Friday, September 11, 2009

BILARDO: 'We'd only welcome Jesus and Mary'

You think I'm joking, right?

You think I'm making that up! You think I'm bored and I have nothing better to do than mess up with your minds and your Albicelestes hearts so I come here and write bad jokes about the national football team of Argentina!'re wrong.

I'm only here to reflect the reality and to let you know of the latest developments around MARADONA's team.

This time, it is BILARDO who takes centre stage (about time?). Named as National Team Coordinator (or some made up job title) at the same time Diego was appointed as manager, Carlos Salvador BILARDO, who won a World Cup in 1986 as head coach of Argentina, has been doing whatever he was doing completely away from the spot lights. In fact, nobody knew what he was doing.

MARADONA gave him no saying when it comes to the tactics and the training sessions, let alone selecting the players for the squad.

Now everybody seems to realise Diego needs help (except perhaps for Diego himself).

MARADONA has been fighting a pointless fight against GRONDONA in order to have Oscar RUGGERI installed as an assistant manager. GRONDONA said no, MARADONA said I don't want BATISTA or any of the ones you like and we, the fans, are the victims that are suffering from having Alejandro MANCUSO and Miguel Angel LEMME surrounding MARADONA and earning a salary as members of the coaching staff when they are clearly not up for the challenge.

Right after we lost to Paraguay, a long list of potential assistant-managers-to-be were thrown to the air (like Antonio MOHAMED or Claudio VIVAS -BIELSA's old assistant manager-), but instead, BILARDO seems to be aiming higher (or rather being high before speaking to the media).

'This thing has to end like it has started. If Jesus and the Virgin Mary are coming to help us, we will accept them. But we will welcome nobody else' is what Carlos BILARDO said.

This is, perhaps, the most ridiculous quote I have ever read from a sports personality. This is borderline with insanity. This is just an old man suffering from severe mystical delirium.

Why don't we, instead, come up with a tactical plan, some hard work and some basic concepts of team play before we call out for higher powers?

Wouldn't it be easier? Or don't we realise that for as much as we go to church before a match (like our Argentina squad did before facing Brazil) and we pray every minute we will never succeed by doing just that? I mean...Argentina is a Catholic country, but are we ignoring the fact that Brazil is the country with more Catholics in the planet? They clearly outnumber us!

Of course I'm not taking my previous paragraph seriously, but I can't either take BILARDO's comments without a hint of sarcasm.

He continued: 'What Diego did for Argentina is a lot. He always stood up to defend these colours and he responded everytime he was called upon'. Perhaps someone should tell BILARDO that he means MARADONA-The-Player and not MARADONA-The-National-Team-Manager.

The only time when he actually made some sense was when he said: 'You can't judge our players on one or two matches. You can't say "they played a bad game, now get rid of them". You have to support your players. Talk to them and convince them so they can improve next time'.

It's late now and I really need to go to sleep.

I hope that while I'm at it, I can dream of a forward line of Lionel MESSI, Jesuschrist and the Holy Spirit scoring a hat-trick each against Perú and Uruguay. After all, that's what the people in charge of the team we love with incredible passion seem to be planning on.

I'm sure we've got a divine right to make it to the next World Cup. Right?


Rune said...

Ok, Diego is NOT the only crazy one in the group………
Bilardo is clearly a better coach than Diego of course, and I’ll take him any day in this situation, but in my opinion most of Bilardo’s ideas belong to the past.
I find it very hard to believe that Diego, being the stubborn man he is, will accept a degradation and to have another coach beside him with just as much to say as himself. Is that gonna happen??? Diego is impossible to co-operate with. If Grondona decides that Diego and Bilardo are “equal” coaches for the rest of the WC qual, it will just be on paper. Diego will not let this happen. And Bilardo knows how impossible Diego is to work with, so he’ll possibly stay in the backgroung anyway.

ZiggY said...

Rune i agree with you, Diego would never accept to be demoted in his role as national team coach. Even when he first took the job one of his conditions was that he'd be in charge of everything. This is what he wants and he wont accept anything less. Now concerning him getting the sack, it seems there are people out there in Argentina who are more in the loop of what's going on, and they'r pretty much convinced that neither Maradona will resign nor will Grondona sack him. Seba is one of them, and i guess they'r right. Considering their stubborness, self-centeredness and ego's it seems far fetched that any one of them will break.

However we can all agree that what i just said is never a 100% certainty. Nothing is. Personally, im counting on the rational and humane factors surrounding this whole fiasco. As we can all see, what we'r currently witnessing is strange in every sense of the word. The plot of the drama is ridiculous... its insane and lacks any logic whatsoever! We are all in shock of what's going on and we'r frustrated at how things just keep getting worse and worse. The only thing that WOULD make sense is if we assume that Maradona is doing this all on purpose to eliminate us from the world cup... and how ridiculous is that! I mean think of it, the decisions and actions he's made are exactly those that would be taken by someone deliberately trying to fail us! And of course, even this idea is ridiculous!

Something strange is going on with Maradona, he's abnormal.. and whatsmore, the whole public can see this! Other fans are laughing at us, mocking our situation and dismissing us... we have become everyone's laughing stock! How can the citizens of Argentina accept this? How can the people of such a big football-mad nation, possessing so much talent, go through this without taking any action??? I mean come on, doesnt anyone love Argentina anymore???! The fact of the matter is that what is happening is completely ridiculous and more importantly, completely AVOIDABLE! We never should have reached this situation in the first place... and everyone knows this, even Grondona. No matter what politics he's adopted, no matter what benefits he has from Maradona's appointment, Argentina missing out on the world cup is DEFINITELY not to his advantage. It will ruin him! No matter how much he loves Maradona or himself, he cannot afford to let this happen. While watching the last two games, i have no doubt in my mind that even he was wondering "What the f*** did we do?!?!"... its clear that Maradona's incompetence and ignorance is at the center of all our problems. The players clearly dont believe in him, and nor do the rest of the rational Argentine public.

ZiggY said...

So as i said, this whole thing was avoidable, clearly. Appointing Maradona was the biggest mistake Grondona ever made, and HE KNOWS IT! We all know that playing the last two games under Maradona, especially after his latest comments of excluding foreign-based players, will eliminate us. So the only hope we have is to play under ANY other decent coach.. ANYONE not named Maradona. And of course, Argentina dont lack good coaches who are willing to take the job. Both Maradona and Grondona are under severe pressure right now, and no matter the degree of their stubborness, they remain human in the end. This pressure will get to them.. and it is our duty as mad Argentina fans to keep piling this pressure until they break. Clearly there are already efforts in the media, fans are protesting... damn, even the AFA website was hacked with a picture of Diego wearing a Brazil jersey!!

Clearly, it is still not too late... Argentina are still fifth and can even make it to fourth if they get their act together. And according to the news we got yesterday, there has finally been some sort of activity in the right direction. Other coaches are being asked to step in to help, Bilardo has been asked to interfere... the pressure will continue to accumulate on Diego to the point where he has had enough and quits. As i said, he will not accept anything less than the role he has. So there is a threshold that can be reached, its not impossible. It is only logical to take these steps now, and only humane that Maradona will break... this is my hope, and i dunno why, but i'v become quite optimistic about this. I am becoming more hopeful that something good will happen soon in the coming days.. and that we will be cured of this curse called Maradona.

Mohd said...

hahaha, i like your post Sebastian...

if you ask me i never liked Bilardo. to me he seems the typical mafia guy. in 1986 maradona brought the world cup and Bilardo had nothing to do with it. even if he had, he is so mad now that he cannot be of any help.

anyway, at least there is some good news that "something" is going on. something is to be decided next week...lest hope it'll be good.

M13 said...

i am encoraged by the reports by the reports that something is likely to happen. This situation cannot be allowed to continue. The do nothing option is not an option. There is no point in wallowing in self pity and hoping for the best. This situation will only get worse.

The fans need to take direct action as the Argentine press is cowardly and mealy mouthed.All they do is fudge the issue by singling out certain players. The ex internationals have also been silent and have refused to break ranks. The 1998 French WC team always make their point when they have to. They do not hide.

The AFA is more concerned about corporate events and profits. After the fiasco in La Paz drastic action should have been taken for the lack of preparation.

Anyway enough of what if or what should does anyone have a contact e-mail for the President, Sports Minister and AFA.

m13 said...

Sorry for the typos.

King Aguero said...

There is no way in hell the AFA leave it the way it is trust me its either new commands are set or he gets the boot

We all know Grondona doesn't fire coaches because he doesnt wanna pay them for nothing however think about it the guy already dismissed Messi!!!! if thats the case now what will be the case next summer? Riquelme first then Messi? and do you seriously think that Messi will be accepting the fact that he doesnt play the last 2 games of the NT???????

This would turn into a bigger problem and all the fans would go crazy on Maradona and the AFA heck the entire world would go crazy and how much profit do you think they'll make without Messi, Riquelme, nice football? who will buy there matches? who will even watch the NT?

Consider all of those circumistancs and trust me the AFA are not dumb enough not to cnsider them remember Money Talks and Leo Messi makes money so an unhappy Messi means an unhappy NT which means a shitty performance which then means no Money

Rune said...

Reports from the media in Argentina:
Rumour has it that Maxi, Milito, Gago are out of the picture. Burdisso and Licha Lopez too.

Diego must be taken to a hospital ASAP. He is losing it.

Batigol9 said...

they are meeting on Monday,let's hope he will get fired by then,i think he won't accept assistance from anyone...Maradona has taken the whole country as hostage and why the hell doesn't Grondona fire him,i don't understand why he cannot do that? If he is so powerful then he can do it no doubt

Sports Magician said...

Hi again guys,

I was able to get on the World Football Phone-in last night to vent some of all our frustrations.

I come on after 7 minutes.

Anonymous said...

Mohd i disagree with you.

Bilardo is a brilliant coach, he analyzied the opponent and build the tactic system around the playing-style of the opponent. He was the main reason why Maradona performed so well in 1986. That's a media-created myth that it was Maradona who won singlehandly the wc. Under Menotti Argentina would not won 1986, i don't believe it.

You are right that Bilardo is a mafia-guy, but such guys know how to get where they want. Why is he so unpopular? Everything he did he did only for Argentina. He is maybe the best coach Argetina ever had in the WC! Look at the results, this is the only thing that really matters.

I hope he will become the coach again right now. Then Argentina would not plug stupid goals after freekicks or counter-attacks anymore.

Sports Magician said...

ps. I hope it's ok to post that link/audio, apologies if not, just thought some of you might like to hear what was being said.

johnny said...

In addition to everything else, some idiot amateur AFA official misplaced Jesus Datolo's passport, delaying his exit from Argentina and insuring he won't be available for Napoli this weekend. A collection of inept, amateurish clowns.

Mohd said...


although i still disagree with you and still believe that bilardo is not that great...however, a monkey could coach the NT better than Maradona is doing.

so if i wake up tomorrow to hear that Bilardo is appointed then I will cry out of joy. just remove maradona, because it cannot get any worse than that.

i have been following news all around the world, and what hurts most is that the team has turned into a joke. i have even read a report that Spain is thinking of cancelling the friendly with Argentina because they will not provide the required challenge!!!! this is pure humiliation.

ZiggY said...

Mohd, Bilardo is probably Argentina's most successful coach in World Cups ever. He won us the '86 WC and took us to the final of the '90. Granted, they havent played the best football under him, especially in '90, but they got results. During his time he solidified Argentina as the biggest football power house of the late 80's and Basile took over from there in the early 90's.

Right now, at this stage, i dont care if we play nice or not. We need results, we need to make it to the WC and avoid a heart-breaking tragedy. If you look at the past two world cup winners (Lippi's Italy of '06 and Scolari's Brazil of '02), they werent really top class teams. They just knew how to get results. That's what it takes in world football today. Barcelona did the impossible last season by winning everything with beautiful football, but that's rare. You cannot always merge the two these days.

Anyway, Bilardo IS 70 years old and i must admit that worries me.. but right now im willing to accept anything other than Maradona. We'r desperate... full stop.

ZiggY said...

Mohd, where did you hear about Spain canceling their friendly? I was having plans to go watch the game... can you please provide a link to it?


Anonymous said...

ZiggY, that's exactly what i wrote above (the anonymous guy). bilardo knows how to get where he wants, he knows how to get results.

also just because a team plays nice attacking football, it doesn't mean that the team is really good. some people confuse spectacularity with real class. and there are some very strong teams who only play "boring" defensive counter-attacking football and win. i would like if argentina would be such a team. winning is everything. for me a 1:0 after a freekick is the perfect result.

and what about pekerman? he can build a strong team once again. he did a mistake in the game against germany 2006, but still he is a very good coach.

Vitalij from Germany

ZiggY said...

I agree with you Vitalij, sometimes we can be fooled by nice attacking football, thinking that the side are very strong just coz of their nice touches..etc. As an Argentine fan, this is something i'v been realising for a long while now. For more than the past decade we have been playing the "nicest" football in the world, going into the '02 and '06 as favorites. Even at '98 we were one of the seeded teams. But look at how things turned out in all of them... we never even reached the semi's in any!

However, in those same WC's, we saw not-so-great teams like Brazil win in '02 (although they struggled in the qualifiers at the time). We saw two very boring teams in Italy and France make the final of the '06 WC. So really, it really isnt a matter of beautiful football anymore. When it was us playing the boring defensive football in '90, we made it to the final! I promised myself after crashing out in '06 that i didnt really want to see nice football from argentina anymore. I wanted to see a side more solid at the back with killer counter-attacks and set pieces. We have learned the hard way that this is what it takes to win nowadays.

To be frank, i have given up on "beautiful" football. In a previous comment on one of the other articles, i talked about how we must come and re-evaluate some of our players who are turning out to be over-rated... simply coz of this. Just coz someone can play a few back heels and make the crowd cheer doest mean you'r good. Tevez has become an example of this.. we all know his skill, but hey, where is his final contribution? Nothing. Few players can merge style with results nowadays like Messi... but in the end, we need established and efficient players. We need solid tactics and effective strategies... the result is what counts in the end, not your football.

Its sad to be talking this way, but that's the mere truth. And Argentina today have neither style nor results.... pity pity.

Hey Sports Magician... i listened to the podcast. What you guys said was spot on.. great summary of Argentina's problems, i couldn't agree more!

Mohd said...


the rumor i heard was broadcasted in an arabic sport channel (Aljazeera that is) (i am from Lebanon by the way)...

but anyway, i have read nothing yet about this in any international site, so i'd not worry about it just yet.

msi2 said...

To be honest i would cancel that friendly asap.

ZiggY said...

Hey Mohd, im Lebanese too buddy :)

Concerning the friendly, i made plans to go watch it in the beginning of summer when we were all still happy about Diego being our coach and stuff. But now after all this crap he's making us go through, i honestly dont even wanna see his face. IF by some miracle he's replaced, and the Spain game is still on, then ill probably still go. The Spain game is on November 14th.

However im also concerned whether they'll still have the friendly if Argentina end up 5th and have to play against 4th in CONCACAF. Does anyone know when those playoff games will be?

Sebastian said...

Interesting debate. We are obviously very fired up with the things that are happening to our national team.

Regarding BILARDO?

I'm not his fan. I've never been. I do give him credit for a lot of good things that happened to our national team (WC title in 1986 -I don't think it was just MARADONA, even though the way he played had a big saying in that triumph-, the WC final in 1990 -although I didn't agree with the player selection and the tactics and I though we played horribly-), but guess what? It's been more than 20 years and BILARDO has failed to keep up with modern football and all the changes.

Back then, there weren't many scouting reports and the meticulous methods BILARDO always employed gave him an advantage over the majority of the other coaches.

Today? He's got no edge. He's been failing after the 1990 World Cup in every club he managed (Sevilla, Boca Juniors, Estudiantes), just as much as MENOTTI failed after 1978 with every club he worked for.

Players were different back then too. They played cards, now they use PlayStation3.

BASILE couldn't connect with his players and they laughed at Coco's superstitions. BILARDO is every bit as superstitious (if not more) than BASILE and is older too. No way he'll succeed with a bunch of players that are used to working in very professional environments when they have everything they need for them to develop their maximum potential.

And for crying out loud, people, Monday meeting will change NOTHING.

They will probably do it so in the outside we think there could be room for changes.

The truth is they won't change a thing. They will probably give BILARDO a bigger role -which I doubt in practice MARADONA will allow for it to happen-.

GRONDONA doesn't fire coaches but it is not because he doesn't want to pay the contract cancellation, it is because it goes against his believes (again...this is a 77-year-old dinosaur). According to his book, you don't fire people you appointed because you'd be accepting the fact that you got it wrong in the first place.

If then the manager fails, it'll be the manager's fault for the outside world.

Or do you hear or read many people saying it's GRONDONA's fault rather than MARADONA's?

We are heading for disaster and the people that make the decisions are completely unaware of it and they are still think Jesus and the Virgin Mary will help us.

They are even comparing this situation with the one we went through in 1985 in the WC Qualifiers. We scored in the last minute and we got to Mexico 1986 through the window and then we won it.

MARADONA, BILARDO, GRONDONA and all those brainless people around them see this as a good omen and they strongly believe this situation will end in World Cup victory next year.

Jesus? Mary? Please save us, the fans!

Anonymous said...

Ziggy, we think exactly the same way. 100% agree, especially the tevez example was great. it looks good, but is useless. and when it looks good and you lose, it also hurts much more than when you play "scrappy" and lose. ok, it is stupid to talk about losing, let's concentrate on winning.

i have heard there are two kind of people (philosophies) in argentina: the bilardo-guys and the menotti-guys. i am a 100% bilardo guy. and i believe if a man could make argentina wc, he can at least lead them to the wc now. i don't think football changed much in the last 20 years.

also another thing: the 2006 team not only played "nice" football, they were also very efficient. there were teams like ghana who shooted 50 times at the goal, and non went in. argentina shooted 3 times and scored 2. that's how it should be.

and they were also strong by set-pieces. and this is the most important thing in competition football today: defense and setpieces. that's how italy won the wc. and argentina's win aginst colombia: after a corner. especially the 1:0 goals are mostly scored by set-pieces in 50-50 games. and one month i read an interview with maradona, and he said he wakes up in the night and thinking about freekick and corner moves. but where is the result?

Vitalij from Germany

msi2 said...

ZiggY> I read your post with attention about abnadoning beautiful football, then you take the exemple of Tevez to justify your thoughts. Tevez lost actually all his skills which is why he had became such a mediocre player (certainly nowhere near he was at Boca). Tevez is only running, doesnt know to shoot anymore, doesnt know how to dribble, doesnt how to score, to take free-kick. Tevez was even playing as a playmaker with great passes between lines and so...

ZiggY said...

Seba, you'r right about Bilardo... he's currently 70 years old and most probably far from being up to date with today's football. Of course this worries me and he isnt my favorite. If its someone better then GREAT! But what i was saying is that we'r just desperate at the moment and any name other than Maradona would do.

This is an important issue because IF Maradona is ever replaced, then it is most likely that Bilardo will be the one to take over (it seems). Now you'r pretty convinced that this will not happen, and maybe you'r right... but there is still that small possibility that it could, for the reasons i talked about in an earlier post in this article. As i said, im gambling on the rational and humane factors of this whole charade... and im sure you'r hoping im right and you'r wrong on this :p hehe

Anyway, an important question remains to be answered. Since Maradona supposedly works closely with Bilardo... exactly how much is the latter's contribution so far in this whole tragedy? Does Bilardo agree with the controversial call ups Diego has been making? Did they agree on everything together?? Or has it just been a one man show with Diego making all the calls... ? Nobody knows for sure, but chances are Diego has been working on his own. No experienced coach in his right mind would ever make the calls we have seen so far.. no way in hell!

So anyway, lets just pray for the hand of God to interfere and save us by removing this clown from our bench... Jesus and Mary will show up, so keep the faith! :)

Anonymous said...

How ironic Messi socres with his head today.

Roy said...

Having Bilardo won't change much. He might help out our defence a bit, but in the end it's Diego who picks who plays and who doesn't. So if Diego plays Papa-Otamendi-Dominguez-Zanetti, there's only so much Bilardo will be able to do with that back-line.

Msi2 is right, for some reason ever since Tevez moved to England, he's been a shadow of his former self. It's sad really. He never takes free kicks anymore, he can't beat players 1 on 1, he doesn't shoot. He just runs around with his head cut off.

And I'm with Seba, the meeting on Monday won't change much(if anything). 2 people will meet(Diego and Grondona), 1 more stubborn than the other and they'll agree to something like Bilardo will be able to attend practices or something(last I checked, Diego doesn't even allow him to attend practices).

Anonymous said...

I don't know about calling Bilardo back. Just rubs me the wrong way. But anybody instead of Diego is better. That I can agree on. I would love to see Pekerman back. Some of you do not want him back because of the mistakes he made vs Germany. The players like him, he was well respected and he can do justice for us. But again ANYBODY is better then Diego. But lets not count our eggs before they hatched. This is not good for the AFA either if Argentina miss out. They would lose a ton of money if they miss out. I do not think the Godfather wants that. So I think he knows it has gone much to far and he will do something about it(I hope).

As for Tevez. What a megastar he was at Boca and corinthians. 3X footballer of the year in South America. Going to England ruined him. That is it, went to a major club that destroyed his career. Why don't our players understand that you can not go from South American football to the EPL. Unless you are a defender or holding MF you can achieve something. I say Tevez needs to go away from our national team. His replacement who has shown so much more heart in his career and that is El Conejo Saviola. Lets just base this on stats between the 2. Tevez has played for Argentina around 51 times and he has around 8 goals. Saviola has played for us for 44 times and has scored 12 times. 7 less goals but 4 more goals. He is not even a goal scorer, besides that amazing run he had in U-20 WC in Argentina.


Mohd said...

i did not know your lebanese...keefak :)

I agree with most the guys opinion of Bilardo. he is just too old to coach the modern football. when Basile first left, my first choice was Deigo Simione; its true he is also new in coaching but at least he got the results and won with Estudiantes.

Mohd said...

also interesting stuff about tevez. its realling astonishing what has happened to him. he used to be by far my favorite player. he was quick, strong, skillful, shoots well, free kicks....the full package. now he is just too heavy and lost his attributes. what could possibly happen to a player for all this???

is it officially that the English game is not suited for south american players?

portenyo nortenyo said...

Bilardo has been very clear that he only speaks when Diego ASKS HIM his opinion, othewise, he keeps quiet. Maradona is the DT, Bilardo says. Which may also mean that he doesn't want to be blamed for the mess the NT is in. I think we can assume that Diego has probably never or very rarely asked Bilardo's opinion. Grondona is now asking for Bilardo to be more active. But there's certainly no suggestion that Bilardo will take over. How Diego will take this, and other suggestions (like players to bring in) -- who knows?

One thing, for sure, next week is going to be very interesting.

salvio supporter said...

I'm sure we have no divine right to be there, nor does Maradona retain any divine skill. But I'm pretty sure that Messi's money-making-presence value is so high that Grondona will take care of having the next two matches filled with conveniences, like candy, paid players, referees, and a supervised Maradona (who truly believes that what they say to the press is what they really think?).

Anonymous said...

Batigol9 said...

wow..that explains why meesi is so lost on the field,he is getting no instructions on how and where to just shows how clueless Maradona is...

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