Eduardo Coudet reportedly out in Tijuana

Reports surfaced earlier today that Club Tijuana manager Eduardo Coudet has left the club. While there’s been lots of information flying about since the news broke, there isn’t a whole lot we know for sure.

What we know:

It’s important to bear in mind that nothing official has come out from Coudet or Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente. There has been nothing official addressing Coudet leaving or the rumors about player payment (more on that in the next section). While these are very good and reliable sources, there is still nothing concrete as of yet.

The past offseason saw Coudet re-make the team to his liking, bringing in eleven new players while seeing players such as Avilés Hurtado, Guido Rodríguez, Milton Caraglio, Carlos Vargas, and Paul Arriola leave la frontera, Coudet’s struggles were largely chalked up to the challenges of putting together what was for all practical purposes a brand new team.

But cracks were starting to show in the façade. In the October 21 match between Xolos and Atlas, right back Matías Aguirregaray and defensive midfielder Damián Musto got into an altercation during the match and had to be separated by teammates. And in the last match against Chivas, Coudet berated the officials after the final whistle had blown due to a controversial offside call that nullified a Xolos goal. With a 5W 3D 7L record, the calls for Coudet were growing louder, but today’s news came seemingly out of nowhere.

What we’ve heard:

This was originally reported by ESPN’s John Sutcliffe as Xolos dismissing the Argentine manager, a report from Récord.com.mx indicates that it was Coudet that left the club due to “differences of manager and the directors due to arrears in salary.”

This seems to be corroborated by Francisco Velasco of the East Village Times, who tweeted reports he had seen stated that Xolos has not paid their players in two months and that Coudet resigned in protest.

This was backed up by the following exchange between Katia Castorena and Salvador Pérez, both of ESPN. Castorena says the loss to Chivas was what pushed things over the edge, that there were differences in the dressing room, and that there were indeed debts. Pérez confirms this, saying (owner Jorge) Hank entered the dressing room and that the debts (most likely from the club to the staff and players) would reach 8 weeks tomorrow.

While clubs not paying players is not uncommon in Mexico, it’s strange that Xolos would be in this position. Xolos were recently listed as the 14th most valuable team in the Americas, worth an estimated $135.5 million USD.