The Boca Juniors leadership is increasingly optimistic about the possibility of the arrival of Gerardo Martino, who is in Rosario, to replace Hugo Ibarra, who said goodbye to the squad today, and a positive response is expected in the next days.
For Juan Román Riquelme, second vice president of the club, “Tata” is the one to face the last Copa Libertadores before the next elections in the club next December.
Since last night, the conversation between the coach from Rosario, his relatives and the members of the soccer secretariat has been constant, mainly with Román and the “Patrón” Jorge Bermúdez, those who know the idol of Newell’s, Old Boys well and know that the proposal of Boca “moved the floor” and it is difficult to reject because of the challenge it means in sports, beyond economics, and above all because at 60 it would not be very feasible for him to have a new opportunity in Boca.
“Today I am more optimistic than yesterday,” a person close to the soccer leadership told Télam, and even dared to say that next Friday would be the expected day for an agreement between the parties.
Although they had already had a sign that the “Tata” was willing to accept the chance to direct the “xeneize”, for that reason it was that the Council advanced in the dismissal of Hugo Ibarra, although there was still no face-to-face meeting between the parties, but it is believed that if Martino comes to Buenos Aires it is because the operation is completed.
Román has already sent the economic and football proposal, and it contains several items, including the duration of the contract.
Precisely, they are two essential points for the agreement. With a long career, Martino comes from directing a World Cup with the Mexican team and his salary will be much further than what Boca had been paying their coaches, Ibarra and Sebastián Battaglia, these two men who already worked at the club and whom they they made adjustments for leading the first division.
Also, and beyond the versions about his health, he is very well from the detachment of the retina that he had in one of his eyes and that forced an intervention with a good result.
The important thing has to do with the duration of the bond in particular, since Martino would like a two-year contract, but in Boca there are elections in December. That, then, is an aspect that the technician is interested in hearing and also in setting as a guideline for coexistence.
The point that worries Martino the most is precisely the political year that Riquelme and even Ibarra himself referred to at this time.
To begin with, this is directly related to the duration of his contract, since as there are elections at the end of the year, in principle his bond cannot be beyond December.
For this reason, some type of clause will have to be established for the continuity of the coach in 2024, in the event that this management continues at the head of the club.
It is also necessary to finish polishing the working group and if any member would be included as a physical trainer or goalkeeper’s assistant who were in the Ibarra coaching staff.
Pablo Santella is the physical trainer recently hired by Boca and Fernando Gayoso is the long-standing goalkeeping coach. Those of Martino’s coaching staff are Manuel Alfaro and the “Gringo” Norberto Scoponi, respectively.
If everything happens as the “Boca world” dreams, a special box has already been saved for Martino at the Claudio Tapia stadium in case Martino comes to witness the match against Barracas Central on Saturday, which will have Mariano Herrón as interim coach from the reserve, together with his field assistant, Claudio Morel Rodríguez.
Then to sign his contract, on Sunday he would not travel to Venezuela in the debut of the Copa Libertadores and his debut would be against Colón, from Santa Fe, whom he managed between 2004 and 2006, on April 9, Easter Sunday.
But if plan “A” fails just in case, tonight a member of the soccer secretariat would meet with another coach in case “operation” Martino fails. That “envoy” would be Mauricio Serna and the “interviewee”, the representative of José Pekerman.
In another order, this afternoon the squad practiced from 4:00 p.m. at the Ezeiza property under the orders of the aforementioned Mariano Herrón and Claudio Morel Rodríguez, preparing the team to play against Barracas Central on Saturday.
The bad news of the afternoon was that Martín Payero had a grade 2 muscle injury of the left adductor muscle and will be inactive for 20 days. while the Peruvian Luis Advíncula yesterday suffered a condition similar to that of the former Banfield in the match that his team tied 0-0 with Morocco in Madrid.
The first team that Herrón stopped had Sebastián Villa as a starter and Nicolás Figal in his old position as right back for the absent (and injured) Luis Advíncula.
That lineup was as follows: Sergio Romero; Nicholas Figal, Facundo Roncaglia, Bruno Valdez and Frank Fabra; William “Pol” Fernandez, Alan Varela and John Ramirez; Luca Langoni, Darius Benedetto and Sebastian Villa.
Before training, the one who said goodbye to the team that did not trust him and largely caused his dismissal was Ibarra.
After a brief farewell speech before his former managers that lasted less than five minutes, the man from Formosa also greeted the journalists and assured them that the final balance of his management “is extremely positive.”
“There were things that could not be achieved, but in the eight months that I was there, discounting two for the World Cup, there were six, and every three months I came out champion,” he said in the first person.
“Many will say that Boca did not deserve to be champion, but the one who deserves it always is. We took the team when it was fourteenth and nobody expected anything, but we trusted the group, which had been hit by the elimination in the Libertadores. And it was difficult, but we were legitimate winners of the 2022 Tournament ″, Ibarra closed his relationship with the press as the outgoing coach of Boca.
Next Saturday, April 1, Ibarra will be turning 49 and exactly 30 years will have passed since his debut as a professional soccer player in Colón, in Santa Fe, before which his successor, a Newell’s benchmark like Martino, would just be making his debut a week later. The red and the black in its origins, and the blue and yellow decades later, will be important colors in the careers of both. As long as the “Tata” says “yes”.