Mano’s team awaits Corinthians to negotiate a fine – 02/06/2024 – Sports

While looking for a new coach for the remainder of the season, the Corinthians board negotiates with Mano Menezes how to pay the termination fine for their now former coach.

As stipulated in the Campeonato Paulista regulations, the club will only be able to register a new professional in the competition when it “proves the discharge or formalization of a labor termination agreement for the dismissed professional”.

Neither party officially talks about the amount of the fine defined in the contract, but since Monday (5), when the commander was dismissed, there have been contacts to negotiate the best method of payment.

The contract was signed during the administration of former president Duilio Monteiro Alves, valid until 2025. According to ESPN, the contract provides for full payment of salaries until the end of this year in the event of unilateral termination during the 2024 season. currently worth around R$9 million.

President Augusto Melo, however, stated last Sunday (4), shortly after Paulista’s home defeat against Novorizontino, when he was still supporting Mano’s stay, that the value of the fine was higher than what has been speculated.

“The fine is bigger than what they are saying, but, regardless of that, we are not worried about a fine, we are worried about work”, said the agent.

In the same interview, Melo went on to say that it was necessary to give the coach “the best working conditions”, with the hiring of reinforcements to get the team out of the crisis. Since the victory in the debut of the State, against Guarani, the black and white team began a sequence of four defeats, including the first setback to rival São Paulo in Itaquera.

Mano returned to Corinthians in October 2023, when the team was eliminated by Fortaleza in the semi-finals of the Copa Sudamericana. His main mission was to avoid relegation in the Brazilian Championship, which he accomplished.

Menezes, however, was not Augusto Melo’s option to lead the team. During the election, the then opposition candidate criticized the way Duilio hired the coach, at the end of his administration and with a commitment until 2025. Augusto even released a note in which he said that the commander would not be his priority.

Before firing the coach, Melo spoke with São Bernardo’s coach, Márcio Zanardi, who worked in Corinthians’ youth teams from 2012 to 2016, when he was dismissed from the department in which he worked with Melo himself.

The agreement, which was forwarded, ended up being discarded when the current board became aware of an article in the State’s general regulations, according to which “the hiring of coaches who have already played for another club in the Campeonato Paulista for the 2024 season is prohibited”.

Other names, including foreigners, are currently being analyzed by the Corinthians board, but there is still no clear target defined.

In a statement released late this Tuesday afternoon, the club reported that Cuca’s name “is not seen as an option”. The coach had a brief spell at Parque São Jorge in 2023, but resigned after a week due to protests over his hiring.

At the time, the coach’s stay became unsustainable due to pressure from fans, especially women, outraged by the club’s stance in the face of the case of sexual violence registered against Cuca in 1987, in Switzerland, when he was still a player.

At the beginning of this year, the Swiss Court annulled the conviction, accepting the argument that he was tried without legal representation, the Brazilian was not acquitted, but the case was terminated.

Without the conviction behind his back, Cuca was once again speculated to manage Corinthians, something that the board now rejects. The statement also states that the president met with members of the club’s organizations, but to talk about the team’s current situation, without sharing “the responsibility for choosing the new coach” with the fans.

Meanwhile, the club trains under the command of Thiago Kosloski. He is the one who is taking care of the preparation for the classic against Santos, this Wednesday (7), at 7:30 pm, in Vila Belmiro, for the sixth round of the Campeonato Paulista.

The clash should mark the debut of Argentine midfielder Rodrigo Garro, 26. Signed at the beginning of January, he spent more than a month waiting for his documentation to be regularized to play. First, Corinthians delayed paying the first installment for the purchase. When payment was finally made to Talleres, the Argentine club took a long time to release the documentation.

Thus, he didn’t even play under the command of Mano Menezes, a coach with whom the Argentine said he would have liked to have worked more. “I respect the change of coach, but nobody likes the situation we are going through at the moment”, said the midfielder this Tuesday (6), when he was introduced.

Mano left Corinthians, in his third spell, with a 38% success rate — in 20 games, there were 6 wins, 5 draws and 9 defeats.