Making A Dent In The Debt Left By Lopez

When Eduardo Lopez left Newell's Old Boys it was thought that the former president/dictator had racked up debts of some 100 million pesos. After taking a long hard look at the books, sorting out the legitimate debts from the fraudulent, we should know the full damage sometime tomorrow. According to sources close to the club the total will likely be between 65 to 70 million.

The Rat had fourteen years to rack up the figure, and the task of bringing the club out of the red is going to be a long, hard road. If current team president Guillermo Lorente is serious about then spending on bringing players in has to be watched... which is already being done as most, if not all, the players the team have brought in sense he took over have been loan deals.

With luck, and a whole lot of work, the youth development will have to be relied on to continue generate up and coming players. Mauricio Sperdutti and Mauro Fórmica are the two gems that have been starring for the team of late, Mauro sense he was inserted into the starting eleven when Roberto Sensini took over as coach. Sperdutti, on the other hand, had been in and out of a starting role until the just finished Apertura when he blossomed into a player who could well be just as valuable as Fórmica.

That brings us to the rumor mill that started before the Apertura had even ended. Both Sperdutti and Fórmica are expected to be sold, but that has been said about Fórmica before. There have been players sold, but the big sale that might put a significant dent in the debt has eluded Newell's. Will things be different during the January window?

And if so, how good a team will Sensini have to work with during the up coming Clausura?