The albos are in their third day of preseason and all the players that the coach has been requesting since November have not yet arrived. In turn, they were not able to sustain the base of the squad that won the title and the friendlies are not closed either.
Colo Colo celebrates its third day of preseason in Argentina, where the focus will be on the physical strengthening of its players to face a year full of challenges. They will remain on the other side of the mountain range until January 14. and a day later they will have their first official match against Magallanes for the Super Cup.
However, these works do not have the tranquility desired by Gustavo Quinterossince the squad is still not completed, despite the fact that the coach submitted their applications in November when the albos lifted the National Championship title. The leadership did not take advantage of the time to incorporate the requested reinforcements, despite having a larger box than in previous years.
Underpowered squad?
Alfredo Stöhwing, president of Blanco y Negro made a curious reflection regarding the formation of the team. “There are periods when players leave for different reasons, sometimes they get together like now, but four top-level footballers have arrived (Fernando De Paul, Matías Moya, Ramiro González and Erick Wiemberg) and a youth like Felipe Yáñez joined, that is, there are five. I don’t feel like we’re depotentiating. Our period of reinforcements has not ended and we continue working to be better than 2022 “, she stated at a press conference.
Despite the words of the concessionaire’s helmsman, it is evident that the team is less than the one that won the title, since they lost four starters and none of those who arrived fill their gapsexcept Wiemberg. Besides, they did not fulfill the promise to Quinteros to have the campus closed before starting the preseasonsince the second one is still missing center forward (who will be Leandro Benegas), the right back and the foreign winger.
To this is added the situation of Juan Martín Lucero, whose departure will force him to go back to the market to look for a replacement. However, it will not be easy to fill that position, since He contributed the goalscoring quota that he suffered for years in the Cacique and the players of his quality have a valid contract with their clubsso the club must make a significant investment in four pieces that DT is missing.
But the assembly of the squad is not the only thing that concerns Gustavo Quinteros. El Popular still has not managed to close the friendly pre-season matches that the strategist expected, and his concern is to know how fast his team will arrive at the duel with Magallanes on January 15.
Despite the fact that confrontations against Boca Juniors and Independiente, these are almost ruled out because the planning of the trans-Andean clubs does not coincide with that of the albos. For this reason, in the leadership they work against time to close a duel with Racing.
Colo Colo is against time to close its squad and also its preparation, all this facing a season in which they must revalidate the title and play the preliminary phase of the Copa Libertadores. A very different scenario from that experienced just a year ago, when They arrived at their preseason with all their reinforcements, renewals and matches with Boca Juniors, Estudiantes de La Plata and Universidad de Chile.
