Sacked after an 8-0 win? The curious case of Filipe Luís and Flamengo
In today’s Football Daily: Tough treatment of the Do One variety
A HARSH WAY TO (FLAMEN)GO
In 2021, during a wide-ranging interview with the Guardian, Flamengo’s veteran defender Filipe Luís described his employers as “probably the most demanding club on earth”. In the early hours on Tuesday, he dropped the probably. Filipe Luís, by now the highly successful manager of Flamengo, had just watched his team win 8 [E-I-G-H-T – Football Daily Vidiprinter] -0 against Madureira to reach another Campeonato Carioca final. Despite that, and the fact he won seven [S-E-V-E-N – FDV] different competitions in 18 months at the club, he was unceremoniously bundled through the door marked Do One. “Clube de Regatas do Flamengo informs that Filipe Luís will no longer be in charge of the professional team,” began an official statement that put the “tory” in “perfunctory”. “Flamengo thanks former player and coach Filipe Luís for everything that was achieved and shared during this journey. The club wishes him success and the best of luck in the continuation of his professional career.”
A manager getting this treatment after a huge win is not intrinsically absurd – think San Marino 1-7 England in 1993, or that time on Champo 01-02 when Football Daily beat Woking 17-0 in the FA Cup to end a run of 471 consecutive defeats – but this particular case feels pretty egregious. It’s less than two months since Filipe Luís, aged 40 and regarded as one of the world’s best young managers, was on the shortlist to replace Enzo Maresca at Chelsea. In November, Flamengo beat Palmeiras in the Copa Libertadores final to become champions of South America. In December they won the Brazilian title and took Paris Saint-Germain to penalties in the Intercontinental Cup final, the closest a South American team has come to winning it since 2012.
Filipe Luís set the bar so high that defeats in less important competitions went down like flatulence in a lead balloon. In February, Flamengo lost the Supercopa do Brasil and Recopa Sudamericana; they also lost their first league games and three matches in the Campeonato Carioca. But they are still emphatically in both those competitions, and beat Madureira 11-0 on aggregate in the Carioca semi-finals. On Sunday, they will play their great rivals Fluminense in the final; victory would have given Filipe Luís his eighth trophy in 101 games as Flamengo manager. As many have observed, it’s akin to an English club sacking a manager who won the Premier League and Bigger Cup but lost the Community Shield and Super Cup at the start of the following season and was gone by the end of August.
You’ll be disgusted to hear that Football Daily has not watched every minute of Flamengo’s last 100 games, so we’re not exactly secreting theories as to why Filipe Luís was sacked. The most obvious is an old favourite, that the entire world has lost the noggin. The Flamengo chief suit, Luiz Eduardo Baptista – aka “Bap”, and no, a 65-year-old really shouldn’t have a three-letter nickname – certainly sounds like a character, so this could be a simple case of a president disappearing up his own fundament. But there are others who say Filipe Luís’s success papered over some increasingly visible cracks: a prosaic style of play, a dependence on set pieces, neglect of the youth system and, worst of all, a steadfast refusal to adopt a three-letter nickname. Football Daily is certain of only one thing: if results go south under Filipe Luís’s successor, dear old Bap will find out just how demanding a club Flamengo can be.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
I don’t drive, but I get around with a driver. I prefer not to drive here. I don’t have a car, but I can drive. I don’t like how they drive here. They follow the rules too much and are a bit slow. Sometimes you see these big traffic jams for no reason. Unfortunately, that’s just how it is here. Everyone has their ways” – Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori appears to be no fan of London’s traffic calming measures.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
I read with interest your mention of a ‘lukewarm stroopwafel’ with regards to the Premier League’s current stylings (yesterday’s Football Daily). I remember when the Wenger/Fàbregas/Van Persie Arsenal served a delightfully sugared, strawberries and cream stroopwafel that met with withering critique for having no spine, for not tasting good away at Stoke on a Tuesday night. I also remember José Mourinho’s Chelsea teams showing up with a borderline anti-stroopwafel, covered in dirt and sour intention, and hearing that this was a ‘pragmatic’ stroopwafel, full of ‘pace’ and ‘toughness’ and various other bits of hidden post-Imperial delight. I would also note that when playing in Europe, where one’s stroopwafel jersey isn’t tugged all match long and the other side feels compelled to at least attempt to lay out a decent stroopwafel of their own, Arsenal seem capable and delighted to plate up a delicious, crispy-on-the-outside and chewy-on-the-inside version. In light of all of this. Lukewarm? Piping hot? Out of the freezer? Covered in grime? I couldn’t care less which stroopwafel Mikel Arteta puts on the menu this year, as long as the table has the trophy as the centrepiece” – Thad Brown.
Loved the Ken Muir letter (yesterday’s Football Daily letters). Loyalty!” – Paula Adamson (and others).
Real Madrid were reminded on Monday that, when the going gets tough, Getafe get going” – Peter Oh.
If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Thad Brown, who gets a Football Weekly mug or scarf. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.
RECOMMENDED LOOKING
It’s David Squires on … Gianni Infantino’s accomplishments in 10 years as Fifa supremo.
IRON BAN
Most players are encouraged to work out regularly, get stronger, faster, more powerful. After a skills session, they head to the gym to build up their brawn. You can’t successfully grapple at a corner if you’re built like an overgrown sparrow now, can you? But down at West Ham’s Rush Green Training Centre, Adama Traoré has been banned from pumping iron. The Spaniard has previously claimed that he doesn’t lift weights but teammate Crysencio Summerville recently posted a video showing the ripped winger bench-pressing a cool 145kg – that’s the equivalent of a large male ostrich, in case you were wondering. Hammers boss Nuno Espírito Santo doesn’t want Traoré to get any bigger. “It’s incredible [his physique], it’s genetics. [But] his genetics has been like this for some time now and he should avoid the gym,” warned Nuno. “I’ve told him to stay out. It’s one of the things that I think he needs to realise. It’s enough weight that he carries. He’ll do prevention work [in the gym], but he’s not in there lifting weights.” Maybe he can spot for a skinny teammate instead. And Nuno has someone in mind. “Airidas Golambeckis … we have to get weight on him. He’s the one that needs some muscle.”
NEWS, BITS AND BOBS
Iran declined to sing their national anthem before their opening match of the Women’s Asian Cup in Australia, amid conflict and escalating tensions in the Middle East.
Macclesfield FC have claimed someone tried to burn down their stadium in a “suspected arson attempt”. There were no casualties but the club urged “anyone nearby to keep windows shut and not to approach the stadium”.
Michail Antonio is “praying that God brings peace to the whole region” after his move to Qatari club Al Sailiya was confirmed. The country has been hit by missile and drone strikes this week.
The PFA chief suit Maheta Molango says England’s players are worried about being turned into “political spokespeople” at the Geopolitics World Cup. “I think some of them felt that in the past – and we’ve seen that, for example, in Qatar – some of them basically were hung out to dry,” he vexed.
On the pitch, Real Madrid haver slumped to their second successive La Liga defeat, stunned 1-0 by Getafe after Martín Satriano’s sumptuous first-half volley. It leaves Los Blancos four points off leaders Barcelona with more beard scratching to be done by Álvaro Arbeloa.
And in the Championship, second-placed Middlesborough have cruised past Birmingham to keep their automatic promotion bid on course. Matt Targett was on, er, target, twice.
MOVING THE GOALPOSTS
Our sister newsletter features an interview with Nigeria’s Jennifer Echegini, who talks about Wafcon glory and her nomadic life.
STILL WANT MORE?
“Fifa has tied itself with unquestioning zeal to a US president who has initiated eight acts of overseas aggression in his second term. And football has blood on its hands now too.” Barney Ronay excoriates Gianni Infantino for embroiling the game so messily in geopolitics.
Hill Dickinson Stadium is smart and snazzy, but Everton fans would like to see it in daylight more often. Andy Hunter on the Toffees’ string of evening home games and their effect on the post-Goodison acclimatisation process.
And to mark World Hearing Day, Swindon manager Ian Holloway chats to Ben Fisher about wearing hearing aids, his family’s experience of deafness and communication in football.
MEMORY LANE
12 March 2016: Queens Park Rangers mascot Spark the Tiger helps to stop traffic at a road closure in the buildup to the derby with Brentford in the Championship. QPR also stopped their local rivals scoring on the day, and won 3-0.