BILARDO said on Friday: 'We will be having a meeting with MARADONA and the rest of the coaching staff on Monday'. GRONDONA was also supposed to attend to that meeting.
Instead, MARADONA flew to Madrid, where he plans on starting a series of one-on-one meeting with some of the players he's been calling since he took over as national team manager. GRONDONA only found out when Diego was already airborne.
I know you can't wait to know the names of the players he would axe. Without further introduction, here they are (according to reports on Olé, the only Argentine sports newspaper):
Gabriel HEINZE (I still can't believe it and I need to see the list in two weeks. If he is out of the team, I think this is great news for Argentina and I'm sure many of you -if not all of you- will agree with me)
Fernando GAGO (with the exclusion of these two (if it happens), the inclusion of Gonzalo HIGUAIN becomes at least a possibility. It's all I can say. Of course, you never know with MARADONA, but the chances are there).
Javier ZANETTI (I still think he can do the job if the team play as a team).
Maxi RODRIGUEZ (He's been horribly out of form and I'd understand if he's cut out).
Lisandro LOPEZ (30 seconds in and he scores against Russia. Played ZERO minutes in the World Cup Qualifiers and yet he's punished. Is it rocket science to understand his exclusion would be linked to something that happened off the pitch? We would be missing out on a great striker who can adapt to several roles and positions up front and who also happens to the on form. But he is not family and he never played for Boca Juniors -so the media won't pressure MARADONA if Licha is left out-)
Diego MILITO (Scores in every match he plays for Inter, like he did with Genoa, Zaragoza and to some extent Racing Club before that. Played an average of 26 minutes and was ignored against Paraguay in favour of a 36-year-old striker from Boca Juniors. Same as with Lisandro, no pressure from the media will come if he is excluded. In fact, all the mediocre journalist in Argentina seem to go with the same script and they say: 'MILITO never performed with Argentina and he had many opportunities'. It makes me sick to my stomach, but I heard that time after time. Poor MILITO -and poor fans, as we have our goal-scoring machine getting ignored incomprehensibly-).
The report on Olé says you can't tell for sure with MARADONA and that the conversation the manager will have with each of the players above may give them another opportunity.
AGÜERO? He'll continue to be considered (did any of you had any doubt of this?)
MESSI and MASCHERANO? Diego says he is due to have a conversation with them and ask them why don't they perform for Argentina as they do for Barcelona and Liverpool. Great! Perhaps they can explain they can't perform if there is no gameplan or tactical awareness or work during the week the players are (supposed to be) training in Ezeiza. Will MARADONA listen to them? Hmmm...
By the way...those who were dreaming of a meeting on Monday with consequences for MARADONA, can keep on dreaming. But they better prepare for the worse kind of nightmares because Diego will stay in charge.
And while he is at it in Europe, Olé reported that Diego will have an arthroscopy in one of his knees and will also undergo a treatment to lose weight.
wow..i hope that Higuain is finally given a chance,but it is sick to see that Tevez and Aguero are not touched and Milito and Licha are the victims.This is ridiculous...
ReplyDeletethis is the first time in my life that i hear a coach who decided to drop some players would still go and talk to them one to one!!!It's as if he needs their permission to do so...
ReplyDeleteloool wouldn't this piss off Grondona? seems like hes escaping the sack and trying to show ppl that hes working and communicating with his players instead which is pretty funny however i heard Messi's father complained about Maradona not giving Messi any instructions?
ReplyDeletethis is absurd... Diego thinks he owns AFA. He was specifically asked to show up on Monday for a meeting that would decide his future, and what does he do in the end? He completely ignores them and flies off to Europe, as if forcing his way to stay as coach. Where the hell is his professionalism? That's total disrespect! Anyway, i dont think this will go down very well with the authorities, especially Grondona. Diego humiliated him! There definitely will be a negative consequence out of this, and im still hopefull that he'll get the sack... there are now a million and one reasons for him to get the boot.
ReplyDeleteBut then of course, the AFA always disappoint us... but who knows, im still waiting for that divine intervention.
is this a joke? this guy is insane and what he is doing is out of this world.
ReplyDeletewhere the hell is the Arg people? the team belongs to them and they should do something about this circus.
I was waiting monday to hear some good news..but got this instead!
Seba I am happy you see my vision. I stated LONG ago Diego would punish this team. Altitude, lack of time with the team were all valid but with Maradona we all know he is a joke. I would say 90% of the people would want Diego out. And I am sure about that percentage dislike the man as well now. I am not one who says,"I told you so", not my style but I just felt with the exclusion of some stars then this meant Diego has gone off the wall. Pain and suffering is my eyes and heart, if not anger. Diego brought happiness to our nation but now piece by piece he is ripping us apart.
ReplyDeleteJack!
Its hard times for us. I really do not know where we are heading at. Its quit obivius that Diego do not know what he is doing. I hardly think he will get fired, but hopefully he will get some help. I hardly think calling up other players is the important thing. Its the tactical aspects i am consired about.
ReplyDeletePLESE CAN EVERYONE WHO FINDS AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE NATIONAL TEAM PUT IT UP HERE PLEASE.
Maybe Diego's unannounced European journey will give Grondona more reason to do the right thing. For crying out loud, in any other business, this behavior would result in immediate termination. You are given a job, with a hefty salary, the business for which you are responsible starts going to hell, it is clear you have no idea what you are doing, and THEN when you get called on the carpet, you thumb your nose at your boss and take a trip to Europe ! Por favor !
ReplyDeleteSEBA,
ReplyDeleteGood work once more. Thanks. I just disagree on your critics regarding Maxi. He's one of our best players. Why was he a monster in 2006 and seems pretty ordinary today? I have the answer of this question: Maradona is the reason. All our players are not performing well. All of them. Even the best in the world...
and SEBA, I believe you are wrong regarding Heinze. He's a great leader and the spirit of our team. A true fighter.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see Heinze and Maxi gone at this point. Heinze's "last straw" was against Brazil. Just a bad showing. Speaking of bad showings, Maxi's last good game with us was versus Scotland and he hasn't done anything since.
ReplyDeleteGago's out, which I have mixed feelings about. He tends to have a few good games but then fades away. If it means Cambiasso gets on the team, then I am MORE than for this decision.
Zanetti's exclusion is more than weird. Diego wanted him gone from the start along with Cambiasso, but I guess since he didn't say anything when he got stripped of captaincy he stayed on a bit longer. Still a really stupid decision by Diego. Will come back to haunt him.
Lopez out does NOT surprise me. 30 seconds in against Russia, he scores. He dominates with Lyon, gets called-up and doesn't play. I'm not buying all the "injury" crap the media and Diego is throwing/feeding at us. He doesn't like Lopez and prefers to go with a 90 year old Palermo.
Milito out doesn't surprise me either. But like Seba said about Lopez, if you're not family or don't belong to the Boca community, you're not gonna play.
Which brings us to Tevez. The only reason he's still on the team is because he played for Boca, plain and simple. There's no other explanation.
Aguero, well Aguero is family.
Can't wait to see the list! I imagine it'll be something like Palermo, Battaglia, Schiavi. And for a surprise, Ortega and Gallardo(the surprise being that they will get called-up even if they are River and not Boca).
I expect the following call ups, Diego Cagna, Marcelo Delgado, Raul Cascini, Guli!
ReplyDeleteRoy, i think he's just gonna call the whole Boca team as it is, excluding Riquelme of course :p
ReplyDeleteIf he's gonna go to his stupid extreme again, then i WISH he'd call Gallardo (one of my all time favorite players)... plus he's a few years younger than Schiavi, Palermo and Ortega. But of course, he'll only pick Boca oldies...
Was it really necessary to travel all the way to Europe to tell a player he won't be in the team anymore? Diego, Diego... using AFA's money for your own personal issues.
ReplyDeleteClaudio Lopez, Kily Gonzalez and Ariel Ortega will all join the team instead and there will still be no place for Higuain and Zarate.
ReplyDeleteI tell you one thing, If Maradona is still coach for the last 2 games, we will kiss seeing them in the world cup goodbye.
i agree with you maxi lopez but just about maxi rodriguez.in the critical situation we are in the only one who got to be blame is grondana cause he's given a dream team to un unsane person .everybody thought he'll fire him after all the unfortune he brings us but no i also blame the argentina's fans cause they're able to make tht happen .when some people had some doubt about diego quality as a coach the should have changed their mind when they've his subtitutes :palermo and schiavi even d'atolo doesn't deserve a place when we got the real argentina team
ReplyDelete