“It hurt me the way and the way I had to leave Boca. When they told me that I was going to be Boca’s coach, they came to my house, we talked about it, and I accepted it, I would have liked it to be the same way now, that we talk a little more, as it should be”, confessed Battaglia, born in Santa Fe 41 years ago.
Battaglia was fired on July 7th happened after the elimination of Boca in the round of 16 of the Libertadores at the hands of Corinthians, from Brazilfor penalty kicks.
“They didn’t tell me why, although I didn’t ask why when they named me either, but they are their decisions. I have my convictions and I accept the decisions,” added the Santa Fe in an interview he gave to Stray animalsthe cycle that is broadcast by América TV.
Battaglia, who assumed the technical direction of Boca in August of last year in replacement of Miguel Angel Russowas the winningest player in the history of the club with 17 titles and one of its greatest idols, with a whole life in the institution, which he arrived at when he was just 15 years old.
As a coach, he won two more titles, the 2021 Argentine Cup and the 2022 League Cup, and his departure drew attention because of the form and because he was replaced by the coach of the Reserve division, Hugo Benjamín Ibarra, who will be the coach at least until the end of the year.
The DT was fired by the Football Council made up of Jorge Bermúdez, Raúl Cascini, Marcelo Delgado and Mauricio Serna, all four in a direct line with Juan Román Riquelme, the vice president with absolute power in managing the club’s professional and youth football.
“I am calm because of the work we were doing at the group and team level, identity, promoting youth, a long-term project,” said Battaglia, who was a companion of all the members of the Football Council and Riquelme in his stage. as a player, in the successful cycle of Carlos Bianchi as DT and also with other coaches.
The idol from Boca admitted that his response at the post-elimination press conference against Corinthians may have been the trigger for his dismissal and acknowledged that it was “timeless.”
In this sense, Battaglia was consulted at the press conference about the lack of reinforcements and the departure of some important players (such as Eduardo “Toto” Salvio) and replied: “”there are issues that one raises and from there they should be resolved in the time to be resolved and were not resolved. What’s more, important boys have left, or that were important, but they are situations that I don’t handle, “he had said.
“At that moment I answered a question that they asked me, perhaps I should have said it before about the reinforcements. But I had been talking about it, I was talking about it with those who had to talk about it. At no time did I feel that I was going to offend my players nor to anyone, perhaps it was timeless, it could have been before or two days later,” Battaglia analyzed.
The Santa Fe recognized that he did not have much dialogue with Riquelme, in a surprising comment since Román declared on more than one occasion that they had permanent conversations.
“I would have liked to have had more soccer talks with Riquelme. I did speak more with those of the Council,” commented the former DT from Boca.
Source: Ambito
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