Real Madrid 2.0: A Manager Surfaces
A few weeks ago when I was preparing the research for the first installments to this series I was just going to write one simple article about what’s happening at Real Madrid and what needed to happen. Instead it turned into a mushroom cloud of information, disinformation, feints and double-crosses, in short just another day at the office under Florentino Perez.
The first sign of the revolution came early last week. Despite threatening an election, all challengers capitulated early and often, resigning themselves to the return of el Galactico Supremo and a quiet exchange of power from Vicente Boluda on June 1st. Despite my own reservations about a return to the gaudy excess of another Vegas at the Chamartin, it was the only option for Real Madrid. They do not have the luxury of a 5 year rebuilding plan. They must reload their assets and challenge.
The chairman in place, then his management team too, a few days later. As expected, Zinedine Zidane has returned to the club as a special advisor to Perez, and Jorge Valdano has also come in to oversee the operation, but not as sporting director. Valdano will be the chief executive; supervising Miguel Pardeza who returns to the club that he played for after 6 years as Real Zaragoza’s sporting director: a club legend like Mijatovic before him but with much more experience in club management. In my opinion, these are all safe hires. Rather than bring in new blood, the club have decided to reference two of the most successful sides in recent memory. Zidane reminds us of the team he lead, and both Valdano and Pardeza played for successful Real Madrid units the generation before. While this is no revolutionary left turn, possibly what they needed, the club cannot just throw away its DNA. So much of these hires are based on public relations, maintaining the vote at the court of public opinion, that honestly there was little else they could have done without insiting riots.
The last piece surfaced yesterday. After a month of flirting with Mourinho and Wenger, dismissing Benitez completely, the team decided to hand the reins of the first team to the Chilean Manuel Pellegrini. Some madridistas complained he wasn’t a big enough name nor was he experienced enough at a big club with the pressures that only exist at a big club. The complaints are valid, but this is the real revolutionary trick, Pellegrini really is the best choice for this position. He does have experience at a big club. While he may have started in Chile, and plied his trade in Ecuador as well for LDU de Quito, Pellegrini won league titles with both San Lorenzo de Almagro and River Plate of Buenos Aires. Find me a more difficult situation for a coach than River and I’ll laugh in your face. The pressures are infinitely more concentrated in Argentina. It is a big city with more big teams concentrated into a smaller area than any other in the world. He plays attractive, South American style, possession football, but he is also flexible enough to play 9 men behind the ball against a club like Manchester United. He’s a good judge of talent, incorporates youngsters well, and prefers a unified group of players to an individual set of world class talent; see Juan Roman Riquelme. Some are giving him until Christmas, but I’m sorry, Pellegrini is the best coach in Spain considering his resources.
If they give him a chance, he’ll shine.
