According to the reporter of Mehr, Esteghlal football team in the 28th week of the premier league yesterday ended with a 1-1 draw against Sanat Naft Abadan, so that Esteghlal lost a good chance to remain in the championship course.
In the last minutes of the game, Ricardo Sapinto got into a fight with the members of the Naft technical staff and even used bad words in the press conference in response to the words of the head coach of Sanat Naft, Abdallah Veisi.
Regarding his assessment of Sapinto’s performance in this team, former Esteghlal striker Seyed Mehdi Seyed Salehi said: It takes time for foreign coaches to get to know the league and the players. Sapinto took over a team that had won the championship of Iran without losing. It was very heavy and maybe many Iranian coaches did not accept to replace Farhad Majidi because it was a challenge and the goal was to become a champion.
Seyed Salehi continued: Esteghlal was on course for the championship, but could not get acceptable results against big teams like Sepahan and Persepolis. This team lost to Sepahan, tied in the first leg and lost the second leg. Statistically, Esteghlal did not spend less and did not bring less players.
The former striker of Esteghlal answered the question that if he was the CEO of Esteghlal, would he have extended Sapinto’s contract? He said: I will renew with Sapintoui if he corrects his behavior. It’s good to have energy on the ground, but sometimes it causes terrible stress to the team. Khosro Heydari is one of the great players of Esteghlal, but they should put a more experienced person next to Sapinto to manage him. When the coach gets involved on the sideline, his tactical mentality is disturbed. This conflict causes the same aggressiveness of Sapinto to go to the field and hit the players.
Seyed Salehi noted: Sapinto is naturally like this and very lively. This is his character, but he has to control some of his frenzy. Sapinto has gained recognition in his first year and can be given time. Although he had some moves that were not customary and worthy of a big team.