Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Aragones Admits To Arbeloa Blunder

Spain coach Luis Aragones has admitted he made a mistake by including injured Liverpool defender Alvaro Arbeloa in his squad to face France.

The coach has come under increasing pressure recently over his decision to include injured and untried players, such as Arbeloa and 17-year-old Barcelona forward Bojan Krkic, at the expense of the experienced Raul.

Aragones admitted that the decision to include Arbeloa - who has since withdrawn from the squad - was his decision, but insisted that nothing more should be made of the matter.

He said: "It was a mistake by the manager, full stop.

"It was a mistake that never should have been made, but what's done is done."

However, Aragones stood by his inclusion of Bojan, stating: "He's a kid with a great future, but we're going to try to get him involved now as I've known players with great futures who later never got there."

On arrival in Malaga ahead of Wednesday's match, Aragones was jeered by around 500 Spanish fans, who chanted for Raul to be recalled to the squad.

But the coach remained defiant when addressing the press on Tuesday, insisting he will not be replaced by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) before Euro 2008.

Aragones joked that he had "never seen a national team with two managers" and added that he had never been worried about losing his job.

Earlier, Aragones received backing from RFEF president Angel Maria Villar, who told Radio Marca: "Luis is our coach and he will be so at Euro 2008."

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