River Plate was eliminated by Racing in the round of 16 of the Clausura Tournament and thus ended his sporting year early. While waiting for the definition of a competition in which it will be established whether the Sudamericana or Libertadores are played next year, a stage of internal analysis begins for the formation of the squad for 2026. Marcelo Gallardo renewed his contract and will continue, a situation supported by a Oscar Ruggeri who reflected on the moment of Millionaire.
“It seems good to me that Gallardo continues, he has to solve this. Taking out 10 and bringing in 10 new ones, no. Is there any doubt that at least ten players will leave? They are not going to reach ten, but they have to bring two or three players with the capacity for a club like River“, was one of Cabezón’s first sentences in the program in which he is a panelist in ESPN.
Later, he drew a parallel with the Academy and argued the final result: “In this Racing, put the player you want, and he will move forward. They take him forward. There is contagion from the technician. The same doesn’t happen in River, I don’t know why. They’ll have to figure it out. These players he bought are surely going to leave and don’t be surprised if they are figures on another team. “Today it is shown that the players that River bought were not for the club.”
The criticism of the world champion in Mexico 86 did not stop there: “They are not contagious, there is no contagion. You go on to win a very difficult match like last night and then you end up losing it and they eliminate you. Racing wore it, forget it. The kids were going up. And they can’t wear River. How are they going to wear it to River. I played with that shirt.”
Ruggeri did not miss the opportunity to highlight the mistake that Gallardo made: “He should not have distanced himself from Enzo Francescoli and taken away his power. If that recipe had gone well, it had to continue in the same way. Why change? Yes Francescoli was the guy who brought Gallardo when no one had him to direct River. He was among three options and he chose him as a coach. Enzo has a low profile, he doesn’t come out and say anything to you.”
And he concluded: “Coaches have to dedicate themselves to being coaches of the team and not get involved in changing a light bulb or with the prop man, because they wear out and lose energy for what they really have to do, which is to stand there when things are bad. Like Gallardo did, when he stood up a hair and the players exploited him.”
After River’s last game in 2025, the millionaire coach held a press conference in Avellaneda and said: “We do not have an end to the year as we would have liked, with objectives in the game until the end and that puts us in an uncomfortable place. “We must take charge and I assume responsibility for this moment and this year,” the DT was sincere. The millionaire coach stressed that he will take a few days to analyze the situation before facing key decisions: “I will take these days of reflection and review to change. This is not going to end like this. The year ends in a negative way, but in my head I will start thinking about how we continue and I will start working tomorrow.”
