Chiapas were, of course, the franchise that relegated and abandoned the Liga MX this season. Los Jaguares had problems all year long that stemmed far from the field.
There were numerous financial problems, that included paying the players wages during this season. This was odd because the franchise made six signings that were unnecessary for this campaign and five of the players were foreigners that were brought into the league. The lone Mexican-born player that comprises this group of players was the goalkeeper, Jorge Villalpando. The 32-year-old goalie came over from Puebla and did not play a minute in the Liga MX or Copa MX competitions. While the Lopez Chargoy family does own both Chiapas and Puebla the move was an odd one to keep the goalkeeper in their franchise instead of selling him to another club.
The other goalkeeper on this list of pointless acquisitions was the Uruguayan goalkeeper, Leonardo Burian. The South American goalie did not play a single minute in the Liga MX but did participate in the Copa MX. The move to bring Burian over from Uruguayan club Nacional Montevideo was still odd as Chiapas already had a backup goalkeeper in Federico Crivelli on its roster. Moving on to the defense there were three very peculiar and unnecessary signings made by Chiapas. There were four if you include the addition of Aquivaldo Mosquera which was a terrible signing that did not help the team at all. The three other ones were Diego Ferreira, Franco Flores and Guillermo Rodriguez who are all foreigners and came from different leagues to the Liga MX.
Ferreira was among the strangest of the lot as he played with Brazilian club, Botafogo and still is a player who has potential at 21-years-old. The young defender only played in two Copa MX matches and did not have any playing time in the Liga MX. Franco Flores, 23, was another young talent that Chiapas brought on and gave no playing time to. The Argentine was playing with Lleida Esportiu of the Segunda Division B in Spain and received no minutes in the Clausura 2017. Flores only played 45 minutes in a Copa MX game in 2017. Rounding off the defenders is the veteran, Guillermo Rodriguez who came from Uruguayan club, Penarol. “El Pelado” had a solid career playing in Italy with Cesena, Hellas Verona and Torino but received no minutes this year in the Liga MX with Los Jaguares. Rodriguez seemed like a player that could have offered some solid experience for the back line but only participated in one Copa MX game.
The final player of this group of pointless signings was the midfielder, Wilder Guisao. The Colombian came to Chiapas as a loan deal from Toluca and did not have any minutes in the Liga MX or Copa MX competitions. This group of acquisitions was peculiar and was a prime example of the faulty management that led Chiapas to relegation. This trend also raises the question whether promoters or agents are involved rather than the teams themselves as many of these moves were not logical. Now in the Ascenso MX Chiapas can no longer afford to make these types of signings and will need to spend its money wisely in order to survive.
