Leandro Gracián, after Boca’s departure: from “Riquelme didn’t build the team” to “we didn’t just go to eat barbecues at the club”

The news of the day in Mundo Boca is Gerardo Martino’s refusal to accept Juan Román Riquelme’s proposal to take over the Xeneize team. But less than two days after Hugo Ibarra’s departure as team DT, one of his most important assistants in the team’s build, Leandro Gracián, broke the silence. And he wanted to talk.

“It’s difficult to leave Boca, a great institution where you live with what you propose both as a player and as a coach: to be at the top, to fight for all the leagues because you have the best players,” Tanito began. of the Mariano Closs program with that of Sebastián Vignolo on ESPN.

“During the day many things were said that were not truewe should have communicated more to show what we were working on,” he continued. “It’s not like we went to the club all day to have barbecue,” said Gracián. “How are they going to get the team together for us?” he insisted. .

Moreover, He answered whether Riquelme put the team together: “NO, it’s a lack of respect“, he has declared.”The coach made all the decisions.“. “With a team, we presented the match schedule to Hugo on Thursday and Friday. We saw the rival, we helped Hugo and we got results,” he continued.

Gracián referred to the rumors about the players’ distrust of Hugo Ibarra: “Did you notice that they didn’t receive any tools?” Closs asked him.

“Not at all, every coach lowers his idea of ​​the game, his methodology in the way he feels it. But we gave him tools, after we failed to translate it on the playing field, it’s the responsibility of the coach and his team. But we have planned the training sessions… one of the things I want to say is that the structure of Boca is immense. There is a lot of work behind the technical staff. We plan the training sessions, the contents”, we work on the offensive phase, on defense. I could tell you two thousand things, we worked hard,” replied Gracián.

El Tano referred to Ibarra’s famous meeting with the players that would be a turning point in the DT’s relationship with the team. “The final speech lasted ten minutes,” Gracián confessed. “What hurt me the most was the farewell, but I feel good about the work we’ve done.”

Why didn’t the players react? “It’s hard being a Boca player, it’s stressful. The player lives for Boca. Sometimes it seemed like the team lacked mobility, but we always work to deselect. But not because the player didn’t want to, but because he didn’t come out,” he explained. .

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