River Plate president Stefano Di Carlo confirmed that Eduardo Coudet is the new head coach of the first team and will be officially announced this Wednesday around noon. The leader, elected last November, confirmed the former Racing coach as Marcelo Gallardo's successor in a television interview, as reported by Noticias Argentinas a few days ago. "It is confirmed and tomorrow we will be making the official announcement. If all operational details go well, it will be around noon," said the executive. "Two days after Gallardo's departure, we started talking to Enzo (Francescoli) about what to do. He is the most relevant man in River's history, he called me and told me he did not want to continue," he added. Regarding the fans' anger with the team's current situation, the president commented: "In my childhood I was hostile to players and others, and being in this position, I understand where I come from. It's over, now a new stage begins tomorrow and there I ask the River fan for an understanding that, beyond the nuances or opinions on each member of the squad, they are our players, they are River." In that exercise we were doing, Enzo made an analysis with certain guidelines that the new coach had to fit into, and the first was that he be someone from the house, as the club's history dictates. From there, a finer selection process was set up in which other criteria such as experience were sought, and in that, 'Chacho' (Coudet) had the additional bonus of having won a championship in Argentina with what that means. We were making revisions around the decisions that were being made in this second stage and, making those corrections, we prepared for this start of the year in accordance with everything we had planned to do. The things did not happen, but that does not take away the relevance of Marcelo, his transcendence for the history. The situation is complex, one we are not used to, which we do not like and which generates a lot of frustration but we cannot turn it into something chronic. It was evident that it was going to happen.
