Real Madrid: A Coaching Dilemma Or A Leadership Crisis
The success shown by Vicente Del Bosque at the World Cup reminds one of the great past of the greatest tactician in the Spanish football history. No one was able to achieve the highest award in the World of Football, but Del Bosque went against the odds. Although, one can claim that Del Bosque was partially assisted by Luis Aragones, who led the foundations of the greatest team in the World, as he won the Euro Cup in 2008, but Del Bosque had the credentials to be selected for the job. This is not the first time that Del Bosque has been regarded as one of the best in the World. He had achieved his greatest success as a coach of Real Madrid, but his end was not worthy of a champion leader.
Real Madrid has been dominating the European stage of football for quite a long time now. They hold the record in Europe for the most league wins by any club. They lead their archrivals, Barcelona, by 31-18, while they have also won eight Champions League titles, the highest in Europe. However, there is a bad trend of changing and shuffling in Real Madrid, as many managers and players have come and gone. But, there is not always a rationale behind the firing of managers and players, as Vicente Del Bosque, the best ever in the history of Real Madrid, was fired despite winning two Champions League titles and two La Liga titles. This shows that there is something wrong at the top of the management, as they have been doing this to serve their own purposes.
Right now, Florentino Perez is the Director of the Board of Governors in Real Madrid. This is his second tenure, and sadly, his reign is filled with the tales of controversies and undue influence in the affairs run by coaches. When Del Bosque was fired from the job, Perez was the man in charge of the affairs, while the recent wave of firing has also come under his influence as well. Vicente Del Bosque was the man who kept the egos of his star-studded side in check, but he was out for no good reason. After his firing, the Madrid’s Glacticos failed to win any of the league titles, and also lost their dominance in Europe. Hence, it is obvious that the club is not facing any coaching dilemma, rather there is a sever problem with the topmost leadership.
This is not the only instance that Perez has been in the limelight. He was the one who fired Bernd Schuster after winning the La Liga title, and he also made some other decisions that proved to be problematic for the club. He was the one who initiated the idea of firing all the Dutch players in his team, while trying to make another Glacticos, like the one in his first term. Therefore, the likes of Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Huntlaar were fired, while Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso were bought. This decision proved wrong by the end of the season, as Madrid failed to become a formidable unit, as the world class players let them down. Barcelona won the La Liga again, and ironically, Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben faced each other in the Champions League final, for Inter Milan and Bayern Munich, respectively.
In addition, Real Madrid now finds itself in too much debt, which was caused due to the unlimited spending in the transfer markets. Perez was known for his lavish spending to attract big players, as he held the record transfers of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and Ronaldo. However, during the last season he went completely insane, as he bought Cristiano Ronaldo for 80 million pounds, breaking his own previous record. A heavy 56.8 million pounds were spent on the Brazilian Kaka, while Benzema and Alonso were bought for 30 million pounds each. This insanity was backed by heavy loans from the banks, due to which Madrid might face financial crisis in future, if the desired results are not achieved.
Hence, in order to achieve the desired results, the last year’s treble winning coach for Inter Milan, Jose Mourinho has been brought in. However, this time we might see a clash of the titans, as Mourinho does not like interference in his matters. The tussle has already started on the new signings, but we have to wait a little longer to see the final outcome of the Madrid’s problem.
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