Grondona’s move with Diego was a shrewd one. Give Diego his chance and if he succeeds then Grondona was the one who made it happen. If he fails, then he gets rid of the one man who could probably unseat him at the AFA and has a built in excuse for failure “I hired Diego, what more do you want.” And while the circus was/is playing out, some of the heat on Grondona is cooled down.

His only interest is in Grondona, not the Argentine football scene. I’ll stop short of calling him corrupt (although I think he is, so I guess I just did call him that) and just say inept.

And if Argentina has become a team and/or nation that only expects it’s NT to make it out of the group stage, then expectations have fallen tremendously. The quarterfinals should be the starting point. From the midfield up they are ridiculously talented and part of their defense isn’t bad either.

If you ever read Argentine papers (im from Venezuela where the media can get away calling the president a monkey because of his dark skin so this is not your north american media were talking about) and the personal attacks on him, you would have done the same.

As for his failure as a coach, what’s your point?
This wasnt his team by the way, he was brought in after 10 games because of the mess Basile left, with infighting, backstabbing, primadonnas and the usual garbage.
Maradona had no experience but he had the name. The hope that he could recreate some magic out of a moribund team that looked out of place.
An experienced coach would not have had much more luck with this bunch.

So just like that game against Australia, the federation hoped that the spectre of Diego would make everyone forget the first 1.5 of this terrible campaign.
If he didnt succeed, then the press could eat Maradona for lunch.
If he succeeded to get them to the WC, then the legend would live on.

Sure, he still isnt a WC caliber coach but he got them there. Which brings me to the what’s your point.
All he has to do is get them past teh first stage and he will once again shut everyones traps.
If they suspend him, then FIFA makes him into a martyr and every game Argentina plays will be a circus with the Diego Not THere angles.

The ‘us vs them’ may be a tired sports cliche but it helps teams in turmoil gel and it worked here. Of course, Diego isnt a good enough coach to have done this on purpose but it worked.
Anyone who doubted him can suck him and then whine about it in blogs.

The legend has gotten bigger and the swearing episode will make the fans love him more. You might not like loud and uncouth but many people see him as a man of the people.

And ANY comments from the land of bad teeth, horsey royal familys and lukewarm beer hold the value of road apples.
Maradona is like a nightmare that football losing nation keeps reliving.
Its ok, not all your failures can be attributed to him, theres Becky’s skyward PK, his ejection, Rooney’s ejection, the fact that english players are rare in the EPL and plenty of others to blame for failure.

While I’m on it, “could have such A lasting effect.” Forgot a word.

Sorry. My proofreader is a drunk monkey.

Seriously, who didn’t see this coming?

On the conspiracy front, I seem to recall a paranoid Argentine side. It was like watching Norman Bates play soccer.

Hope they can bounce back. There’s too much talent there to squander.

There, someone had to say it.