Vicente del Bosque doesn’t regret dropping Diego Costa from the Spain squad for Euro 2016 and says he’d have retired even if La Roja had retained the trophy.
Del Bosque stepped down after Spain were eliminated in the last 16 by Italy, despite Spanish Football Federation [RFEF] President Angel Maria Villar wanting the World Cup winner to stay on, Del Bosque instead taking a role away from the bench.
“I left because it had already been eight years [as Coach], a long journey in which there’s been time for everything, to win and to lose. My time has finished and I think the time has come for someone else to do things,” he told Punto Pelota, AS reports.
“If we’d have won the Euros I would have done the same thing as I’ve done now. We expected to go further but we came up against a very strong Italy and, furthermore, perhaps we weren’t at that level.
“I haven’t talked about anything with the RFEF but what I don’t want is to disturb the work of the new Coach. I don’t want any position that goes beyond the mere representation of the Federation.”
Del Bosque was asked about mistakes that might have been made in France, such as not introducing new players for the final group game, which was lost to Croatia.
“We need to be wiser. We were criticised for naming the same side in the third game but if we had made changes and lost we would have been criticised,” he argued.
“Our function was to choose players, to prepare for games and to compete. We failed to compete but otherwise we did the things I thought we should do. I tried to fulfil my responsibilities in the best way possible.
“Costa? I have no regrets, and I wouldn’t forget him for the future. With his enthusiasm, with his desire, as I say, I wouldn’t forget about him for the future.”
