That’s not much of a news story, I know, but Carlos Ischia has now dotted the ‘i’s and crossed the ‘t’s on the paperwork that sees his reign as Boca Juniors manager come to an end. He’ll say goodbye to the players on Wednesday. Boca’s weekend conquerors, meanwhile, got some nice presents on Tuesday from former Argentine president Néstor Kirchner.
Racing fan Kirchner – husband and predecessor to the country’s current president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner – had promised the Racing squad that if they beat Boca on Sunday, he’d deliver some fancy electricals to their training ground as a reward, and he was as good as his word after their 3-0 win. If they lose this coming weekend they could blame him for disrupting their training regime; he insisted on turning up in his helicopter, to which end the team had to re-arrange their training schedule.
The reward was four 32″ LCD televisions, for which Racing’s squad held a raffle to decide the lucky recipients. Lucas Aveldaño, José Chatruc, Rubén Ramírez and Claudio Yacob were the fortunate four. One more so than most – whilst all four did feature in the match, Chatruc only played the last three minutes plus stoppage time, after replacing Franco Zuculini.
At Boca, Ischia’s reward for his own part in the same match was the finalising of the contractual niceties which see an end to his time in charge. His final training session was, like Racing’s Tuesday meet-up, an eventful one: Christian Chávez celebrated his birthday, whilst former players Jesús Dátolo (now with Napoli) and Fabián Monzón (Real Betis) popped in to say hello. Ischia will be in on Wednesday morning, but only to say goodbye. For the last two matches of the Clausura, he’ll be replaced by reserve boss Abel Alves, before Coco Basile takes charge over the winter break.
Hasta El Gol Siempre 
Ischia returned to Boca after winning the Apertura about 15 pounds heavier. Fat and lazy. The Caranta affair was about as ugly as it gets. Good riddance.
I see where Boca has reached a deal for Viatri with some small Italian club. About 4 million smackers. Another good riddance and 4 mil to the good as well.
Nestor is a Racing fan? I guess it makes sense somehow.
Pity that Boca is letting go a player like Vargas, most of all when you think of all thet he had given to the club.
As for Ischia, I don’t know how many futbol fans remeber that he was recommended by Bianchi, when every Boca fan was asking for Bianchi himself as the new DT.
So when Ischia took the charge (january 2008) he was quick to say (to keep his back covered?) that he’d had no problem to leave in june (same year) if his replacement were Carlos Bianchi. Then Bianchi, in honour of his friendship (that came from the time when they were both Velez players, and straighten through the golden Boca years), to protect Ischia, made that absurd clause stating that he (Bianchi) would not became the inmediate sucessor of the actual coach (that’s say, of Ischia).
All of the above speaks very well of Bianchi, not so much of Ischia. Because June came, then August, then September, time passed and he never left.
O.K. He won a League. Though the team never played good (I once said Boca was like the Rolling Stones, and I’m convinced only for that reason we won the Apertura ’08 – only for one advantage gol against Tigre -. Let’s say, Boca was until then a team so used to win that even playing bad we won a League).
But the Libertadores Cup was a very different affair.
The team was becoming tired, old wounds reopen. We all saw that kind of movie. Ischia knew very well what was happening, he should have been a little less haughty, not so stubborn and left Boca very much earlier. If not for Boca’s sake at least for his friend Carlos Bianchi.
Good for Coco.
He’s the right coach for the right moment..!
It kills me that Vargas is leaving ! What a player. For my money, even better than Battaglia at the current time. When Vargas first came to Boca he couldn’t even find a spot with the first team. He worked his butt off. He even made great progress avoiding those straight reds, and still played b*lls to the wall. Boca will miss him.
AND, bring back Macri ! I don’t like the current Boca big cheese’s. Why the hell would you want to be mayor of BA City (what a gawdawful thankless job), when you can be el Presidente of Boca Juniors !!?? Misplaced priorities !!
“Why the hell would you want to be mayor of BA City (…), when you can be el Presidente of Boca Juniors !!??!
I swear, Johnny, that’s the best sentence I’ve read in a very very a long time..!