Breaking news: Passarella just asked Cappa to step aside and Angelito is no longer River's coach. I think el Kaiser messed up here. Although it wasn't looking at all good for Cappa, he should have waited till after the Superclasico. How are we going to go into the most important game of the year without a coach and so much tension going on? And what's up with Passarella firing everyone? Apparently Cappa wasn't going to quit (just like Astrada), but he was kind of forced to. But anyway, in terms of replacements Gallego and Pumpido are the two first candidates to appear as usual. Berizzo is another name that is being thrown around. I would personally like to see Bielsa in charge of the team, but I heard that he would only coach Newell's in Argentina. Too bad we let Ramon slide when we had a chance to snatch him, and now he has a contract with CASLA. Anyone else?
Yea I really don't know how to feel about this. Cappa started so well when he took over last year. We beat good teams like Godoy Cruz and Velez, and he had something going... but this year he really failed to get the right team together. He made many mistakes by inventing positions for players and his substitutions were terrible. I feel bad for Cappa because I liked him, but this seven game stretch has just been torture. He keeps people like Rojas and Ballon in the team, leaves Lamela on the bench, it just makes no sense. Gallego is the only guy to do it in my opinion b/c we need someone who knows the club. Hopefully he takes over and can get the best out of Ortega for one more stretch Once again, I like Gallego, but he won't be able to do anything unless we buy two cracks in january
You guys are more than welcome to Borghi It seemed like Cappa was going in the right direction early on, what exactly happened?
Re: River Plate 2010: The Beginning of the Passarella Era - News & Comments (R) Apparently Cappa resigned!!! I don't like this. I understand the results have not been what we all want and the team blew ass last game vs. Allboys but I don't think that switching coaches the right before the Superclassico is a good thing at all. Personally, I really liked Cappa and thought he was doing ok, not great but not terrible either. What we suffer from most is not coaching but depth in the middle. Everything went down hill once Almeyda got injured. Our middle has been non-existing. Ballon, Acevedo are simply not good enough to play in River and Cirigliano is too young and inexperience at this point. We are not pressuring the middle and losing the ball way too often when we try to leave our end. Hopefully the next coach can fix this. I am personally hoping for Gallego or Ramon ofcourse. Screw San Lorenzo, Ramon should come home.
Either it is River being uncoachable or Cappa is just an overrated coach ? Maybe both. I just read that he would like to coach Boca, and to be honest, Cappa never had my sympathy and after that never will.
Funny. It just goes to show you how angry he is at being fired. Anyone remember this article from 3 months ago?: http://www.ole.com.ar/river-plate/Solo-Velez-jugo-bien_0_313768774.html
According to this article the dirigentes have voted for Bielsa to be the next DT, but they would be going after Gallego anyway: http://muyriver.com.ar/5028/gano-bielsa-pero-van-por-gallego
Don't forget about his benching of Ferrero. That to me was one of his bigest mistakes. Here we had a player who IMHO was one of our better players in the Clausura of 2009, then benched by Cappa after a couple of games in this Apertura in place of Roman. Taking Lamela out after he performed quite well in the couple of games he played is puzzeling as well. All in all, I don't have a problem with this. Going seven games without a win is unacceptable and to lose to a club like All Boys is inexcusable.
Surely Bielsa would only coach Newell's ? Yes Cappa made mistakes but it takes a long time to overhaul a club that has been run into the ground over a decade or more and get it moving in the right direction. Chopping and changing managers is never the best thing for any club. I thought he was doing well in bringing on the future nucleus of the side though benching Erik when he was doing well is mystifying. And not great timing either. Such changes need to be made at the end of the Apertura not before.
I was going to mention Don Lavolpe but then it occurred to me that I simply don't want him anywhere near Argentina in general.
Not necessarily: in fact, some River directives already contacted Bielsa in regards to possibly coaching the team after he leaves the Chilean NT. No word from Bielsa yet, it could be a yes or a no. My statement that Bielsa would only coach Newell's is just a rumor I heard a while back. Still, remember that he rejected z Boca proposal a couple of years back, so it could be true.
A couple of new names are being thrown around now: "El Turco" Asad, who is having a fantastic campaign with Godoy Cruz, and Omar Labruna, who time after time has manifested his desire to coach River. With Gallego practically out and Bielsa being a very difficult target, it looks like these options (as well as Berizzo and Pumpido) are a bit more realistic. Unfortunately, none of them convince me: we need someone who knows the club, so Asad wouldn't be the right one IMO; Labruna is always linked to us due to being the son of the historic Angelito, but he has failed to show his coaching capabilities in numerous clubs; Berizzo could be an interesting option, given his work with Bielsa, but he lacks coaching experience. Also, who discards JJ Lopez? If he wins the Superclasico and does well after that (assuming he gets to coach a couple games), he might stay.. anyone remember a similar story with Ramon Cabrero in Lanus? Anyone else? Pekerman? Sabella?
I'll be honest: I think firing Cappa was a mistake, for several reasons: A huge reason is that he isn't to blame for the majority of our current problems. It's not his fault that Ortega can't get his head out of his ass and play at the level he's supposed to, it's not his fault that Funes Mori can't hit the net to save his life since the 3rd fixture, it's not his fault that Carrizo still seems like a shadow of his former self, it's not his fault that we have no depth in the midfield (and suddenly, his obsession with Bolatti makes way more sense...), etc. Basically, our problems have been on the field, not off, and you can blame the coach for poor form only so much. As loco said, it makes no sense to do this right before the Superclasico. Considering how poor our year has been, that was our one chance to have a bright spot, and a sudden change in management is not really conducive to that. On a more personal note, I think it's poor form to sack a manager so quickly in general. We didn't even give him 6 months, and he didn't get some important players that he needed in the transfer window (again, the whoel Bolatti deal makes a lot more sense considering what happened to the team with Almeyda injured...). Well, that and I honestly like Cappa's footballing philosophy, and would have loved to see River playing the beautiful football Cappa wanted... But, now that he's gone, I just really hope that Bielsa gets the job. If Gallego is out, then I damn well want the best we can get, and that's Bielsa without a doubt.
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to megamac20817 again. Couldn't have said it better. Also, let's not forget that we've had refs making calls against us all season. We could have easily had more points (from the Godoy Cruz and Gimnasia games, for example) and would be much better positioned in 3rd or 4th place. I'm not trying to turn this thread into a ref-complaint thread, but I think it's important to point out that if they would have had better games, we would actually be fighting up top and Cappa would probably still be our coach today.
No Gallego, no Bielsa... honestly, Passarella really effed up. I mean the topic of whether or not Cappa should have stayed longer is debatable, but why fire the guy if you don't have a back-up plan? Atleast when he fired Astrada he already had everything set for Cappa to takeover. He should have had something similar planned this time: are you really going to tell me that the other names that are being thrown around are actually superior to Angel? A big thumbs down to Passarella on this one.
I've considered myself a bit of a "Passarellista" but i have to admit this is just a disaster. I know it was many the other directors who wanted cappa out, but ultimately El Kaiser makes the decisions and it was a bad one. As you said, its inexcusable to fire a coach without a replacement lined up. Honestly, we are best off with JJ, Pato Fillol, and Pitarch running the team than brining in some of the names that are circulating at the moment (which include Almeyda)
It looks like Bielsa is not yet fully discarded: http://www.riverplate.com/Noticias/...-lopez-sera-dt-de-river-hasta-fin-de-ano.html If we wait till December/January, there might be other options as well: who says Ramon will stay with San Lorenzo (there will be elections at the end of the year)? And that's just an example, there might be other new alternatives at the end of the year.
Ever since Cappa was fired I felt that there had to be something outside of futbol as to the main reason. I don't think the team was doing well, but we are in the middle-up of the table and with a couple of games that we should have won. I never thought we were able to win the tournament even after the first 3 games but I thought we could have been better. I assumed it was the way Cappa dealt with the press or a personal argument with Passarella but could it be Passarella has something already lined up with Bielsa? or Ramon? and we just have to wait till its announce? One can only hope. Otherswise the firing of Cappa makes no futbolistic sense at all.
With Ramon Diaz threatening to leave San Lorenzo, do you guys see him coming to River? Maybe this is why Gallego never came and we're sticking to JJ till the end of the season? Of course there are a couple of reasons why Ramon might not come: 1) The clearest one: he's still in charge of San Lorenzo for now. 2) JJ is doing good (point-wise). If he continues winning the majority of the points, I wouldn't be surprised if they officially offer him the position. 3) Would Ramon accept? Who says he isn't still hurt about Passarella picking Cappa over him 8 months ago? 4) Ramon is threatening to leave CASLA if they don't bring him top-quality reinforcements. Unless he'd be happy with what we have, we can't offer him top-quality reinforcements either given our financial crisis. With that said, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole reinforcement ultimatum is just an excuse by him to leave San Lorenzo and join River. Just some thoughts..
Ramon is all but out from San Lorenzo, after his statements. He'd be good for River, he's brought them good karma in the past, so I hope he doesn't go back. I think he can make up with Passarella, so if he leaves San Lorenzo the only serious issue is your comment about River not being able to get him top quality reinforcements. But River has more promising young players than San Lorenzo right now, so if they are willing to hold on to them, I think Ramon is likely to want to give it a shot.
Well JJ said he's off after the end of season, he wants to go back to the youth department. EDIT: Dont want to sound too cynical but I think Ramon needs a reality check. We're not in the 90s anymore but in 2010. Quality reinforcements are out of reach for a majority of clubs (especially in ours).
hmmm, well technically, Pavone and Carrizo are quality reinforcements and they already are here So even if we can't negotiate a move for a big player, we already have a squad that is much, much better than the cuerbos... plus Pavone for a full tournament healthy, i think he will return to his estudiantes form next year... and imagine if Buonanotte recovers his pre-accident form- thats a scary double up top I think Ramon could do interesting things with what we have, especially given the solid defense, as we have the best 3 centerbacks and goalkeeper in the country IMO PD- I am not yet giving up on top reinforcments. Who's to say saviola couldn't come on loan in exchange for FM9? Benfica is going NOWHERE. they lost to hapoel telaviv and are out of the champions league and the portuguese league is out of reach too, they are looking to rebuild a bit from what i hear (hence the strange obsession with FM9), or even a D'Alessandro or Bolatti? lets not give up hope, el kaiser has already gotten us two players who were considered impossible (Carri and Pavone) whos to say he couldn't bring another, or find another diamond like Roman has turned out to be? Have hope people!
A bit off topic to the thread, but apparently Benfica is also looking at Enzo Perez. They already have 17 foreigners in their current first team squad. The Portuguese should really have a foreigner limit, that's just ridiculous.