It’s becoming a veritable Black Monday in the Argentine Primera División. Daniel Garnero resigned as Independiente manager this morning, and now he’s been followed by Huracán manager Héctor Rivoira, who took charge of this morning’s training session before phoning club president Carlos Babington to communicate his resignation. If Rivoira was aiming to be the first to imitate Garnero, he missed the boat; Colón manager Antonio Mohamed (sent off at half time in La Bombonera on Sunday for arguing with the referee) had already stepped down, having apparently taken the decision before the weekend, although his decision is yet to be accepted by the directors, who along with his players appear to want him to stay. Mohamed would, of course, be welcome back at Huracán if he sticks with his decision to leave Colón…
Mohamed is frustrated by Colón’s poor start to the season, where their home form has been notably bad – their stadium has the nickname El Cementerio De Los Elefantes because they have such a formidable record there, but this season they’ve been woeful, drawing at home to All Boys but losing to both Banfield and Godoy Cruz in front of their own fans. He tried to resign in the dressing room after yesterday’s defeat to a Martín Palermo-inspired Boca, but the players and the directors who were present talked him out of doing so. He’ll meet with the board on Tuesday morning before training to attempt once again to stand down, but both players and directors are expected to try and talk him round to staying. All the same, replacements are being sounded out.
At Huracán, Rivoira’s words to president Babington were apparently, ‘I don’t have much else to give.’ A fairly unambiguous statement of his intent to resign, that. ‘It was a real source of pride to manage the club, because I’ve always been a supporter,’ he later expanded. His record for Huracán wasn’t bad (two wins, two draws and three defeats so far this season) since taking over from Ángel Cappa following the 2009 Torneo Clausura, in which a team driven by Matías Defederico and Javier Pastore came so close to the title. He suffered by comparison though, without those two players, who were transferred after that campaign. ‘Something clicked after the match with Banfield [a 2-2 draw in the sixth round],’ he told TyC. ‘It’s not a sporting decision, because the fans were still thinking about the team that won 38 points [in the 2009 Clausura] and not looking at the reality of the situation… they didn’t like that I had to end the “tiki-tiki”, and are still thinking about Ángel Cappa’s team.’
Mohamed is himself a big crowd favourite at Huracán, and as such could be tempted by a return to El Palacio. As I type, though, there are rumours that Carlos Babington is meeting with Huracán legend Miguel Angel Brindisi, who until now has spent most of his managerial career in Mexico. The identity of Mohamed’s would-be replacement at Colón is, for the moment, less clear.
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Photo taken from canchallena.com
Hasta El Gol Siempre 