Paolo Guerrero lashes out at press and social media critics over his form at Alianza Lima

A message, a delete button, and a controversy that can no longer be erased from the soccer conversation. Paolo Guerrero grew tired of the criticism and fired back in a way he rarely has in public: through Instagram, taking aim at the press and at those who, in his view, are trying to "destabilize" Alianza Lima.

The forward posted a message that lasted barely a few minutes on his account before being deleted, though it had already made the rounds enough to spark reactions. "Now everybody's a coach, everybody has an opinion on which game I should play. There's every kind of character out there who never played, or if they did, they were terrible, and they still want to have an opinion about me. It's getting worse every day. Let's get rid of these people who don't add anything to Peruvian soccer, come on already. And then there are the little widows getting paid to put together a video on social media to try to destabilize things. Against everyone," wrote the 42 year old striker.

The message quickly made its way into other locker rooms and in front of other microphones. One of those who spoke out was Christian Ramos, Guerrero's former teammate on the Peru national team that played the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The center back, now 37 and playing in the Copa Peru with Deportivo Municipal (currently in the departmental stage), didn't hesitate to give his old national team teammate some direct advice.

"In my view Paolo made a mistake, because he's an experienced guy, 42 years old, he's played everywhere. He knows fans are like that. He knows social media is like that, he knows everyone talks about soccer, he knows that very well. Falling into that is wrong."Christian Ramos

Ramos, known in Peruvian soccer circles as "La Sombra," spoke on the YouTube channel Todo Good and went beyond just the specific criticism. For him, the answer isn't firing back on social media, but doing what always works: putting in the work on the field.

"Paolo needs to focus on playing and trying to score goals so his team wins and so he feels better."Christian Ramos

It's worth putting this in context. Guerrero arrived at Alianza Lima as one of the club's marquee signings, tasked with being the offensive focal point of a team competing for the season's biggest goals. When the goals don't come as often as expected from a striker with his pedigree, criticism follows, and in Peru, with sports media and social media so active around the country's most popular club, that criticism multiplies fast.

What stands out is that Guerrero himself decided to delete the message almost immediately. That, in a way, already says something about how he assessed the situation after posting it. Now the ball is in the court of what happens on the field: if the goals start coming again, the storm on social media will likely die down on its own. If not, the pressure will keep building, with or without Instagram messages involved.