Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has opened up about the sudden exit of his assistant coach Sergio Almenara, saying he knew about it for a while already.
Almenara opted to leave the club by mutual consent two days after aiding Riveiro and the Pirates squad to overcome Mamelodi Sundowns to claim their second Nedbank Cup title in as many seasons. He joined the club in July 2022 from FC Inter Turku in Finland’s First Tier.
“It’s something that I knew since about five, six months ago, “Riveiro said on Thabiso Mosia’s Game On show on Radio 2000.
“It belongs to his personal space first of all. The only thing I can say is that he was exceptionally good for the institution during these two years.
“Tireless worker everyday and massive contribution towards the things we were achieving during these two years together. Personally, myself the last five years working together, every single day, so we have, you can imagine we are much more than colleagues, we are family.
“So it’s difficult for me from now to imagine my future without Sergio [Almenara], but I totally understand the reasons behind that and I’m fully supporting him, and who knows, maybe in the near future we will work together again, but now my time continue here in [Orlando] Pirates and we will find solutions. It’s not gonna be a problem.”
Despite fears that coach Jose might follow Almenara considering their working partnership over the years, the Spanish mentor assured the Pirates faithful that his work with the club is far from being done.
“Jah! We have still a lot of things to do and to achieve together and it’s where our mind is.”
In terms of searching for Almenara’s assistant, Riveiro said they would widen their net in getting the best possible candidate for the post.
“More than an assistant coach. We looking for improve the coaching staff…. It’s a permanently chasing possibilities to increase our probabilities to succeed,” he added.
“Usually, we used to go with the focus maybe too much in the players’ squad, but I think nowadays – how strong is the coaching staff and people who is supporting our players to be better. Day after day it becomes even more relevant and it’s where our focus is in many different positions.
“Yes, no reason to limit ourselves to one country, or two or three.”
In closing, when quizzed on how much of a role he would play in the decision-making of appointing a new assistant, Riveiro said.
“Yeah, obviously my opinion and you know my thoughts are relevant in this type of decisions because in the end it’s gonna be my responsibility to make sure that everything is working well,” he added.
“Like I said, the role distribution in the coaching staff – the cohesion of that coaching staff. It’s gonna be a mirror for our players, so it’s very, very important that we manage to create a solid group to support our players and to lead them you know with our example.”
After Almenara’s exit, Pirates also confirmed the exit of attacking duo Souaibou Marou and Fortune Makaringe.
