Thread by @shaunjlawson

THREAD: Oscar Washington Tabarez. And me.

One of my running themes on here is how profoundly contradictory Uruguay truly is. Here's another example. Oscar Tabarez is the biggest single reason I live here. Yes, really!

Yet I've also been desperate for him to go for 9 years now.

The reason I live in Uruguay is because I fell in love with their national team at Wembley in May 1990.

A game I went to anticipating 1986-style thuggery; yet watched utterly enthralled by the sheer gentleness of Uruguay's play. It was like football from another age.

I wasn't even 12 yet, but was already obsessed with football and unusually observant and analytical. I felt like I was watching a team from the 1950s; it was unique, different. Special.

And the reason for their play was, 100%, Tabarez. Back then, an aesthete. An idealist.

When he got the job in 1988, his aim wasn't to win the World Cup.

It was to redeem the image of Uruguayan football - which had been devastated, destroyed, by a first class bunch of arseholes in Mexico. Truly, they were an absolute disgrace.

Here's how said arseholes behaved v the hosts IN A PRE-TOURNAMENT FRIENDLY FOR GOD'S SAKE.

And once the finals began, all the pressure of defending Uruguay - who once led the world in the 1920s, 1930 and 1950 -'s lost footballing prestige manifested itself in horrendous thuggery.

Challenges in which they tried to kick German opponents' heads off in the first game.

An ugly sending off followed by total humiliation in the second game: lost 6-1 to fabulous Danish dynamite.

A sending off IN THE VERY FIRST MINUTE v Scotland in the third game. Following which, it was kick anything that moved for 89 minutes.

Scotland had to win; Uruguay only needed a draw.

And the referee, clearly terrified of provoking an international incident (when he walked down the tunnel at half time, baying Uruguayan mobs were trying to attack him), completely bottled it.

Uruguay were allowed to get away with more or less anything at all. Including chronic timewasting - which resulted in virtually no stoppage time whatever.

The British audience watching on were disgusted. And remember: the only reason anyone had heard of Uruguay was football.

It's this very point, in fact, which had caused such behaviour in the first place... because without football, where would Uruguay be? It was its pride and joy, the only thing it had left, which had to be defended at all costs.

Argentina headed down an identical path in 1990.

But Scotland v Uruguay 1986 remains, to this very day, why so many British football fans and pundits have such disdain for La Celeste. The scars were burnished onto their brains forever.

But while Omar Borras, the disgraced coach, who'd only got the job because he'd been a supporter of the military dictatorship here, was made to feel about as welcome as Hitler when he returned home, Tabarez was also disgusted.

This wasn't football, he reasoned. It was betrayal.

Betrayal of a glorious tradition in which Uruguay had practically invented modern football and wowed the world with their balletic play in 1924; and won in 1950 by out-footballing hosts Brazil with brilliantly daring play. Brazil committed 21 fouls that famous day; Uruguay, 11.

And in which Uruguay played the Magic Magyars to a standstill in the 1954 semi-final: probably the greatest international match ever played.

In which both sides, with maximum respect for each other, attacked non-stop, from end to end, with scarcely a foul between them.

The sheer spirit that match was played in was what took it to such an extraordinarily exalted level.

Yet ever since, as the world caught Uruguay up and left it trailing, poverty of spirit had taken over instead: in the 1960s domestically, and in '66, '74 and '86 internationally

Tabarez' task was to change all of this. To finally get his team playing cleanly and attractively. And for the most part, he managed it too.

But watching on at Italia 90, the way in which they were simply weighed down by expectation was horribly apparent.

Uruguay had won in 1930 and 1950 and been semi-finalists in 1970. Therefore the public, a nation of just 3 million people, demanded at least another semi-final in 1990, if not winning the whole damn thing.

Before Italia 90, Gallup conducted a survey in all 24 competing nations.

It wanted to find the difference between what fans thought of their own country's chances... and that of everyone else.

Spain finished 2nd in that survey: its public overrated their chances compared with everyone else by 6 times.

Uruguay finished top. Its public overrated their chances by FORTY-NINE TIMES.

It was a talented squad, no doubt. Which prior to the tournament, won that night at Wembley and drew 3-3 in a marvellous game in Germany. But it wasn't all *that*. Last 16 elimination was most likely.

Which was what happened - but only after Uruguay imploded emotionally after Ruben Sosa notoriously ballooned a penalty v Spain over the bar.

And as Tabarez cleaned up their act, the edge, the devil, the X-factor, went out of their play. He'd actually gone too far.

He himself was a minute from being greeted with rotten tomatoes at Carrasco Airport before an offside Daniel Fonseca goal won Uruguay's only match at any World Cup Finals for fully 40 years (1970-2010); the public would not miss him at all.

But then, the public started to change

Because what followed - failure to qualify after finishing behind Bolivia (!) for 1994; a miserable, appalling effort in the 1998 qualifiers; two-and-a-half inept, cowardly displays at the 2002 finals, then elimination by Australia (!!) from 2006 - HAD to change public views.

Now, far fewer people could even remember 1950. Now, finally, the time was right for the team to re-emerge amid practically no expectations.

Tabarez, just like Gareth Southgate has done, took history and harnessed it to his nation's benefit. It now propelled his players onward.

But only after, mind you, a period of real crisis during qualifying, and two extraordinary wins: one at home to Colombia with their backs to the wall... and the second in Ecuador. Where everything truly changed in, quite frankly, miraculous fashion.

Uruguay travelled to Quito knowing if they lost, they were out - and a draw might not be enough either. But away to Ecuador - and hence, altitude - requires patience, discipline, control. And absolutely not losing the first goal.

Into the second half, the hosts got that goal.

Their fans went wild. Deliriously so. Arrogantly so. They all assumed they were through to a third successive World Cup Finals.

But as they stood in the centre circle, I saw something in Suarez and Forlan's eyes that I'd never seen before in any football match ever.

A look that said: "We're going to go straight down the other end of the pitch and equalise. Immediately".

I KNEW that was what they'd do, just from that look. And it's exactly what they did. THAT was La Garra Charrua.

Then, in the frantic beyond belief final moments, Ecuador had a very good penalty claim waved away... and Cavani raced away on the break, only to be brought down. Penalty.

Forlan, with the entire nation on his shoulders, converted magnificently. Victory from absolutely nowhere.

That match, that apparent miracle, set in motion everything that followed: via a heartstopping playoff and all sorts of shenanigans from the Uruguayan TV crew v Costa Rica, on they went to South Africa.

Where they were supposed to be just making up the numbers.

Instead, because France and England were both in absolute shambles, their second match, an excellent 3-0 win v the hosts, signposted the prospect of something astonishing.

40 years on from their last, with nothing achieved at any World Cup since, the chance of making the semis.

They beat Mexico. They beat South Korea. And then they faced, in effect, their second host nation of the tournament: the de facto hosts, Ghana, who only the entire world were cheering on in the quest to become Africa's first ever semi-finalists.

I always thought it'd go to pens.

But I never thought, not for one moment, that it'd provide far and away the most dramatic moment of that or many World Cups in the dying seconds of extra time.

1. The appalling referee awarded Ghana one of the most ridiculous free kicks I'd ever seen.

2. Two Ghanaian players were offside during the subsequent move.

3. Muslera flapped at it haplessly.

4. Suarez cleared it off the line with his hands. Penalty.

If I were ever to write a book about Uruguayan football, I'd start it by interviewing as many fans and former players as possible about what they felt during the mere 45 seconds between the penalty being awarded and Gyan hitting the bar.

I do not believe any other country has ever experienced such a wildly emotional moodswing in such a tiny space of time. The sheer shock when Gyan missed could've been measured on the Richter scale.

Ghana were never going to come back from that. No team could.

They had their chance; they blew it. But afterwards, they whined, whined and whined some more. They'd been 'cheated'. It was 'racist robbery'. 🙄🙄🙄

Compare and contrast their reaction now to THAT ridiculous penalty v South Africa with their never-ending bleating back then.

Uruguay had been the second most fouled against side at the tournament. They were on the wrong side of an egregiously biased ref all night long. They'd faced down the whole world and won.

And what did they get? Disdain. Scorn. Hatred even.

When England beat Portugal in the 1966 semi-finals, Jack Charlton handled on the line to stop a Portuguese goal. He became a national hero.

When Scotland played Holland at Euro 96, John Collins did the same. And helped his side to a memorable draw.

Sosa's missed spot kick in 1990 in fact emanated from Francisco Villarroya handling on the line to stop a certain Uruguayan goal.

Yet there were no accusations of "cheat! Disgrace! Should be kicked out of the sport!" when any of the above happened. Nor any red cards.

All this time, the Netherlands sycythed their way through the tournament with probably the most cynical, nastiest side any major nation has ever assembled.

But the entire world didn't notice - because it was the Dutch. 'Total football'. In practice, it was total thuggery.

Never have the watching football world's prejudices, preconceptions and general bullshit been more exposed than in how it condemned Uruguay, who'd played very cleanly through the whole event; and lauded wildly over-physical, cynical Ghana and the quite deplorable Dutch.

It finally woke up in the final. But only because the Netherlands were playing another European side. Their behaviour v Brazil and Uruguay was outright ignored.

There was even a nailed on red card by Van Bommel in the build-up to the BBC's idea of the Goal of the Tournament!

Uruguay, though, could be proud. Enormously proud. Back home, the people couldn't believe their eyes.

And most wonderfully of all, after decades of feeling like the players only cared for their pay packets, they reconnected entirely with the team. The bond had become total.

That emotional reconnection was Tabarez' greatest achievement.

It drove his players on to a stunning 15th Copa America title, achieved by thrashing Paraguay 3-0 in the final, and via my favourite Uruguay match ever. Against hosts Argentina in the quarter-finals.

As against Ghana, it was 1-1. As against Ghana, it went to penalties. As against Ghana, the world was against Uruguay, who went down to 10 men midway through the first half.

And if they hadn't beaten Ghana in such a way, they surely wouldn't have beaten Argentina either.

Tabarez bestrode the entire competition like a colossus. His tactical changes at half time v Argentina weren't just brilliant; they exposed the home side, mismanaged beyond belief by Sergio Batista, utterly.

I spent extra time that night physically shaking, so awestruck was I.

That was how emotionally engrossed I was.

I'd actually prayed to God before extra time v Ghana, before letting out the most guttural roar of my life when Gyan missed; it must've woken up the entire street!

Now, against Argentina, I *felt* it even more than ever before.

Uruguay actually rose to world number 2 in the aftermath of that tournament. Unthinkable!

But now Tabarez needed to renew. Needed to replace the ageing, declining three Diegos: Lugano, Forlan and Perez. And he just wouldn't.

More powerful and beloved than any Uruguay manager in history, El Maestro was untouchable, and the public were living a dream.

The problem was that they never let go of that dream, even as results and especially performances went into reverse.

Uruguay might well be the most nostalgic country on planet Earth. There's even a Bank Holiday here called 'La noche de la nostalgia', when families go out, listen to music from the 70s and 80s, and reminisce.

Before Tabarez was reappointed in 2006, all Uruguayan football was involved looking back.

Through a constantly self-reinforcing narrative of bathos and melodrama which paralleled Uruguayan society as a whole and said:

"All we have is the past! We have no future!"

Every defeat for the national team was treated as further evidence of that narrative - that nothing could ever live up to the glorious past.

When Uruguay had been the 'Switzerland of Latin America', rich and thriving, and its football team had dominated the world.

Tabarez first changed that utterly... then fell into exactly the same trap. As did the people.

Who couldn't bear the thought of their heroes retiring from the team; so those heroes, the Three Diegos, were indulged. Egregiously so.

The only reason Uruguay beat the poorest England side ever to go to a World Cup was that Lugano was injured before the game. Tabarez was never going to drop him, despite him looking like he was wading through treacle.

The only reason Uruguay also beat Italy? Well, two reasons:

1. Italy were given the draw from hell by a corrupt beyond belief FIFA: which left them with three games one after another in horrendous conditions.

Almost every side which played in Manaus lost their next match; England and Italy had a lot of company on that.

But at least England and Uruguay got to meet each other in cool, almost winter-like conditions in Sao Paulo.

After Manaus, and the worst humidity in any World Cup ever, Italy were given... two ovens in the middle of the day. So they went under.

But only after:

2. Suarez' bite - which disoriented Italy over the following few minutes every bit as much as Maradona's handball had done to the English defence 28 years earlier.

Uruguay won BECAUSE of that bite. It'd have finished 0-0 otherwise.

But now came the flipside of that incredible emotional connection I mentioned. With Suarez rightly kicked out of the tournament, the public felt like it was collectively being attacked.

So it supported its national hero - and for several days, embarrassed itself totally.

I understood *why* it reacted in such a way. It's what happens when "other countries have their history, Uruguay has its football". It all mattered too plain much.

But I couldn't agree with them, and said so on the BBC and CNN, who'd both employed me as crack Uruguay analyst.

More to the point, the team was old. Tired. As was its manager. I'd expected him to stand down at the end of that World Cup.

I was shocked when he didn't, and gobsmacked when he still didn't after a poor, negative showing and more media-led distraction in Chile in 2015.

Just what, I wondered, was going on here? Why was he now being treated like some sort of God? Why was he still picking laughably over the hill players whose clubs weren't even selecting them - and why was he constantly blocking young players too?

In the United States in 2016, it got even worse. Thousands of US-based Uruguayans at last had the chance to see their country in action. They were rewarded by a ludicrously geriatric side giving three desultory displays under a coach now too ill to give proper instructions.

What help could he possibly be giving them, I asked @AdamBrandon84 and @JessieLosch on a podcast they may recall. "Are you kidding me? He can hardly move his mouth! He should not be in this job. Period".

But in the job, a now partially paralysed Tabarez remained.

On the one hand, you had to admire this. Even Guillain-Barre syndrome would not stop him continuing to lead his country.

But on the other: how much coaching could he actually do now? How much scouting could he do? How could he now match the best coaches in the world?

He took La Celeste to another World Cup, his fourth in total, and to the quarter-finals in the end. Via an epic, vivid beyond imagination elimination of Ronaldo's Portugal which only ranks below Argentina and Ghana in my list of Uruguay's greatest ever games in the modern era.

But this owed much more to Cavani, Suarez to an extent, and an extraordinarily gifted new generation of technically accomplished midfielders than to Tabarez: who I felt completely undermined his team with his overly rigid 4-4-2 and wild over-conservatism.

I'd even argue that it was done *in spite of him*. Confirmed when he had no response at all to Suarez' suspension in 2014 - and when he replaced the stricken Edi Cavani in 2018 with the ludicrously inadequate Christian Stuani.

Because he'd left Fede Valverde at home.

There was no plan there. No preparations for easily foreseeable potential setbacks.

Tabarez' much-vaunted 'El Proceso' amounted to the following:

- 2014: Suarez plus ten others

- 2018: Cavani plus ten others

They went down to France in the last eight while daring nothing.

By this point:

- He hadn't walked away during a shambolic collapse in the 2014 qualifiers, which he certainly could've done

- He hadn't gone after the 2014 World Cup

- He hadn't gone after the 2015 or 2016 Copas America

- He hadn't gone despite his awful health

- He STILL wouldn't go now - and laughably, the entire political establishment, right and left, lined up to support him and give him a big, fat new deal.

Serious footballing nations do not act in such a way. Do not retain as national team manager someone who can barely even walk

This was the last point when he could, and bloody well should, have walked away with reputation and dignity firmly attached.

"Thanks for everything Maestro, you are a true hero and legend. But it's time to move on now, and for you to focus on your health".

Instead, absurdly, Uruguay now began trying to change their style of play under a coach who DOES NOT KNOW how to oversee such a style.

Kinda like when Chelsea and Man Utd wanted an attacking, great to watch long term plan... so gave the job to Jose Mourinho. 🤡

And that big, fat contract he'd again been handed meant he wasn't ever going to be fired after failure at the 2019 Copa America... and he STILL wasn't fired after more failure at this year's edition.

Which made it four failed Copas on the bounce under this apparent immortal.

During the Copa and afterwards, the players didn't have a clue what they were supposed to be doing - because nobody was telling them.

You think Tabarez somehow was, from his seat while murmuring to himself like someone with dementia? Gimme a break.

Results and performances collapsed; the AUF seemed about to dismiss him. Then incomprehensibly, in the most ludicrous example of Stockholm Syndrome yet, pulled back: now NINE YEARS after it should've first got rid, and at least 3 years after his side had done anything at all.

The chaos that weekend played itself out in the media. It will, I've no doubt, have put further doubt in the minds of the players: all of whom knew they'd be instantly ostracised if they didn't publicly back their beyond clueless, beyond past it manager to the hilt.

The two further defeats which followed were inevitable.

As, I'd argue, was Tabarez' shameful, disgraceful, so arrogant it was unbelievable press conference which finally sealed his fate: where he complained about anyone expecting better, and focused once more on the past.

When someone is surrounded by a bunch of apologists who sit at their feet licking furiously for years, they end up thinking they're some sort of unparalled genius. They end up believing they're God - and that anyone who thinks otherwise is a traitor.

THAT's what was exposed on Tuesday.

A man who'd long since refused to take live questions from any Uruguayan journalist; who implored everyone else to be 'humble' while being paid a king's ransom to sit on his backside; a man who thought he was bigger than his country itself.

A man who, lest we forget, cheated on his wife, lied about it under oath, and as a result, got an innocent woman - who he'd merrily cheated with - sent to jail for a year.

He thought he was untouchable because he WAS untouchable. Or certainly, treated as such.

And you know what's so sad about this? He could've walked away at the top as a hero. With applause and gratitude ringing in his ears forever.

Not with the sheer unadulterated relief that so many feel now.

Oscar Washington Tabarez did an absolutely fantastic job until 2011.

He put this country right back on the map; he created a whole new vision of what Uruguay could achieve on the global stage; he redefined La Garra Charrua and brought it completely up to date.

But he also wasted, wantonly, a wondrously gifted group of players.

Who ply their trade for clubs like Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Juventus, other leading European clubs very recently too... yet under him, have looked like carthorses. Donkeys.

Look at where Uruguay, with their players, are in the table - then look at Ecuador, Peru or even Bolivia.

The latter are one solitary point behind La Celeste after 14 games, over 75% of the campaign completed - yet who do they have? Nobody.

It is the most savage indictment.

An indictment of someone who ceased even communicating with his players 6 months ago. And who has savaged his team's chances of reaching Qatar.

Who the AUF next appoint will be highly instructive. It must be someone positive and progressive, or else.

But at least Uruguay have some sort of chance now. Under their dinosaur of an ex-manager (El Estegosaurio, as I referred to him), they had none at all.

It's all been the most almighty, needless waste. But at last, we can move on. And at last, you can all go to sleep too! 😴

@nicolasalpuin @Zurda_de_Recoba @vinaalessandro1 @marc_cart @Tim_Vickery @jonawils @DanEdwardsGoal @BarefootLady @elsharpo @UruguayHeroes @UruguayFootENG @Nathy9999 @Referiuy @Ovaciondigital @ignaciochans @ladiaria @ObservadorUY

#Tabarez #TabarezNoSeVa #AUF #Uruguay #celeste

Some of the above may remind you of the chats you had about Uruguay and Argentina with Rafael Bayce, @PeteDavies2006. He was spot on!