Interesting read + RM news
Sid Lowe on Real Madrid possibly sacking Bernd Schuster:
'It's not all Schuster's fault
If Real Madrid think that sacking Bernd Schuster is the solution to all their ills, they are sadly mistaken'
For the first time in an hour Bernd Schuster emerged from his dugout. Exposed at last, he was pounced upon by a phalanx of photographers scrabbling to get their shot of a condemned man. Real Valladolid's supporters were swinging their scarves like Charlie Chaplin swings an umbrella, chanting "Pucela! Pucela! Pucela!". Real Madrid's supporters stared at the floor, silently studying the spat-out shells of a million sunflower seeds. Beating a path, Schuster strode across the moat, up the concrete tunnel, and turned right through the white wooden door to the dressing room. Reaching for his bag, he gave the squad two days off, and prepared to leave. Outside, a car was waiting to take him to Salamanca, while the team bus waited to take everyone else back to Madrid.
But then in walked Real Madrid's sporting director Pedja Mijatovic, hair glistening with gel, face flushed with fury. You're going where?! Oh no you're not, sunshine. You're coming with us.
10.30pm on Saturday night and Madrid had just lost 1-0 to Valladolid thanks to a Néstor Cannobio goal. 24 hours later, they'd be five points behind Barcelona. In just three days, they'd been knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Second Division B side Real Unión and now a club that had only beaten them once in almost 20 years had done it again, in the same month that they'd been beaten twice by Juventus. The vultures circled, "crisis" gripped. You could tell things were bad at the Bernabéu when the Catalan papers led on Madrid. There was no way Pedja was letting Schuster leave. And as for two days off, forget it. How's that going to look? Like a rat deserting a sinking ship. Like a coach that doesn't care, a club out of control. And we can't have that. Even if it is true.
So it was that Schuster told journalists that there would be training after all, snapped at the press pack, described a game no one else had seen, bustled through the wannabe wags and the Valladolid president patiently waiting for Gabriel Heinze to stop ranting so he could say hello, bulldozed his way past the bodies on the stairs and out into the Castillian cold. Not to a black Audi, but to his seat on the second row of the Real Madrid team bus, sinking into his seat for the gloomy journey home, wearily alighting at 1:46 am. For the first time that night, he'd done the right thing. But the damage was already done. When only four players turned up for the voluntarily training session on Sunday, and Schuster wasn't there either, it appeared to be the final straw. After all, against Valladolid he was, in Marca's words, "playing for his moustache". And he had lost. "Schuster, sentenced!", screamed AS.
Which may seem ridiculous. Victory against Valladolid would have left Madrid two points off the top, unbeaten in ten, and boasting their best ever start. If it was a crisis, it was one most clubs would love. But Madrid are not most clubs. Torn apart as institution - one where no one trusts anyone else, where the sporting director and the director of football hate each other, where the president is paranoid but that doesn't mean they're not out to get him, the captain is as much a problem as he is a solution, and the fans are permanently reaching for their hankies - Madrid have always been a couple of bad results from a crisis. And while the results were good, there was something oddly unconvincing, unsustainable, about them. There was certainly none of the "excellence" Ramón Calderón promised when he sacked Fabio Capello.
Only twice have Madrid won by more than one goal this season - against Sporting Gijón and Racing Santander in weeks three and four. In week five, a late break beat Betis; in week six, they drew with Espanyol; in week seven, a 95th-minute penalty defeated Atlético 2-1; and in week eight, they beat Athletic 3-2, with Fernando Llorente hitting the bar in the final minute. In the meantime, they'd somehow coming out of a kicking in St Petersburg with a 2-1 win over Zenit. In week nine, as the wheels came off in the wake of defeat to Juventus, they were fortunate to draw in Almería. Last week, Gonzalo Higuaín's four goals rescued them against Málaga, having been taken apart by Juventus three days earlier. And now here they were getting beaten by Valladolid.
But it wasn't just that Madrid got beaten, it was that they were awful; their best player was Vallidolid midfielder Borja; they were all over the place; Wesley Sneijder was on the bench and that Javi García wasn't. Most of all, it was that, in the wake of their Copa del Rey exit, after an hour long meeting with the squad and another alone with Raúl, it was supposed to prove Schuster was still in control. Instead, it seemed to show the reverse. When Schuster incredibly insisted that "the last thing Madrid deserved was to lose" and then tried to drive away as if nothing had happened, it made it worse. It was as if he was daring Madrid to sack him. He was pushing at an open door: only Calderón really urged patience and even he is no longer entirely convinced.
Unhappy even when he's happy, Schuster has never really enjoyed being Madrid manager. At a club where image is all, a huge catalogue of prickly press conferences - in which he has blamed the blameless, insisted that defeats are "not defeats at all", and picked a thousand fights - have done little to help. Especially when he has used press conferences to make his point, publicly whinging that he didn't have the squad he wanted. Especially when he uses matches to make those same points: you want a youth-teamer in the first team? Here, have Javi García, you'll see how rubbish he is! Oh look, we've got no wingers - and whose fault is that?! Marcelo's not good enough? And who would you play?!
Schuster told one journalist that he couldn't know what he was thinking "because I don't know myself". It was meant as a joke but it rang true. He has played 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2, with four central midfielders and no central strikers, without wingers and with wingers, even though there are non available. One player privately admits that there is "no organisation whatsoever" and Sergio Ramos publicly complained that he has to cover half the pitch alone. Schuster has withdrawn, too. Notoriously moody - he walked out of the stadium at half time, got a taxi and went home, still in his kit, during the 1986 European Cup final - his relationship with Raúl is fraught and that's dangerous for any coach. He no longer communicates with his squad and never really has with man who built his squad. Or, more accurately, didn't.
And that's the point. Schuster has done much to earn the sack. But it's not his fault - or at least not only his fault - that the atmosphere is so edgy at the Bernabéu. It's not his fault that Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Mahamadou Diarra, Pepe and Arjen Robben are injured and have no replacements. It's not his fault that Robinho left. And it certainly is not his fault that Cristiano Ronaldo didn't arrive. Or Santi Cazorla. Or David Villa. Schuster may be on borrowed time, a change may help get Madrid get back on track, and now may even be a good time with Getafe, Sevilla, Barcelona, Valencia and Villarreal coming up. But if Madrid think that sacking Schuster is the solution to all their ills, they are sadly mistaken. And not for the first time.
Original article HERE.
Pedja Mijatovic has scheduled a press conference for 19:00 CET tonight. Spanish media are having a field day with this, of course. Let's see what happens XD
'It's not all Schuster's fault
If Real Madrid think that sacking Bernd Schuster is the solution to all their ills, they are sadly mistaken'
For the first time in an hour Bernd Schuster emerged from his dugout. Exposed at last, he was pounced upon by a phalanx of photographers scrabbling to get their shot of a condemned man. Real Valladolid's supporters were swinging their scarves like Charlie Chaplin swings an umbrella, chanting "Pucela! Pucela! Pucela!". Real Madrid's supporters stared at the floor, silently studying the spat-out shells of a million sunflower seeds. Beating a path, Schuster strode across the moat, up the concrete tunnel, and turned right through the white wooden door to the dressing room. Reaching for his bag, he gave the squad two days off, and prepared to leave. Outside, a car was waiting to take him to Salamanca, while the team bus waited to take everyone else back to Madrid.
But then in walked Real Madrid's sporting director Pedja Mijatovic, hair glistening with gel, face flushed with fury. You're going where?! Oh no you're not, sunshine. You're coming with us.
10.30pm on Saturday night and Madrid had just lost 1-0 to Valladolid thanks to a Néstor Cannobio goal. 24 hours later, they'd be five points behind Barcelona. In just three days, they'd been knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Second Division B side Real Unión and now a club that had only beaten them once in almost 20 years had done it again, in the same month that they'd been beaten twice by Juventus. The vultures circled, "crisis" gripped. You could tell things were bad at the Bernabéu when the Catalan papers led on Madrid. There was no way Pedja was letting Schuster leave. And as for two days off, forget it. How's that going to look? Like a rat deserting a sinking ship. Like a coach that doesn't care, a club out of control. And we can't have that. Even if it is true.
So it was that Schuster told journalists that there would be training after all, snapped at the press pack, described a game no one else had seen, bustled through the wannabe wags and the Valladolid president patiently waiting for Gabriel Heinze to stop ranting so he could say hello, bulldozed his way past the bodies on the stairs and out into the Castillian cold. Not to a black Audi, but to his seat on the second row of the Real Madrid team bus, sinking into his seat for the gloomy journey home, wearily alighting at 1:46 am. For the first time that night, he'd done the right thing. But the damage was already done. When only four players turned up for the voluntarily training session on Sunday, and Schuster wasn't there either, it appeared to be the final straw. After all, against Valladolid he was, in Marca's words, "playing for his moustache". And he had lost. "Schuster, sentenced!", screamed AS.
Which may seem ridiculous. Victory against Valladolid would have left Madrid two points off the top, unbeaten in ten, and boasting their best ever start. If it was a crisis, it was one most clubs would love. But Madrid are not most clubs. Torn apart as institution - one where no one trusts anyone else, where the sporting director and the director of football hate each other, where the president is paranoid but that doesn't mean they're not out to get him, the captain is as much a problem as he is a solution, and the fans are permanently reaching for their hankies - Madrid have always been a couple of bad results from a crisis. And while the results were good, there was something oddly unconvincing, unsustainable, about them. There was certainly none of the "excellence" Ramón Calderón promised when he sacked Fabio Capello.
Only twice have Madrid won by more than one goal this season - against Sporting Gijón and Racing Santander in weeks three and four. In week five, a late break beat Betis; in week six, they drew with Espanyol; in week seven, a 95th-minute penalty defeated Atlético 2-1; and in week eight, they beat Athletic 3-2, with Fernando Llorente hitting the bar in the final minute. In the meantime, they'd somehow coming out of a kicking in St Petersburg with a 2-1 win over Zenit. In week nine, as the wheels came off in the wake of defeat to Juventus, they were fortunate to draw in Almería. Last week, Gonzalo Higuaín's four goals rescued them against Málaga, having been taken apart by Juventus three days earlier. And now here they were getting beaten by Valladolid.
But it wasn't just that Madrid got beaten, it was that they were awful; their best player was Vallidolid midfielder Borja; they were all over the place; Wesley Sneijder was on the bench and that Javi García wasn't. Most of all, it was that, in the wake of their Copa del Rey exit, after an hour long meeting with the squad and another alone with Raúl, it was supposed to prove Schuster was still in control. Instead, it seemed to show the reverse. When Schuster incredibly insisted that "the last thing Madrid deserved was to lose" and then tried to drive away as if nothing had happened, it made it worse. It was as if he was daring Madrid to sack him. He was pushing at an open door: only Calderón really urged patience and even he is no longer entirely convinced.
Unhappy even when he's happy, Schuster has never really enjoyed being Madrid manager. At a club where image is all, a huge catalogue of prickly press conferences - in which he has blamed the blameless, insisted that defeats are "not defeats at all", and picked a thousand fights - have done little to help. Especially when he has used press conferences to make his point, publicly whinging that he didn't have the squad he wanted. Especially when he uses matches to make those same points: you want a youth-teamer in the first team? Here, have Javi García, you'll see how rubbish he is! Oh look, we've got no wingers - and whose fault is that?! Marcelo's not good enough? And who would you play?!
Schuster told one journalist that he couldn't know what he was thinking "because I don't know myself". It was meant as a joke but it rang true. He has played 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-2, with four central midfielders and no central strikers, without wingers and with wingers, even though there are non available. One player privately admits that there is "no organisation whatsoever" and Sergio Ramos publicly complained that he has to cover half the pitch alone. Schuster has withdrawn, too. Notoriously moody - he walked out of the stadium at half time, got a taxi and went home, still in his kit, during the 1986 European Cup final - his relationship with Raúl is fraught and that's dangerous for any coach. He no longer communicates with his squad and never really has with man who built his squad. Or, more accurately, didn't.
And that's the point. Schuster has done much to earn the sack. But it's not his fault - or at least not only his fault - that the atmosphere is so edgy at the Bernabéu. It's not his fault that Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Mahamadou Diarra, Pepe and Arjen Robben are injured and have no replacements. It's not his fault that Robinho left. And it certainly is not his fault that Cristiano Ronaldo didn't arrive. Or Santi Cazorla. Or David Villa. Schuster may be on borrowed time, a change may help get Madrid get back on track, and now may even be a good time with Getafe, Sevilla, Barcelona, Valencia and Villarreal coming up. But if Madrid think that sacking Schuster is the solution to all their ills, they are sadly mistaken. And not for the first time.
Original article HERE.
Pedja Mijatovic has scheduled a press conference for 19:00 CET tonight. Spanish media are having a field day with this, of course. Let's see what happens XD