Gallardo hits back at journalist: "I know how professional I am" | OneFootball

River Plate’s coach, Marcelo Gallardo, had a controversial clash with a journalist after his team’s 0-0 draw against Vélez Sarsfield, which left his players facing a complicated outlook to qualify for the 2026 Copa Libertadores.

With that scenario, and still seething with anger, Marcelo Gallardo sat down once again at a press conference, and had a tense exchange with a journalist over a question.

“Are you really asking me that? Do you think I’m not? Do you know me? I take responsibility for the team’s performance, I’ve never come here to say otherwise,” he began.

And he went further: “But you’re not going to come here and tell me if I’m demanding enough with myself or try to create that doubt… I won’t allow it, because I know how professional I am, the standards I set for myself and for this club.”

Far from calming things down, Gallardo delved deeper into his frustration: “I know the commitment I have to myself and to the institution. That’s not up for debate. If you want to analyze the result, that’s fine. They’re negative and I accept them.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m not concerned or that I lack conviction. I won’t allow that, because it’s questioning my profession. After that, you can say a lot of things: that we’re a disaster, that we can’t string two passes together, that the team plays badly… All that is fine, I accept it. The other, I don’t.”

Finally, the coach offered some self-criticism about his team’s difficult present: “In a negative context, things don’t flow naturally, but we have to keep trying. I don’t see any other way out.”

“At some point, it will turn around, it won’t last forever. We’re going through this moment of football negativity, we have to isolate ourselves from all that and keep betting on hard work and recovering that lost memory,” he concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.