squad

Words exchanged at Arsenal

Tobias Pettersson 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.

Boardroom

Still nobody in the Arsenal dugout

11 days with the chair empty, a list of names that grows and shrinks by the day, and not one signature on anything. Every week that passes takes the best candidates off it.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Valentino Ferreyra

At 15 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.

Match

Arsenal see off Colegiales

Three points for Arsenal, 1‑0 the final word against Colegiales in a contest settled by the finer margins.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Colo

“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.

Player ratings

Ramiro Breccia runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Squad

Titi stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Titi and Arsenal agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

  • The dugout A satisfied Interim Coach
  • Squad Colo: “I am not a substitute”
  • The dugout No place in the plan for Colo
445 Edition

The Arsenal Chronicle

5 Feb 2035
From our football correspondent Crisis

Boardroom

Interim Coach is out at Arsenal

Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.

Squad

Nahuel Pezzini keeps Arsenal in it on his own

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.

Match

Arsenal taken apart

0‑3 to Patronato, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.

Boardroom

An empty coaching office at Arsenal

There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.

Boardroom

Interim Coach steps up at Arsenal for now

“Somebody picks the team on Saturday. This week it is me, and that is as far as I have thought.” No promises were made in either direction, which is how these usually begin.

Market

Kevin Cuadrado is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Arsenal is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Match

The wait goes on for Arsenal

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.

Squad

Tempers go at Arsenal

Nahuel Pezzini 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.

Boardroom

5 academy graduates step up at Arsenal

Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.

In brief