Kickoff (Cape Town)
21 October 2008
The sudden resignation last Thursday night of Argentina national team coach Alfio Basile has not come as a surprise to Miguel Gamondi, Platinum Stars' Argentinian-born coach.
"I know Basile personally from my homeland, though we were not really close. But we are both Menottistas, coaches in Argentina who come from the school of the legendary 1978 World Cup winner Cesar Luis Menotti, which Angel Cappa (former Mamelodi Sundowns coach) also belongs to," Gamondi says.
"I spoke with Cappa yesterday and we discussed the Basile situation. He is a good coach, but apparently he did not have a good relationship with his players. And when the national team comes together there is little time for preparation and rest and this after most of them have travelled for more than 10 hours.
"Remember 90 percent of Argentina's players are playing overseas and for top teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Liverpool, maybe there was some difficulty with his tactical approach.
"Basile is not young and you can see from what has happened in the last six matches that there was a problem between him and the players.
"Also he has not won a higher award as a coach."
Immediately after the 64-year-old, who guided an attractive Argentina side to the last 16 at USA '94 World Cup, tendered his resignation, names like Diego Simeone and Miguel Angel Russo were being bandied about as his possible replacements, while Olympic Gold medal winning-coach Sergio Batista is being tipped to take over on a care-taker basis.
"I suppose Batista as Under-23 coach could be caretaker," Gamondi agrees.
"I know Argentinian FA president Julio Grondona; he's a man who takes his time. I remember before we went to Mexico where we won the World Cup in 1986 under Carlos Bilardo, we were really struggling and barely managed to qualify. But Grondona said he would never change the coach.
"I suppose Batista, who is a close friend of Diego Maradona, should get the job. But it would be nice if Maradona were involved with the national team as well, he's an emblematic player in Argentina.
"In his playing days, he always wanted to represent his country, flying from Naples for national team matches and dashing back to Italy to play for Napoli. It was not easy.
"That's why every Argentinian player's priority is with the national team. You will never hear a complaint even though they have to travel many hours from Europe. Maradona put this mentality into them."
After 10 gruelling rounds on the road to South Africa, the Albiceleste are lying third in the marathon 18-game South American qualifiers after losing to Chile 1-0 last Wednesday (they played four successive qualifying draws and one win before that), a result which precipitated Basile's quitting.
"There is no doubt that we will qualify for South Africa", Gamondi says. "We have too many good players".
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