Eleven games and the best part of four months without tasting victory. Elimination from three separate competitions. Yet another coach who finds himself firmly in the firing line. And a beloved figure in the president’s chair who if things do not improve fast may just find himself on the block as well.
Things could not look bleaker for Boca Juniors at the moment, and for the first time in his tenure Juan Román Riquelme might be feeling the heat.
Any goodwill Boca could have built up from their two respectable showings in the Club World Cup back in June has faded fast. Since pushing Benfica and Bayern Munich to the brink, the Xeneize were held to an embarrassing draw by amateur Auckland City and then, on their return to Argentina, were dumped out of the Copa Argentina at the hands of Atlético Tucumán and started their Clausura campaign with two uninspiring draws followed by defeat to Huracán.
Not since April’s 2-0 victory over Estudiantes have Boca won a game inside the regulation time of 90 minutes and pressure is mounting on Miguel Ángel Russo barely two months after he agreed to walk out on San Lorenzo in favour of a third stint at the Bombonera.
Saturday’s clásico derby at home to Racing Club could prove pivotal: lose, and Riquelme may be forced to look for his fourth new appointment in the hot seat since stepping up from vice-president to the main job following elections in December 2023.
This particular loss would be a bitter setback for Riquelme. He enjoys a warm relationship with Russo, with whom he first worked back in 2007 in a gloriously successful partnership culminating in Boca lifting their fifth – and to date, most recent – Copa Libertadores crown.
“I am happy, a friend is coming home,” the usually stone-faced Román enthused back in June upon appointing the septuagenarian just days ahead of the Club World Cup.
Riquelme’s own record of hiring and firing alongside the much-maligned and, as of Wednesday, newly dissolved Football Council (largely made up of old team-mates from those halcyon days of the mid-2000s) does not stand up to much scrutiny over the past five years, either on the pitch or on the touchline, but having to sack Russo again would be another black mark against his administration and one difficult to bounce back from.
The malaise at Boca does seem to exceed Russo or any one coach. As results have deteriorated, so has the atmosphere in the dressing-room which now more closely resembles a snake-pit. Miguel Merentiel, Boca’s most consistent performer over these last few difficult months, created the latest crisis point at the weekend after reacting furiously to being substituted against Huracán.
Former captain Marcos Rojo has been at loggerheads with the club for months now and is frozen out of Russo’s plans, a situation shared with defenders Cristian Lema and Marcelo Saracchi – the latter of whom chose to quote Che Guevara this week referring to his wish to “die on his feet.”
Those who are still taken into consideration at La Bombonera, meanwhile, seem to shuffle from game to game shorn of confidence or conviction, terrified of losing yet again and seeing further pressure heaped on their shoulders.
Even the arrival of World Cup winner Leandro Paredes has had little impact on morale around La Boca, and the ex-Roma and PSG ace must be wondering exactly what kind of a mess he has stepped into less than a year away from Argentina’s defence of their title.
Still, nothing calms strained nerves in football like a win, and if Boca can pull together and get three points against Racing, the storm clouds around the club might just start to clear, at least until the next crisis comes along.
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