Independiente fires Gustavo Quinteros after rout to Atlético Tucumán, scrambles to find successor

A 4-0 loss to Atlético Tucumán in the Copa Argentina was too much even for a club accustomed to chaos. Hours after that rout, Independiente decided to cut ties with Gustavo Quinteros, and the club is now moving quickly to find a replacement, though the interim role already has names attached to it.

While club leadership works out who the new coach will be, Independiente settled on an emergency fix: Eduardo Tuzzio and Carlos Matheu, the duo who run the reserve team, will take charge of the first team on a transitional basis. That pairing had already been in charge this past Thursday in Santiago del Estero, where the Rojo beat Central Córdoba 2-0, and they flew back to Buenos Aires on a charter flight to lead training sessions starting Friday. Before that, it was Hugo Tocalli, the general coordinator of the youth divisions, who ran Thursday evening's practice. The immediate goal is Monday's match at 5:00 p.m. at Lanús, played without visiting fans.

According to sources close to the situation, club leadership wants this interim stretch to last as little as possible, ideally just one game, so a permanent successor can be announced as soon as possible. That's no small detail, considering the Avellaneda side has nothing left to play for this season but the Torneo Clausura.

The names starting to circulate

Two figures with history at the club stand out as the leading candidates: Omar De Felippe and Rubén Darío Insúa. De Felippe has been out of work since leaving Central Córdoba in December 2025 and holds a special place in Independiente's memory, having led the team to promotion to the Primera División between 2013 and 2014. Insúa, for his part, left Barracas Central in June and wore the Independiente jersey as a player between 1988 and 1990, a stretch during which he won an Argentine league title.

As the hours passed, the name of Ricardo Gareca also gained traction. Gareca has ties to the club both as a player (1993-1994) and in his early coaching years (1997). Other alternatives surfaced as well, including Eduardo Berizzo, Daniel Garnero and Luis Zubeldía, though those names would fit better with a long-term project, something that could clash with the urgency of the current moment.

Making a decision won't be easy: the club's board is divided, and the current administration has only a few months left in its term, which means it also has to find common ground with the opposition. In fact, there's talk of holding a press conference to introduce the new coach, with the idea that he would take over next Tuesday, and using that same event to announce the date of the assembly that will set the electoral timeline.

In that context, De Felippe appears to have broader support than Insúa and holds a concrete edge: he's already been contacted by club leadership. Insúa, meanwhile, hasn't received a call yet, though people close to him have suggested he would accept if it came.

Should either of them be confirmed, he would become the seventh coach of Néstor Grindetti's administration, counting Fabián Doman's stint, on a list that already includes Julio César Falcioni, Leandro Stillitano, Ricardo Zielinski, Carlos Tevez, Julio Vaccari and Quinteros himself.

Quinteros' time at Independiente ended with a record of 14 wins, 8 draws and 10 losses. With little communication with his players and a broken relationship with club leadership, everything finally came apart after the loss to Atlético Tucumán and his comments afterward at the press conference.