Spilled milk is not worth crying over. And the Argentine coach José Pékerman is nothing more than that: a promise that emptied into nothing. A bird of passage with a lot of experience and hierarchy in his impeccable curriculum, who can doubt it, but without the commitment or the necessary will to remove from his side any obstacle that might arise on the long road of Vinotinto to the World Cup of 2026.
Faced with the crossroads of remaining faithful to the promised word of working for the dream of qualifying the absolute national team for the first time in a Soccer World Cup or remaining faithful to Pascual Lezcano, dismissed as General Director of the national teams for alleged irregularities, Pékerman abandoned the Vinotinto ship.
But football waits for no one. It is a machine that devours coaches, regardless of their titles or reputation, and forces them to make immediate decisions, as the Board of Directors of the Venezuelan Football Federation, led by Jorge Giménez and Pedro Infante Aparicio, did.
The FVF made the most correct and exemplary decision. If Lezcano violated the rules and transparency that the new national football board wants to establish, the most sensible thing to do was to remove him from office.
He could not be complicit in any irregularity committed by the right hand of the Argentine coach. And if Pékerman was not in tune with the established rules of the game either, the best thing to do was to thank him and show him the exit door with total education.
Wasn't that precisely what was demanded of the football authorities in other times? That they not look the other way and ignore the nonsense that happened under their own noses?
Well, in the midst of all this mess, we must salute the courage of the FVF to prevent Pékerman's entourage from clouding the Vinotinto process.
The appointment of Fernando "Bocha" Batista as successor to the experienced coach seems logical in this context. Batista has a recognizable job in the minor categories of Argentina, and helped shape a good part of the generation that renewed the albiceleste that reached the title in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
With the hiring of Pékerman, the new FVF board of directors offered a long-term job focused on renewing and strengthening the minor categories, and it is precisely the main virtue of the new coach: Batista is a trainer.
There are also other factors that weighed in his appointment. One of them is that he already has 15 months of advance tactical work with the national team, since he was Pérkerman's technical assistant, so there is already a road traveled that will be very useful to face the Conmebol qualifiers.
Batista will not start from scratch, to test pieces and game systems as would have happened with any other foreign or Venezuelan coaching staff. The members of the team already know his ideas, they put them into practice and that affinity between players and coaching staff is essential to be successful.
As for Batista's inexperience in qualifying or directing teams, it is a criticism that lost its meaning with the work of Lionel Scaloni in the albiceleste. He came out world champion without having led a club or with great scrolls.
Only with his willingness to work, honesty and ambition. The same must be demanded of Batista. Effort, commitment and desire to transcend, fighting with total transparency for the dreams of Vinotinto.
The dream opportunity to transcend in South America
The economic reality of the FVF must also be analyzed to understand the appointment of Batista. The entity's resources are limited and they already have a committed work budget for the new cycle of the 2026 World Cup.
Going out to hire another Venezuelan or foreign coaching staff meant negotiating from scratch, which consumes time that Venezuela does not have, with friendly matches to play and the Conmebol tie just around the corner.
The coaching staff of the national teams had already received a year of work in advance, as Pékerman demanded to put his signature to the contract. So the FVF has no debt with Batista or with his work team.
It will be necessary to discuss, of course, the fringes of the contract for four years and establish new conditions, because it will not be Pékerman and his prestige that will lead. For Batista it is the dream opportunity.
He is moved by the desire to leave a mark; that fire and intensity that the autumnal Pékerman already lacked.
The ideas in Maurice Revello must be replicated in the absolute
In football, it must be recognized that Batista was the only member of Pékerman's coaching staff who showed satisfactory results in these 15 months. He was responsible for coaching the under-23 team in the Maurice Revello tournament in France. There was a team with polished ideas that reached the final.
It is true that the Revello is an invitational tournament that does not have the requirement of a South American, but more than the victories, what is worth highlighting is the path to reach them. Venezuela came out with the ball dominated from the bottom, without appealing to the long passes or the repeated centers that Fabricio Coloccini used in the Sub-20.
There were touches and passes in the middle of the field and creative plays to reach the goal with talented soccer players with a future in the national team such as Yerson Chacón and Telasco Segovia, chosen the Most Valuable in that competition.
Batista must replicate these ideas in the older Vinotinto, to give it a style, a way of facing rivals with an appetizing proposal.
... without words, surely he saw that the federation is as mediocre as the criminals who fobiernan that he better left!!!