Marked for Iván Santillán
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
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.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match22 Mar 2027
Every point is an argument now for Ayacucho
Position 10 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Iván Santillán and Ayacucho agree another 2 years.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A falling-out at Ayacucho
Eric Soloppi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to José Ataupillco, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Joel Flores left the room before anybody could ask which.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Diego Virrueta out for 104 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ayacucho will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match20 Feb 2027
The wait goes on for Ayacucho
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
A falling-out at Ayacucho
Eric Soloppi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Alonso Tamariz
“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.
Match20 Feb 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Joel Flores: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 10. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
He came on with the match going nowhere and left it settled. Ayacucho had the right man on the bench, and for once the timing was right too.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
Royer Salcedo 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Diego Virrueta out for 112 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ayacucho will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Junior Aguirre commits to Ayacucho for another 1 years.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words exchanged at Ayacucho
Eric Soloppi 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.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“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 dugout15 Feb 2027
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Joel Flores after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match13 Feb 2027
Ayacucho and UTC cancel each other out
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. UTC came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Looking ahead15 Feb 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Jean Pierre Archimbaud’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Ayacucho needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Diego Virrueta out for 159 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Ayacucho will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets4 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Alianza Lima is saying, and nobody at Ayacucho is enjoying the guessing.
Squad4 Jan 2027
At 22 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Eric Soloppi 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 Ayacucho this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Everybody at Ayacucho saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Transfer targets4 Jan 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 106 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market28 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Ayacucho can pretend not to have heard.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Ayacucho
Eric Soloppi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
At 35, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Ayacucho training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. José Ataupillco 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.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
A loan enquiry to Talleres: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Transfer targets28 Dec 2026
Alianza Lima 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.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Iván Santillán knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Ayacucho, and both men came out saying it was fine.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 113 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Ayacucho
Eric Soloppi 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 targets21 Dec 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alianza Lima have kept their man, and Ayacucho go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Diego Virrueta 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 targets21 Dec 2026
Ayacucho have made the call to Universitario. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Iván Santillán 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 Iván Santillán trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
129 days out for Fabriccio Butrón after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Ayacucho will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Ayacucho asked and Defensa y Justicia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Dec 2026
José Ataupillco 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 targets7 Dec 2026
Alianza Lima 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.
Transfer targets7 Dec 2026
Argentinos Juniors 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.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
Open for business: Ayacucho enter the window
The registration window is open and the phone has started. Between now and the deadline this club will be linked with forty players and sign three, which is the usual ratio.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad9 Nov 2026
Eric Soloppi 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 Ayacucho this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Iván Santillán
“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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Ayacucho training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Diego Virrueta 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad2 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Ayacucho
Eric Soloppi and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jean Pierre Vílchez 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Too much change too quickly at Ayacucho
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Oct 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Liberson Soto is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Time is catching up with José Shoro
Everybody at Ayacucho saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Fabriccio Butrón 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Ayacucho
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jean Pierre Vílchez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 35 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Ayacucho is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Edinson Chávez commits to Ayacucho for another 2 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Nicolás Gómez 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
Experience through the door at Ayacucho
Diego Virrueta arrives at 34 with nothing left to prove and plenty left to pass on. Legs are a young man's currency; knowing where to stand never ages.