The intimacy of the friendly departure of Ibarra from Boca and why the team ended up collapsing

Wednesday in Boca began (and will take place) in an unusual way. On the one hand, now with the news – that it was being cooked indoors, outside doors were expected and it was communicated last night – of determining the end of Hugo Ibarra’s cycle and his coaching staff in command of the professional staff, these first hours after the meeting culminated with Juan Román Riquelme and the Football Council they are lived with sadness, but also with the conviction that the right thing was done.

Even interrupting a function that was on the shoulders of a very personal friend, aspect that will have conditioned in other moments of doubts, but not now. On the other, the friendly way in which he begins to walk away: the now ex-coach arrived at the Ezeiza property very early and spend the day with the people who made the decision to remove him, It clearly shows the strong and unconditional relationship between the protagonists.

Mate goes, mate comes. Thus, and with the accumulation of smiles after so many hours of talks, Ibarra will go through them accompanied by his collaborators Leandro Gracián and Roberto Pompei (also laid off) and together with the Council: Marcelo Delgado and Mauricio Serna they were the first of that group to arrive at the Training Center to be with him. It is that the man from Formosa approached his son Thiago, who is part of the youth categories playing for the eighth division, for which the gate of the property was opened at 7.45. Those slopes of Riquelme arrived an hour later. Ibarra’s main idea? Saying goodbye to those who were his footballers for more than eight months.

In fact, the squad will only train this Wednesday afternoon. According to what the club reported, among the 16 and 16.30. For this reason, when his son finished training at noon, he left with his car to return home and later return to Ezeiza to see what was his team for the last time. The point is that the “Black” is really well received and, as Serna assured when informing the press of the decision, “the property’s doors are open.” She didn’t even affect the counterpoint that Ibarra really wanted to continue in office and that the friendly conclave was to make it clear to him that the cycle did not give for more: these hours could well be hot with another technician. What’s more, it was expected that he would be relocated to the inferior structure, but Riquelme chose to be more serious than ever as a manager and on Tuesday night, directly, he showed the exit to the trinomial.

It is the third DT that Riquelme and his people need to remove from the post. For one thing or another. And the three ways were different and mark how much affinity there was with each one. Miguel Angel Russo, In August 2021, the farewell was already palpable after the team’s poor performance and the terrible results: although on the morning after the loss against Estudiantes he also showed up to train the squad as he did every day, Riquelme received him, put his hand on the shoulder in a friendly way (he was the man who directed it in that mythical Copa Libertadores 2007 in which the exenganche was an absolute figure) and took him to the offices to notify him of the departure, while Sebastián Battaglia was already in charge on the field of play to begin his cycle: all the press already knew hours before that image would occur. For his part, the exvolante was the one that ended the worst: due to his phrase referring to the fact that they had not brought reinforcements, as soon as he was eliminated from Libertadores 2022, the Council took some revenge and the following afternoon he threw it out, unusually, at a service station. Without the presence of the second vice president: the friendship had ended a long time ago and the dialogue did not exist.

In this case, everything is different and there is time to continue sharing despite the termination of the contractual relationship. When the clock shows the stipulated time for the start of the training, which will be in charge temporarily by Mariano Herrón and Claudio Morel Rodríguez, the duo that directs the reserve team, the already ex-technician will face the footballers, will thank them for the effort through which they obtained two titles (Professional League 2022 and the Argentine Super Cup a few weeks ago) and he will give a hug to each one, beyond the broken relationship that has existed for a long time.

That, perhaps, was the main reason for Riquelme to return from his trips to Spain (to play the Villarreal Legends Match) and Paraguay (he attended the Copa Libertadores draw) already with the decision considered days ago to remove Boca from his friend. The squad never gave signs, on and off the field, of having grabbed his hand during 2023 after a 2022 in which Ibarra never made the team play well, but everyone rallied behind the goal of being champion of the last tournament, finally achieved at the end of October.

Everyone (including the Council) expected a change from the tools, with a preseason that was longer than normal due to the stoppage of the World Cup in Qatar, but “they did not find the return”, as described by the Colombian employee. Consequently, a depressed team was always observed, almost on the verge of an improvisation that led to the continuity of the collective malfunction and ended at its maximum boiling point: all whistled after losing ten days ago against Instituto (2-3). A balance that was not altered with respect to what was seen last year, but between all of them they hit their heads against the wall.

In addition, the urgency of changing the technical direction and the airs a week away from debuting in Venezuela, against Monagas, for the new cup edition. If it were only for results, Ibarra could have had more time and a bench: of the 36 matches he led, he won 20 and only lost nine, losing -paradoxically- only once at La Bombonera: the one mentioned against Gloria, the which marked the end of the cycle. And if the titles are added… It’s just that, even in Boca, the most important thing is not only to win. And Hugo Ibarra now knows it.

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