Carlos Cuesta leaves Parma

Carlos Cuesta will no longer be Parma’s manager. The club announced this yesterday afternoon in a statement, which said that “the conditions necessary to continue the work undertaken are no longer in place, and this mutual decision has been reached”. Last year, Cuesta managed to secure survival with four matchdays to spare, amassing forty-five points and, at certain stages of the season, producing some good football. He achieved this despite all the preconceptions he carried with him, without ever taking too many risks and with the conviction that only through hard work can set objectives be achieved. Upon his arrival in Serie A, the Spaniard was twenty-nine years old (the youngest in the ‘three-points’ era) and his last experience as a head coach before joining the Gialloblù had been eight years earlier, with Atlético Madrid’s Under-13s. Then, above all, there was his valuable experience working alongside Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who served as a mentor to him. In short, all these factors had sparked the tiresome debate about the need to work one’s way up the ranks before taking charge of such teams, and about the ‘modernist’ vision of certain clubs. But Parma are not particularly concerned, given that the previous year they had appointed another very young manager, Christian Chivu, who is now Inter’s manager. In any case, the start to the season has not been the best this year, with the team picking up four points from five matches.

But the last home match, a win against Daniele De Rossi’s Genoa, suggested anything but a farewell. He had perhaps given a few hints during the press conference immediately after the match against Genoa, just a week ago. In response to the first question, he began by thanking everyone, spoke of his gratitude for all the work done up to that point, and mentioned that he had seen great team spirit. Journalists in the press room detected a particular emotion in his words, to the point that he was asked: “Coach, were you crying?” He replied that he was not, although his slightly glistening eyes told a different story.

Passion, after all, never seems to have been in short supply. In some online videos of the team’s training sessions, this young man – who appears very quiet and composed – is transformed on the pitch: not so much through his voice, which is certainly louder than usual, but through spontaneous and visceral body language. That said, the precise reasons behind this sudden split remain unclear, but over recent months Cuesta has demonstrated a response that is consistently technical, incisive, never trite, and always competent. At that same press conference, he already knew that the match against Genoa had been the one in which the team had conceded the fewest expected goals out of these first five matches. But Cuesta is not just about analysis. In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport before the start of the season, he said: “Last year I was afraid. But fear helps you stay alert; without it, I’d be irresponsible.” In another lengthy video interview, this time with Cronache di Spogliatoio, he stated that “life is what happens whilst you’re making plans”. He said this whilst recalling the call from Parma, which came just as he was organising, together with Arteta, the Gunners’ annual programme. In an age where social media expresses part of who we are, in Cuesta’s case it seems to best represent the value of his silences.

Since he was appointed manager, he has published four posts: three of these, in fact, were published in collaboration with Parma around the time of his presentation. In reality, he has only published the one announcing his departure. Concise, to the point, and free from the media hype. “I’ve given it my all,” reads the post in which he bids farewell to the club and the Gialloblù supporters. Scrolling through the comments, not a single negative one is to be found. To tell the truth, it is hard to find any that relate solely to the sporting side of things. It seems that everyone there has learnt to appreciate this young man’s humanity. After all, for him, “football is life, and life is everything”.