Trailer launched for Argentina national team series on Amazon Prime Video

1. I watched the River game also. Im just curious, they sold Martinez Quarta, Montiel, Palacios, Nacho, Julián Álvarez, Hernández, Rollheiser, and a few others and they basically brought nothing to back fill other than a Barco who dives more than any player in Argentina and that’s saying something. What the hell? How are you going to win anything?

   • I will mention a few things to explain the situation which isn’t easy.

     In South America it is impossible not to sell players. All of the players you’ve mentioned are sellable assets that can get much better contracts abroad and are easy/smart acquisitions for other teams. River is one of the biggest clubs in South America, same with Boca and the other large Brazilian clubs. But there is one huge difference between big clubs in Europe and a big club like River. Your Real Madrids, Barcenlonas, and Bayern Munichs are buying clubs, but almost inherently a club in the South American or Argentinian economy in a lower level league that develops lots of talent is going to sell yearly. River has to balance being a big club whose objectives are fighting for the Libertadores and other competitions yearly while selling consistently. On the other hand, Brazilian clubs are able to buy (a lot) at the moment while selling their youth for more than twice the cash. That’s where the disparity comes from. I will challenge popular opinion on this site: Brazilian clubs aren’t selling because they do well, they are doing well because they are selling for more and because they are in a better economic shape overall. Europeans recognize that they can buy our players for cheap and take advantage of it, and slowly the MLS, Brasileirao, and Mexico join the act. This makes the league worse and with the quality down less proper talents are developed and the few that can convince top leagues go for even cheaper. It spirals down. On top of this, Brazilian clubs are favored by conmebol. Yesterday’s game was decided by a VAR decision and Boca’s elimination a year ago was as well. The clubs most likely to compete with the big Brazilians are River and Boca so getting rid of them is the goal.

     Most of the players in your list that went for cash went for half the amount they would have had they been Brazilian. Some, like Angileri, Borre, and Rollheiser went for free which is very damaging to a club in Argentina. The first two could have been 10M+. Some like Ferreira faded into obscurity.

     Funny enough many of the transfers we’ve made to replace these outgoings seemed good at the time, but eventually flopped or showed their true colors. Some transfers looked odd at the beginning and proved to be ridiculous after a while.

     Flops: Braian Romero, Alex Vigo, Agustin Fontana, Tomas Pochettino

     Downgrades: Andrés Herrera, Leandro González Pírez, Elías Gómez, Agustín Palavecino, José Paradela, David Martínez

     Pending/Hopeful: Esequiel Barco, Emanuel Mammana, Rodrigo Aliendro, Juan Fernando Quintero

     Justifying expectations: Jonatan Maidana

     Except for Barco with Rollheiser, none of the replacements is as good as or better than the player they are replacing. Many are significantly worse. Barco is the only big hope but even he shows signs that he didn’t develop almost at all in the MLS and is a work in progress. Economic restrictions and poor market decisions are the reason it seems nobody has been replaced and the reason River is so far from where it was in 2019. I have no clue what it will take to reach those heights again.

2. After River’s elimination my focus is on Qatar and my thoughts are exclusive to that. Really excited for this series and the behind the scenes will be a total treat for me and all of us on Mundo who’ve followed Scaloni’s team through the thick and thin.

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