The AFA are set to officially announce Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino as Alejandro Sabella’s successor later today after a couple of days of discussions. José Lemme, AFA Treasurer told reporters it is “99% done” and while this announcement expected later does not come as a surprise, the news that Martino will also oversee the Argentine youth set-up with his own staff is more of a shock. Now deceased, former President, Julio Grondona’s son, Humberto is currently in charge of the under-20s so his position is unclear.

It is understood that Gerardo Martino has accepted the proposal of the AFA and they have now agreed to his conditions and so the only thing needed is for the contract to be signed later today.

José Lemme, the AFA treasurer and President of Defensa y Justicia told reporters that “it is just missing a few details but is 99 percent complete” Before adding, “Tomorrow (by Tuesday) it will be confirmed.”

There were some financials details that needed to be ironed out but Martino’s accountant has reportedly negotiated with the AFA on this yesterday afternoon and the deal is now satisfactory for all the parties concerned.

The somewhat surprising element to Martino’s appointment is the control that the 51-year-old former Barcelona boss requested and appears to have been given.

One of the multitude of errors made by Julio Grondona as President of AFA was to place completely under-qualified coaches in charge of the Argentine youth sides. Martino is looking to shake this up and where the difficulty lies is that current Argentina under-20 boss is Julio’s son, Humberto.

Martino will be bring his staff that worked with him in Barcelona, Jorge Pautasso and Elvio Paolorrosso but the more interesting appointment will be current Newell’s youth coach, Jorge Theiler to oversee the under-20 side. This is likely to happen after the 2015 Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand so Humberto will remain in charge until then.

Following the disappointment of Martino’s spell in charge of Barcelona there are some people in Argentina not too enthused by the appointment. However, not only is Martino probably the best of the available candidates this interest in Argentine football at all levels should hugely benefit the national side.

The success of the under 20 sides from 1995 to 2007, where they won five World Cups has fed into the national side and the concern is that the recent failures at this level could see this progression decline. The hope is that an renewed interest in this could see an increased level of development among Argentina’s next generation.

Theiler and Newell’s Old Boys certainly have a good track record of developing youth players and so this is perhaps a reason to be more optimistic.

The official announcement is expected later today and the full details of Martino’s deal should be very interesting.