“They don’t listen to us and I feel frustrated”: five responses after the Oblitas conference, the urgent changes in League 1 and the future of Reynoso

Of all the things that concern El Ciego, General Director of National Teams, messages between the lines after his press conference, these are the ones that we believe are most important to explain. Or try to do it.

In the end, again, the path is made by walking.

1. “Juan is very worried, like everyone. But I have never gotten involved in the technical part.”

What is the truth about Juan Reynoso’s continuity? Let’s go in parts. In principle, the technical command of the national team has had meetings with Agustín Lozano and Juan Carlos Oblitas to hear their first conclusions, played 4 dates of the Qualifiers. But also, about what is most important today: “support” (Oblitas dixit) a management that has not started well in results (one point out of twelve) but that is similar in statistics to the process towards Qatar 2022. “The national team coach is Juan Reynoso, and all of us who work around him have to be proactive, especially for this November date, it’s that simple”said. Reynoso will continue working obsessively to find an ideal eleven, and the best possible game plan to not lose more points and, furthermore, he will not lose an ounce of power for his requests – for example, that the main fields of Videna be for exclusive use for the adult team, to the point that the women’s team cannot train there. However, it is also true that at the end of November, before we all go on vacation, Reynoso, Oblitas and Lozano will meet to define the future of the team. Whatever happens. Win or lose. It is not very difficult to imagine what could happen if Bolivia and Venezuela leave us at the bottom of the table.

2. “I don’t want the empathy that the team had with the people to be lost.”

It is, of course, the great national drama today. Not that Polo can’t shoot the crosses that he does execute in the ‘U’, or that Zambrano gets injured, or that Paolo has pachyderm movements. The serious emotional problem, touched on at length by Oblitas in conference, is the apparent rupture of this team with its fans, not perhaps with the Feeling Blanquirrojo, La Franja or La Blanquirroja -who still grabbed stones at the Hilton in Lima and around the Peruvian concentration in Santiago-, but with the others, those who had reconciled with the team after Russia, those who had discovered with surprise how important their nationality/uniform/pyjamas; those who left the CR7 shirts and put on Cueva’s. It is curious – or sad – that it is precisely two men who suffered shrapnel in the 90s, a time in which thousands of Peruvians proudly declared themselves NEVER FANS OF THE NATIONAL TEAM, to whom it happens again. Reynoso did not measure it, and the information that DT has is that the Blind Man has made him see it, with a couple of very didactic examples. The truth is, the route is unique: people will connect if Peru wins in Bolivia and then Venezuela. Nothing else.

3. “Yes, what Ricardo said was at an inopportune moment.”

It is important that El Ciego says it, the father of the last three eliminatory processes, the brain behind Gareca and the protector – until today – of Reynoso. Because when someone suggests that Ricardo Gareca’s private conference, that proman which luckily led the team for eight years, could have been modified, revised, edited, curated, in such a way that it does not further exalt the already incendiary spirits of the fans with 5G cell phones, the faces change, they harden. It seems like an offense. An attack against their freedom of expression. Oblitas said it forcefully: “What Ricardo declared is something that he has always said. What I do believe was said at a time that was not opportune, his words were unfortunate due to the context.”, and also recalled that Ricardo “wants the best for the team.” No one but him can know. The concrete thing is that, if there was any possibility of returning to Videna for Gareca, at least under the Lozano administration, it is impossible. The questioned president of the FPF was clearer in his IG, a few days ago: “We have highly talented players and the guarantee that Juan Reynoso’s work group works tirelessly -unlike others-, thinking about the good. common to the team and the entire Federation; without superficial interests that others show and that manage to confuse public opinion, but not those of us who know the truth of things from within.” Sad that a cycle ends like this. Gareca does not return to Videna not even as a notice from Scotiabank.

4. “What Paolo did was an outburst.”

The unpublished hagiography about Paolo Guerrero has a key date: February 1985. That summer, the team was preparing to play the Qualifiers heading to Mexico and beat Bolivia 3-0 at the Nacional, with just over 14 thousand fans according to the Historical Archive of El Comercio. That’s sepia paper. The really important thing is that that afternoon, Paolo Guerrero came out as a mascot on the arm of Ciego Oblitas, in what is, according to his biographers, the first official photo of the 9 with the Peru shirt. I say this because the relationship between the two is that intimate, it is lost in time and Oblitas is precisely perhaps the only one in Videna who can sit down and talk to the striker without this meaning any break in their relationship. This Wednesday the General Director of National Teams remembered it. “I have a very good relationship with Paolo.” DT handles the information that one of the first things Oblitas will do in the coming weeks is have a meeting with Guerrero. Not only to redirect his attention to what is truly important – and not to shout against those who, as he himself says, “we have never kicked a ball” -, but because very likely, Paolo Guerrero, 39 goals with Peru, will be Gianluca’s substitute. Lapadula for the double date. There should be no spark left to make it explode.

5. “I feel frustrated with the topic. We must be careful (when speaking) because we are going to need the players from League 1. But what are we doing to improve?”

This Thursday, very early in the morning, Juan Carlos Oblitas will hold a meeting with Jesús Gonzales, manager of League 1, to resume, surely looking at the 2024 tournament, the only possible way for clubs to become institutions, their footballers They grow in a competitive environment, they are sold abroad and that money is reinvested and, at the end of the chain, more and better footballers nourish the national team. The quote has to do with a question from Jean Pierre Maraví, a DT reporter, who asked Oblitas if he believes the same as Reynoso, for whom Grimaldo and Reyna “are not even there for 60 minutes” in the Qualifiers. Without institutions with investors, with the character of an industry, the Peruvian team will continue to be what already seems like a bad joke: an island. It is, of course, the great debt of the Oblitas management, which has not been able to influence much in a competent tournament, with better schedules, fields in good condition, decent locker rooms, impeccable managers. And the eternal condemnation with which Agustín Lozano’s administration will surely end: a Peruvian football coiffure, who puts makeup on his face if he qualifies for the 2026 World Cup, but behind closed doors he has cavities, insurmountable spots and other serious health problems.