Imagine you are the coach of team that is has had a good season, but is currently in a mini slump. Despite the slight downward trend, your team is still sitting pretty – only two points from the top. It should be a pretty comfortable position, right?
Would the nervous beads of sweat start running down your temples? Why would they? Oh, I forgot to mention one thing: you are coaching a team in the MFL, where even slumps for teams at the top of the table can put a coach’s tenure in serious risk.
Well, it happened to Jose Luis Real. The Chivas coach was reassigned tonight; sent back to the youth team ranks. Fernando Quirarte, the defender who blew kisses in the air after scoring goals in Mexico86 takes over. Yet another coach from the pile dusted off and installed in what will inevitably be an impossible situation.
For all of the good that Chivas owner, Jorge Vergara, has done for the Sacred Flock, his trigger finger is one of the itchiest in la Liga Mexicana. Since he bought the the team in 2002, Vergara has hired and fired more than a dozen coaches. And only one of them, Chepo de la Torre, was able to generate a championship for the Mercurial owner. Now Fernando “el Sheriff” Quirarte, one of the all-time great Chivas in his own right, will be tasked with making the most of young and talented squad. Suerte, and I hope you’re renting.
I often wondered if it ever makes a difference when a team makes a coaching change in the middle of the season. We’ll all know definitively soon: Bigsoccer contributor Martin Del Palacio has been teasing us all day on the twitter that he has crunched the numbers and will share his findings soon.
In case you’re keeping score at home, that makes 7 this season (and the season started in late July).
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