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Marcelo Espina officially took over as sports manager of Colo Colo on August 1, 2018. He remained there until Saturday, when he resigned because he felt that “I did not have the tranquility and confidence necessary to carry out the work entrusted”, after two years and four months in office and under one of the worst crisis in the club’s history. He did it two hours before the Cacique faced Unión Española and won 1-2 in Santa Laura, a shakedown that shook the coaching staff more than the players themselves.
The former captain and coach of the albos prevailed over Sebastián González in the election for the position carried out by the Blanco y Negro board, which at that time was headed by Gabriel Ruiz Tagle. The management of Cabezón began with some problems, especially with Aníbal Mosa, the main shareholder, who did not hesitate to criticize his work. “Bryan (Carvallo) was given away. 600 thousand dollars for a player like him is a gift, “he said. “Ruiz Tagle and Espina do it very badly … They don’t know how to negotiate. What they say, they accept. What about Espina who is unable to send us an email? “he told AS in September of that year. However, that relationship had to improve after the Syrian merchant recovered the head of the corporation.
The trans-Andean arrived with the mission of renovating the squad and that cost him the immediate distance from several more experienced players. Above all, after he began to take the first measures. One of the first victims was Gonzalo Fierro. As well Hector Tapia, the DT, who took Colo Colo to the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores for the first time in more than 20 years, but who had a terrible streak in the National Tournament, which prevented his contract from being renewed. Lucas Barrios, one of the great names of the second half of that year, and Damián Pérez resigned after a few months. The first alleged dressing room situations that did not seem to him, while the second wielded personal reasons for leaving.
The departure of Tito Tapia forced the search for a replacement who would fill the taste of all the directors of the dealership. Thus, Mario Salas was approached by Espina and the members approved it by acclamation, convinced that the Commander would repeat the titles he obtained with Universidad Católica and, above all, what was done that year at Sporting Cristal, where he won all possible crowns. The strategist maintained a great friendship with Espina, since they were teammates and even shared a coaching staff. However, during the year again there were many problems. Viñamarino’s questionable handling of soft skills cost him a very distant relationship with the players, which led to the departure of Agustín Orión, and a very bad run immediately after that episode. In terms of football, the team never found a game idea and the “opportunities for improvement” never came. Also, the fire of the referents grew. The departure of Jaime Valdés and Jorge Valdivia meant the former Argentine national team to win new enemies. Anyway, Likewise, Esteban Paredes, Juan Manuel Insaurralde and Julio Barroso were renewed, which was somewhat contradicted by the locker room rejuvenation speech.
Parallel, Espina set up a technical office (with professionals of all kinds) and wanted to launch Project 60-40, which in the medium term sought for the team to be made up of 60% players from the minor divisions and 40% reinforcements . For this, the structure of the minor series was renewed and he was hired Ariel Paolorossi, with extensive experience in training work and responsible for the successful quarry in Lanús. However, as of today, there is not a great advance in this matter.
In terms of reinforcements, the sports manager got the arrival of interesting names on paper, but in practice they did not yield. Thus arrived Ronald de la Fuente, Javier Parraguez, Gabriel Costa, Leonardo Valencia and Nicolás Blandi, players who came from good performances and for whom a lot of money was disbursed, but their contribution has been quite questionable. There were also cases like that of Juan Carlos Gaete, in which Espina is blamed for not verifying the psychological aspects of the player, and Nicolás Díaz, of whom the board was informed that his hiring was closed and finally ended up in Mexico at the request of Pablo Guede. Others did perform better, such as Pablo Mouche (especially in his first year), Iván Rossi, Maximiliano Falcón and, in a way, César Fuentes.
Regarding sales, the transfers of Claudio Baeza and Esteban Pavez (although the latter is attributed by Harold Mayne-Nicholls) left significant amounts of money (US $ 3.5 million and US $ 2.1 million respectively). However, this season the albos have not been able to complete any business, which had a negative impact on the financial balance sheets of the corporation.
Internally and publicly, Espina was criticized a lot for the secrecy that he tried to transfer to the various communicational efforts. Thus, citations and medical reports were delayed in excess, all in a joint and very close work with Know How Chile, Juan Carvajal’s consulting company, and which has been the voice in the ears of Mosa and Mayne-Nicholls during their period. in the Cacique. Everything goes through the consulting firm. From conferences or interviews (in which more than once the role of the players has been pointed out) to such questionable decisions like posting a photo of the president, vice president and sports manager traveling to Brazil to bring Luiz Felipe Scolari, who would finally end up slamming the door in their faces.
After the leaks of a sector of the directory, in which the Cabezón was entrusted with the responsibility in the transfer of the campus to Unemployment Insurance, when in fact the determination was made by the leadership and QRF, the law firm that advises them. That is why the now former sports manager categorically ruled out being involved in that idea. “What I will not assume are responsibilities for events outside my function. I have never meddled in the economic issues of the board of directors, in relation to payment to players, which did not happen in this year 2020 ″he noted in his farewell letter.
And although Espina was not actually related to the decision to send footballers to the Employment Protection Law and, even, his salary was cut in half, his passive position on what was happening administratively is questioned, both on that issue as on Matías Zaldivia’s, which could have been a good opportunity to get closer to the players. Although he was later recognized on the campus as a mediator to try to reach agreements, especially after Mayne-Nicholls became a person very little loved by the group after his role in the negotiations to achieve a salary reduction.
One of the last events that bothered Espina was the return of Jorge Valdivia. The Magician was yelling after not renewing and the sports manager was also the recipient of the steering wheel’s fury, who even sued Colo Colo. However, Mosa made a clean slate and decided the return of the World Cup, in a desperate determination before the crisis of the club.
El Cabezón without the confidence and disappointed by some members of the closest environment that accompanied him in the current helmsman’s period, decided to sign his departure from the club after 864 days of more shadows than lights, an exit that seems to be more effective than effective, since whatever happens, the organizational structure will undergo changes.
