MONTREAL — What was supposed to be an explosive week at Stade Saputo turned out to be rather quiet and largely inconclusive, as the fate of Montreal Impact coach Marco Schällibaum has yet to be decided.

After the Impact capped off a disastrous end to its season with an emphatic 3-0 playoff loss to the Houston Dynamo last Thursday, a Sports Illustrated report stated that Alessandro Nesta would be taking over the coaching reigns from the Swiss native. There were also murmurs elsewhere that it was upper management, and not Schällibaum, who picked the line-up in Houston.

When the Impact announced that president Joey Saputo and sporting director Nick De Santis would be debriefing the media on the Impact’s season on Tuesday, it seemed like Schällibaum’s tenure as coach would surely be over. Considering the Impact’s history of blows ups and hasty decisions, the press conference played out very differently than expected, as nothing had really been decided.

Will Schällibaum coach next year? The Impact’s response: We’re still thinking about. What went wrong at the end of the season? The Impact’s response: We’re not sure. Which players will be back next year? The Impact’s response: We don’t know yet.

Saputo did, however, deny that Nesta would be coaching the team in 2014, explaining that it was far too early for the 38-year-old Italian to be considered for the role.

“I don’t know where that rumour comes from,” Saputo said. “Alessandro has the qualities to eventually be a coach, whether an assistant or a head coach, in this league. But he’s barely finished playing.

“He has to go for his coaching license. But I think he does have the potential.”

Except for flatly denying the rumour that upper management was making technical decisions in his place, Schällibaum dodged questions much in the same way that Saputo and De Santis had, refusing to give explanations as to what went wrong at the end of the campaign.

No one seems ready to take responsibility for the Impact’s woeful finish. In 2012, coach Jesse Marsch was an easy scapegoat, for along with preparing the team on the field, it was he who picked the players at the expansion draft and made most of the transfer decisions – at least in the beginning.

This year, pointing fingers is a little trickier as De Santis has been the man behind all the player decisions. If the Impact do decide to fire Schällibaum, he would become the third coach let go after only three seasons under De Santis’ stewardship.

Schällibaum is willing to stay for another year, and there are certainly advantages to keeping him on board. Marsch lost control of the locker room by the end of last year, but Schällibaum has, for the most part, managed to keep it intact right up until the end. With a year in MLS under his belt, Schällibaum would be in a better position to rectify the mistakes made due to his inexperience in the league.

It’s been an uneventful week at Stade Saputo, but that’s probably a good thing. De Santis and Saputo insist they are going to take the time to hear everyone out before making important decisions and that’s certainly a change from the past.

Of course, the week isn’t over yet.

Nick Sabetti is a Montreal-based writer. Follow him on Twitter.