“They (Newell’s Old Boys) had a very good school of football in a city that maintains a relationship that is clearly exaggerated with the sport and in a zone that is a gigantic field for football. I would come out of my house to find a football field of one thousand squared kilometers: a plain that was only interrupted by a cow or some tree, everything else was a football field.
It was a zone that had good nourishment, which also counts, because there are other more deprived areas where the problem with nutrition doesn’t favor the rise of great footballers. I believe what was essential is that it was a school of football created and projected by Jorge Griffa one of the gurus of formation in Argentina which has situated Newell’s in a place of honor in the projection of players.
That ended when Griffa left. In the last years there has been some authentic perversions. For example the barras bravas (rowdy supporter groups) own players from the youth teams. Just by mentioning that we are speaking about the poor ethic in which the club had fallen into, happily recovered under new management.
Like Alfredo Di Stefano always said ‘to destroy all you need is a hammer but to create you need intelligence and effort.’ The hammering was very rough and now it will take time to recover.”