Spain, lol

kinaldo

Spain opt to extend Aragones contract

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=386248&cc=5739

Not good news for Raúl.

Big Nelly

kinaldo wrote:

Spain opt to extend Aragones contract

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=386248&cc=5739

Not good news for Raúl.

I see Football against racism is doing great things in Spain again

MrJoeSoap

"As far as I am aware," said Ángel María Villar, "Luis Aragonés signed his new contract on Tuesday."

As far as I am aware? Shouldn't the president of the Spanish Football Federation, the RFEF, know whether or not the national team coach has signed a new €600,000-a-year deal taking him up to the start of June 2008? And if Villar is - as he insists he is - fully behind the coach, shouldn't he come out and announce the deal properly? Isn't it a bit rubbish to just let it slip out half-heartedly while you're inaugurating a sports centre in Pamplona with your coach nowhere in sight?

Of course it is. But then the RFEF is an utter shambles, committing blunder after blunder. And besides, right now half-hearted support of Luis Aragonés is as good as it gets. The Federation may deny it, but they had spoken to Miguel Angel Lotina about taking over, only for the 2-1 friendly victory over Argentina in Murcia last week to rescue Aragonés's job. He had already verbally agreed to sign a new deal after the World Cup, and the victory saw the RFEF in a position where they felt that they could not back out on that.

They should have done. Not least because, as he was yet to sign the new deal, they could have avoided any costly, messy pay-off. Nor would they have faced any public reprobation. After all, this is the coach who has achieved the remarkable feat of uniting every single newspaper in Spain behind a campaign to get him out; the coach who, while the players were cheered onto the pitch, got booed and whistled in the Argentina friendly last week; the coach whom, according to polls, over 85% of Spanish fans want to see the back of.

He is the coach that couldn't even take Spain to their traditional quarter-final exit point at the World Cup. He is the coach whose timing is so bad that he stuck by Raúl when he was awful and unfit and then, motivated more by the captain's response to being a substitute during the World Cup than his performances, dropped him just as he was showing signs of getting back on form.

His timing is almost as bad as the Federation's, in fact: this is the third time they have missed the boat. They failed to let Aragonés go after the World Cup failure, when they would have had far more options to replace him, and in the wake of the Northern Ireland defeat, when Aragonés made it easy by offering his resignation. Now they have let another opportunity slip away by not getting rid of him after a defeat against Sweden that makes qualification for Euro 2008 difficult. And all this without even going into whether or not he should have gone after the racist remarks he made about Thierry Henry and his reaction to the storm they provoked.

It's not as if there haven't been reasons to get rid of him either. Not least the fact that he has offered up his resignation twice. That he himself said that he would walk away if Spain did not get to the semi-final of the World Cup, only to insist "I won't allow myself to be a prisoner of my words" - a pretty damaging remark for a man who has always claimed to be straight and honest, if nothing else. That he said that he would walk if the fans wanted him to, and they do. That his record in 25 years of management is actually pretty average. That his constant chopping and changing has completely lost the respect of the squad, who never know what he is going to do next.

And finally that his behaviour is just plain bizarre - from cutting television cables that ran "suspiciously" close to his dugout, to escaping false teeth and disappearing down secret tunnels to avoid shaking hands with his enemies. They call Luis Aragonés the Wise Man of Hortaleza. God only knows what Hortaleza's local idiot is like. As far as I am aware, Luis signed his new deal on Tuesday? As far as I am aware, the RFEF has screwed it up. Again.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2006/10/19/third_time_lucky_for_aragones.html

How many chances do they need to get rid of him?

kinaldo

Good article, perfectly echoes my sentiments about the state of their national team setup.

gustavo

The man is a legend in Spanish football I think they should keep him , They have done quite well under him.

MrJoeSoap

gustavo wrote:

The man is a legend in Spanish football I think they should keep him , They have done quite well under him.

That has to be sarcasm?

They qualified for WC2006 unbeaten, thats fair enough, but they were still only second in the group and had to go via the playoffs. On the way they failed to win away to Bosnia, Lithuania, Serbia & Montenegro and Slovakia.

They currently lie behind Latvia, Northern Ireland, Sweden and Denmark, having lost away from home to the first two.

And the failed to get past the second round in the World Cup, despite Aragones promise of the semi-finals.

gustavo

They came across a great French performance, had they drawn any other of the 2nd place teams i think they would have won.

MrJoeSoap

So how have they done "quite well", other than reaching the bare minimum required (i.e. - qualification to the WC via the playoffs and defeat in the second round).

mike65

Spain - lions led by donkeys.

Mike.

Mad Dog

Just so unbelievable it's untrue :mad: