River Plate President, Rodolfo D’ Onofrio has revealed that since the resignation of Ramón Díaz on Tuesday the club had made Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino their first choice but after getting rebuffed they have now moved for their ‘Plan B’, Marcelo Gallardo.

D’Onofrio, in an interview with Radio 10 said, “Plan A was Martino , and now it’s Gallardo. In the coming hours we will contact him.”

The River President added, “We tried to reach Martino because we wanted a coach who could take the reins , but the answer was he was not willing to take a club after Barcelona.”

However, not one to waste anytime, D’Onofrio has acted quickly in identifying his backup and justified his decision to approach Gallardo, “He is a River man who has done well with Nacional and River has always done well with men of the house.”

Gallardo is a free agent since resigning from Nacional after winning the championship and so with his close ties to the club as a player and now the choice of the club it would be a fair bet that Gallardo will take over at River sooner rather than later.