Spain Coach Vicente Del Bosque has said he has no regrets about the World Cup and had no intention of resigning.
La Roja went to Brazil as holders but were knocked out at the group stage, losing to the Netherlands and Chile and only beating Australia in a dead rubber.
But speaking to Mundo Deportivo, Del Bosque insisted that if he was to do it all over again, there’s nothing he would change about the build-up to the tournament.
“Regrets about the squad, the preparation, no,” he replied when asked.
“Beyond that some might consider bringing so-and-so, but nothing substantial.
“Neither have I anything to regret – we worked well, the place where we were based was right, the attitude of the players was very good and we were not at our level, but no regrets.
“I have no bad conscience about if I had made this choice or that.
“Overall, from the players to the Coach, I imagine if we had won we would have done something right so I guess we did something wrong, but that’s all of us, no one in particular.”
Del Bosque was asked about those observers who felt he should step down as a result of Spain’s disappointing summer and said that while he respects their point of view, he never once shared it.
“They are opinions they are free to have, nothing more, and they have their reasons,” he continued.
“I said at the time, these two losses [against the Dutch and the Chileans] outweighed all the good of the last six years because we must not forget we had to qualify for Brazil and we qualified well.
“And just two years before we had been champions of Europe and the generation was ideal to go there.
“[Did you think of resigning at any time?] No, I distanced myself a bit because I felt a bit of pride and if I said immediately ‘I will continue’ it would have seemed arrogant.
“I preferred to wait, step back a moment, reflect on what was best and would not be harmful or detrimental to the Federation.”
Del Bosque added that Germany were deserved World Cup winners and revealed he watched the rest of the competition after Spain returned home.
“Germany have been slowly making a great team and demonstrated their power in Brazil, and had in South Africa and the last European Championship a focused team with a good Coach, and this title was deserved,” he went on.
“Someone said the only bad thing in leaving is having to watch the World Cup from home and I’ve seen that.”
