Maradona exit as chaotic as his tenure

Posted Tuesday, August 03, 2010 by theguardian.com

The national icon's eventful time as coach has ended amid accusations of betrayal and lies

Diego Maradona at the press conference yesterday when he confirmed the end of his time as Argentina manager.

In November 2008, a clean-shaven and sharp-suited Diego Maradona walked out to raucous cheers. To the national press, their hero was back. The surprised international audience simply watched on in shock at the bizarre choice of new Argentina coach. To one side of Maradona stood the president of the Argentinian Football Association, Julio Grondona, to the other Carlos Bilardo, the national team's general manager. The three most influential men in Argentinian football from the past 30 years were shoulder to shoulder, grinning and announcing a new era for the selección.

Yesterday, those two men who had walked out with Maradona 630 days before had become his targets. "Grondona lied to me, Bilardo betrayed me," read Maradona, again in a suit but by now with his familiar beard, from his suspiciously well-scripted communiqué.

As he delivered his own version of the events that lead to his chaotic reign coming to an end, Maradona explained his choice of words. "In front of witnesses and players," he stressed, "Grondona came into the changing room after the Germany game [the 4-0 defeat at the quarter-final stage of the World Cup in South Africa] and said he wanted me to carry on as coach. Then when I got back to Argentina, things started getting all confused. Now this."

Bilardo, in the meantime, was singled out for more dramatic prose. "While we were in mourning [after being knocked out of the World Cup], he was working in the shadows to have us thrown out."

Rarely for him, Maradona spoke in the plural. His entire stewardship had been about nobody else but him – about the team being his, about him being in charge around here, about things being done his way, about what he needed. But the reasons for his contract not being renewed are, ostensibly, not to do with him, but rather his backroom staff. Grondona asked Diego to continue without seven of his assistants – inconceivable for Maradona. "I defend my people, from the masseuse to the kit man," he said. "I have a code that they [Grondona and Bilardo] don't have."

While Maradona remained on the defensive yesterday, the argument stands that it was he himself who hijacked Argentina's chances at South Africa. He oversaw embarrassing defeats in the build up – 6-1 in Bolivia, 3-1 at home to Brazil – and qualified for South Africa right at the death. Inclusions in the 23-man World Cup squad, such as the journeyman Ariel Garcé, or the sixth striker Martín Palermo, were inexplicable. Exclusions such as those of the Inter duo Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti were internationally condemned. As anybody watching Argentina knew, he was a tactical novice. The woeful defeat to Germany confirmed everybody's suspicions.

But while at home and abroad the consensus is that Maradona simply had no idea what he was doing, and while it is easy to blame the 49-year-old for everything that is wrong with Argentina, he in fact fared no worse than his predecessors at the World Cup. "Not since 1990 has Argentina made it past the quarter-finals," he pointed out yesterday. "Nobody is talking about that."

Only César Menotti and Bilardo have lifted the World Cup as Argentina managers. The last final the Albiceleste reached was under Bilardo and with Maradona as captain, when they lost to Germany at Italia 90. In 1994, Alfio Basile's side "had their legs cut off" when Maradona was sent home, disgraced, for failing a drugs test. In 1998, Daniel Passarella's men were undone by a Dennis Bergkamp moment of inspiration. Despite a stunning qualifying campaign to reach the 2002 World Cup, and with the country in flames after an economic crash, the side were unable to pass the group phase under Marcelo Bielsa. Germany 2006 will be remembered for how the hosts profited from José Pekerman substituting Juan Román Riquelme and subsequently losing control of the quarter-final tie.

Maradona, knowing that it is a popularly held opinion, declared that this record "is not a coincidence. It's because things aren't being done properly up above and nothing is being done to change it," before adding: "There are people more concerned about their bank balance than about Argentinian football."

For now the AFA will claim they have remedied a situation before it spirals out of control. Maradona's backroom staff had to go. Yet there is no sense that Maradona has been ill-advised, because it is no secret that Maradona surrounded himself with yes men.

Forcing him to change his staff may appear to be a reasonable request from the AFA. But the real motivation was not to improve the quality of advice Maradona received. Bilardo regularly clashed with Maradona's two right-hand men, Alejandro Mancuso and Héctor Enrique, and amid the post-World Cup mess, Bilardo would be staying on at the AFA. By demanding that Maradona sack seven of his team, Grondona was in fact sacking Maradona.

Coincidentally, it was one of the assistants that Maradona did manage to force out of the set-up several months ago – Miguel Angel Lemme – who best summed up the relationship between Bilardo and Maradona: "They are like Tom and Jerry." Maradona's time as coach did indeed regularly veer into the realm of caricature and comical levels of farce, and at times the face-off seemed to be stuck in a stalemate.

While Maradona is still revered for what he achieved as a player, few in Argentina – from the AFA to the fans – wanted him as coach from the outset. He sees things differently: "They called me to put out a fire, and we put it out." He spoke of a divided squad that he brought together. He made people love the national team again. The way out of the past 20 years of underachievement "was just around the corner".

Having finished his statement yesterday, Maradona left to rapturous applause from the press. It was the same reaction when he was unveiled as coach, alongside Grondona and Bilardo. But of those three men, there was never any doubt who would be the first to fall.