Batista: "I want to bring Roman and the best to Beijing"

Even if I hate them, let's do some maths.

RIQUELME said "I want to play in the Olympics"

+

GRONDONA said: "BATISTA will manage the Olympic team"

+

BATISTA said: "I want to take Roman and the best to Beijing 2008"

=

Argentina will immediately become hot favourite to defend the gold medal.

I like this equation and I hope the outcome will be as promising as this prospect of a great team that we could have in the Olympics.

Sergio "Checho" BATISTA, a great central midfielder in his playing times, looks to be really motivated heading to his first major tournament in charge of a national team (at any level).

He said in Olé, "I want to go to the Games with Roman, MESSI and I want to bring the best possible players. It's a unique opportunity to me and I know I have a group of very exciting players to build this team and I can even pick 3 over-aged stars"

I said yesterday that a friendly against Guatemala in Los Angeles could be in the makings. The news as of today indicate that it could be played by U23 players and BATISTA will be in charge of that team. There will be a meeting between BATISTA and GRONDONA later today to talk about this particular friendly and the players that could be called up. It'll be a FIFA date so, in theory, BATISTA could call up any player he wants and the clubs won't be able to keep their players from joining the national team.

Now here's a very funny situation. GRONDONA said BASILE won't coach at the Olympics because he's got WC Qualifying matches at the same time. I didn't check yesterday as I, mistakingly trusted GRONDONA -that's not a thing to do, believe me-. But having a look at the schedule, Argentina WILL NOT play WCQ matches while the Olympics are on!

Argentina will face Ecuador and Brazil in June, the Olympics are in August and then the matches against Paraguay and Peru will be in September.

So? No barriers there if BATISTA wants to bring the best players he can. But what is the real reason why BASILE is not going to China? That's another question.

These are all good news in my eyes. The Olympics are such a big deal to me and I'm happy to see players and managers are giving it the importance it should have.

We'll see who's on board and who'll say no to China, but on paper, we are on to have a lot of fun watching our team in Beijing.