An illustrious name hovered over the first appearance of the new Spanish coach, Luis de la Fuente. Sergio Ramos is not among the 26 chosen by the man from La Rioja for his premiere, it was already known in advance, since the central defender from Camas said goodbye to La Roja with a letter that pointed a bullet at the new tenant of the national bench. The dismissal in advance of the player with the most international caps, communicated to the protagonist by means of a video call, was the focus of a press conference in which Haro’s coach began tense, visibly bothered by the constant questions about Ramos, but in which he loosened up as in which the focus was shifting to his list and the multiple interpretations of it.
The new Spanish coach, with a conciliatory demeanor, kinder than Luis Enrique’s to the press but also with little filming at this level of pressure, wanted to begin his speech by thanking his coaching staff for the work in drawing up his first list. From there the flood of Ramos began and although De la Fuente tried to tackle the issue on the fast track, it was not easy for him to turn the page towards other less uncomfortable issues.
“We are not going to talk about players who are not there,” he responded forcefully to the first question. «It was a private conversation and I have a good habit of not airing private conversations. There is a new coach, with a new project, with some new ideas and who is committed to players who are who they are. We told each other what had to be said and nothing more, “he explained later, after clarifying that the contact with the man who was captain of La Roja for so many years occurred through a video call, not through a conventional call.
“Whoever says goodbye with a letter from the selection is Sergio Ramos, there is no more,” he said, to then reaffirm his authority as coach in the face of any kind of doubt, making it clear that any decision responds solely and exclusively to his criteria: “¿ Who is the maximum person in charge of the absolute selection right now? It’ll be me, it’s me.”
Little more could be obtained from the coach of Spain about that goodbye to Sergio Ramos that marked the beginning of his stage. Evasive after evasive, he weathered the storm until the questions turned to his list and the games that are to come. After a true media earthquake that has allowed him to gauge the pressure that the position implies, the grass will now mark the future of his cycle as a coach, conditioned from the start by the necessary revolution in the Spanish team after the disappointment in Qatar.
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From his first call, the commitment to greater forcefulness is striking, the one that was lacking in the decisive moments in the World Cup in Qatar. «I don’t know if there was a lack of forcefulness or not. This is what I interpret that we need. Now we have to think about Norway and these are the players that allow us more and better records, “he analyzed in relation to the shift in the central position, with the commitment to players with good passing game.
The defensive forcefulness will be very necessary in the premiere, marked by the presence of a devourer of the area like Erling Haaland in the Norwegian team. “We all know Haaland, who is one of the best strikers in the world, but we are only concerned about our players, who are fantastic,” summed up De la Fuente, questioned about the degree of concern generated by the Manchester City striker, in full effervescence after signing against Leipzig in the Champions League a goalscorer in just sixty minutes.
