It was December 2004.
Oxford United, the 1986 League Cup winners, were in a slump, having dropped from the second tier to the fourth since 1999 – and were sliding down League Two when owner Firoz Kassam sacked Graham Rix.
Kassam, the club’s unpopular owner, invited out-of-work manager Chris Turner to watch their 1-0 defeat by Swansea – and most people thought he was the new manager, including the Oxford Mail, external and some players.
But instead… “It was quite bizarre,” said former U’s striker Basham. “Five or six guys came in, in a line. They all stood in front of us and none of them spoke a word of English, apart from one translator.”
Goiran said “all the players had wide-open eyes wondering ‘who are these guys?'”.
Those guys were Diaz, head coach Horacio Rodriguez, another coach Raul Marcovich, Goiran, fitness trainer Pablo Fernandez, doctor Rafael Giulietti and translator Giuilliano Iacoppi.
But wait, how did it come to this? It all starts in Monaco – where Kassam and Goiran lived and Diaz also had a home having played for the club.
Kassam approached a friend of a friend, Goiran, who has worked as a football agent and consultant, to help him find a manager and the Monegasque suggested Diaz – who had left River Plate in 2002.
At the time it was widely reported that Diaz was not being paid to be Oxford manager – and Kassam said he had “promised him shares in the club in return for success”.
But Goiran, speaking 20 years on, says Kassam’s company Firoka, but not the club, instead paid Diaz and Goiran consulting fees in Monaco.
And the question many have asked – why did a manager with five Argentine titles and the Copa Libertadores come to League Two Oxford?
Goiran says it was part of a project to get to the Premier League in five years – but after a bitter ending, Diaz, who is now Corinthians manager in Brazil, never worked in England or even Europe again.
“When they first came in, there were grand talks about redeveloping the stadium, putting a new stand behind the goal and taking us into the Premier League,” said goalkeeper Tardif.
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