Contextualizing Calderón

Santi Duque, revealed as the COPE reporter who surreptitiously recorded Ramón Calderón's recent outpouring of honesty, has put an account of his adventures on his myspace page.

It was all too easy. He walked in, sat down at a table, turned on his minidisc recorder and sat there not quite believing his good fortune. Minutes after the radio station broadcast the carefully selected snippets, every media outlet in the land was on the phone begging for copies of the audio so they could broadcast it too.

Calderón arranged to meet the squad yesterday to explain himself, with the official communiqué speaking of a climate of total sincerity and trust. Some quotes from the players have made their way into the public domain, including enough with all that sh*t that pours out of your mouth.

In his defence, Calderón claims that his words have been taken out of context. To address this, COPE has helpfully put up a transcript of the entire lecture on their website. It's too long to translate (unless someone wants to pay me!) but in essence, it does add a little context, in terms of the questions he was answering when he said what he said. However, it does little to soften the blows and he's lost pretty much any respect he still had from players and supporters alike. The players will give a press conference on Friday to explain their views on the affair. His actions and words may give the players more power to affect his future than would have been the case this time last week.