Real Madrid sack Pellegrini to make way for Mourinho
It was the announcement the whole of Europe had been waiting for.
When Real Madrid called a press conference for 6:30pm on Wednesday evening, it was widely expected that Manuel Pellegrini would be sacked, paving the way for a certain José Mourinho to take charge at the Bernabéu.
Real president, Florentino Perez, then confirmed what everyone had presumed would happen. However, the grand unveiling of the pragmatic Portuguese coach will have to wait a little while longer as contractual issues with his current club Inter Milan are yet to be resolved.
Massimo Morrati, Inter’s president, is holding out for a compensation package worth £13.5 million from the Spanish giants, as Mourinho still has two-years left on his contract at the San Siro.
For Pellegrini, it was far from a shock either. He knew that he was a dead man walking just months into his reign with Real. The former Villarreal coach failed to win any silverware during his only season with the club but came agonisingly close to piping Barcelona to the league title – taking the race right down to the wire. Even though he’d recorded a higher win ratio in all competitions than any other Real Madrid manager in history; the club, the fans and the press never warmed to the Chilean.
His successor, Mourinho, is currently flavour of the month after guiding Inter to an historic treble, which culminated last Saturday with a 2-0 win against Bayern Munich in the Champions League Final. As if it’d been written in the stars, the final was contested at the Bernabéu, and allowed Perez to strike a deal with Mourinho behind the scenes there and then.
Having splashed out over £200 million on new signings last summer, the Real president is likely to use the capture of Mourinho as his showpiece signing this summer – the first Galáctico manager in a team bustling with star names.
Perez hailed the former Chelsea boss as the best manager in the world and claimed that Real now have the man to reinvigorate the club. Despite his status as one of the finest coaches in world football, though, a failure to deliver trophies next season could see him suffer the same fate as Pellegrini.
However, at this moment in time it seems inconceivable that Mourinho won’t enjoy some sort of success next season. Real’s great rivals, Barça, may have strengthened already this summer by bringing in David Villa – arguably the best striker in the Primera Liga - but knocking them off their perch will be Mourinho’s sole focus.
The introduction of the flamboyant, outspoken coach will bring a large dose of added spice to next season’s El Clasicos, especially as Mourinho used to work as a translator at the Nou Camp under Bobby Robson. There’s even an unfortunate video currently working its way around the internet of the Portuguese translator-turned-manager announcing to a jubilant Barça crowd following their Copa del Rey success in 1997: "Today, tomorrow and always I have Barcelona in my heart."
Hardly an ideal start for a new coach of Real Madrid – although Mourinho may be the only person in the world who could just about get away with having such a skeleton in his closet.
That mutual love has now firmly fallen by the wayside, and the Barça faithful made their feelings towards Mourinho clear during Inter’s semi-final clash with the Catalan giants in April. That hostility will inevitably be raised ten-fold after deciding to join their fierce rivals.
This won’t faze the Special One at all, though. The Primera Liga is now the only major European league left for him to prove himself – and few would bet against him succeeding. Having worked wonders in Portugal, England and Italy, there seems to be no stopping Mourinho from becoming one of the greatest managers of all time.
But with his tendency to get his teams playing efficient, defensive football, rather than the exciting, attacking brand which Real Madrid fans have become accustomed to, and now demand – is this really a match made in heaven?
If it results in Mourinho adding another batch of trophies to the already-glistening trophy cabinet inside the Bernabéu, then surely even the hard-to-please Real faithful will reluctantly accept substance over style.
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