Alfredo Arias out at Junior after five rounds of poor form, despite winning two titles

Two titles in less than a year weren't enough to buy him more time. Alfredo Arias, the coach who led Junior to consecutive championships won away from home in Ibague and Medellin, is no longer in charge of the Barranquilla club. The departure was confirmed on the last day of August, and the cause is clear: a start to the season that the fan base never forgave.

It sounds almost contradictory, but that's how Colombian soccer works when anxiety outweighs memory. Arias had already done the hardest part: winning with authority in Barranquilla and repeating the title on the road. Even so, that goodwill evaporated in just five rounds of the new tournament. The breaking point came after a 1-1 draw with Santa Fe at Estadio Romelio Martinez, a result that set off a crisis that had already been simmering.

The relationship with the fans was never entirely comfortable, in truth. Slow starts in previous league campaigns had already worn down that bond, and not even the team's improvements in the final stages had managed to rebuild that trust. The weekend before his exit, at a press conference, someone struck a nerve, and Arias didn't let it slide.

You beat me with authority, but not with respect.Alfredo Arias

He stood up and walked out of the room. That moment stands as the first visible sign of a tension that had already been building behind the scenes. What followed only confirmed what seemed inevitable: two draws and three losses in five rounds of the championship sealed his fate.

The other fronts that fell apart

The early elimination from the Copa Colombia weighed heavily too, and it wasn't a small factor. Junior fell on penalties to Barranquilla FC, its own farm club, in a series marked by refereeing controversy that fans were quick to question. On top of that came a modest run in the Copa Libertadores: the team finished last in its group, with just four points and a single win in six matches. Arias managed to bounce back from that blow and delivered Junior's 12th league title, extending the club's dominance in Colombian soccer. But that achievement, which in another context would have bought him months of stability, wasn't enough to keep him in the job once the new season started off on the wrong foot.

The final tally of his tenure, across 74 matches in charge, came out to 31 wins, 20 draws and 23 losses. Numbers that, read coldly, look solid for a two-time champion coach, but that in a results-driven soccer culture ended up counting for less than five rough rounds. Impatience, once again, won out over recent history.