Nestor Gorosito To Remain As River Plate Manager Until December

By: Christian | September 23rd, 2009

After a 1-0 loss to Arsenal this past weekend, the news, for once, focused not on River Plate losing another away game, but instead on whether Néstor Gorosito would step down as manager. The defeat at el Viaducto was the last straw for the hundreds of River fans in attendance. Days earlier they had seen their team eliminated once again at an international tournament, and after the final whistle on Sunday they demanded the manager’s immediate resignation.

River Plate Vice President Domingo Díaz instead announced this week that Gorosito will indeed remain as head coach until December. The decision to keep Pipo in spite of him overseeing one of the worst stretches in club history may seem illogical, but the reasoning behind it is purely political.

With Presidential elections being held this December, the board of directors evidently sees no reason to make a managerial change until José Aguilar’s predecessor has been chosen. Diaz was quoted as saying, “Many times these situations are difficult to comprehend, but what manager could we hire now? And with elections in December, [the board of directors] would have to agree on one name for all candidates to agree on, which would be difficult.”

Diaz may feel that the upcoming elections are reason enough to maintain the status quo, but he and the club could be taking a great risk in keeping Gorosito aboard. River have yet to qualify for the 2010 Copa Libertadores, but even more frightening, they are dangerously close to the relegation zone. According to Wikipedia, in Argentina:

Relegation is based on an averaging system. At the end of each season, the two teams with the worst three-year averages are relegated, and the best two teams in the second division are promoted. The teams placed 17th and 18th in the averages table play the “promoción”, a promotion and relegation playoff, against the 4th and 3rd second division teams respectively in a two-leg format.

As it stands now, River are only 15 points above the 17th place, currently held by Racing Club. So should la banda continue to perform as they have, and especially if they struggle to win on the road, there is a very serious possibility that River could be in a fight for their first division lives.

If Diaz admits to difficulties in finding a manager now, imagine how hard it would be to convince anyone to take over a team in the second division? Doesn’t it make sense for River to cut its losses and surrender any hope for winning league, but at least find someone to a)fight for a Copa Libertaores berth, or b), fight to prevent an unthinkable relegation scenario?

The most troubling quote from Diaz this week was, “…these players, plus some reinforcements, finished champions.” There is some truth to that; Paulo Ferrari, Gustavo Cabral, Cristian Villagra, Matías Abelairas, Ariel Ortega, Andrés Ríos, and Diego Buonanotte, all of whom played the night River defeated Olimpo to secure the 2008 Clausura title, are still with the team. In all honesty though, the team that won that year wasn’t exactly La Maquina. They crashed out of the Copa Libertadores, and there were real doubts from fans if the team could even fight for the league. Diego Simeone was by no means a brilliant manager, and he resigned after leading that same squad to the bottom of the table the very next season.

And that is what is most disturbing about Diaz’s statement. Yes, many of those players did win a title, but they also finished dead last! There seems to be a belief among the board of directors that River is merely a player or two away from repeating their success of the 90’s. Ridiculous. Anyone with eyes can see that this team needs to be torn apart and built from the ground up, and the first step should be to bring in a competent manager, who with the support of the President, can be given the tools to build a quality team that can compete locally and internationally.

Unfortunately, common sense does not reside at the Monumental these days. Instead, it has been replaced by complacency. I fear that if River continue down this perilous course, there will indeed be darker days ahead for our club. As if it could possibly get any worse.

NOTE: I did watch that 1-0 loss to Arsenal, but have decided against doing any kind of game summary with the news of Gorosito being more important. I have included, however, the usual game summary.

2009 Apertura Fixture 5
Arsenal 1 – 0 River Plate

Scoring Summary:
Cristian Alvarez (A), 9th

River Plate:
Nicolás Navarro
Martín Galmarini, Gustavo Cabral, Maximiliano Coronel, Lucas Orban
Matias J. Almeyda, Matías Abelairas
Ariel Ortega, Diego Buonanotte, Mauro Díaz
Daniel Villalba

Substitutions:
Nicolás Sánchez for Cabral, 33rd
Cristian G. Fabbiani for Díaz, 59th
Erik Lamela for Villalba, 77th