Manuel Pellegrini should have known. He had it good in Villareal and even before then at River Plate. He won the 2002-2003 Apertura in Argentina with River. Management sells his best player Andres D'Alessandro and he leaves after year. To Villareal in the suburbs, the Valencian Community, the 10th largest city in that region, and a mere 65k hike from Valencia. One hour away from Rafa Benitez, the Tinkerman Claudio Ranieri, Quique Sanchez-Flores, Oscar Ruben-Fernandez, Ronald Koeman and Unai Emery. He outlasted all of them. On his own terms.

They played attractively, they were smart in defense, I mean they were the epitamy of a Cinderella story. They reached the semifinals in the UEFA Cup in 2003. They reached the quarterfinals the following year and finished third in La Liga behind Real Madrid. It was Champions League for them from there on out. There first year in? They beat Inter Milan over two legs in the quarter-finals and lost to Arsenal 1-0 on a failed penalty by Juan Roman Riquelme. Are you getting the picture? This guy doesn't have to defend his record. Madrid do.

This is the poisoned chalice. A club ruined by expectations, by the sheer lunacy of spending 200 bajillion euros on a cosmetic make-over; like getting a massive boob job without forking over for the requisite tummy-tuck (Guti), the ass-lift (Pepe), and a complete facial reconstruction (Raul). Did you get the hint? No, Real Madrid may be first choice for players with the ambition of a 100 million euro contract, but for managers it is a completely different story.

Let them bring in Spalletti, or Rafa Benitez, or whichever other top manager comes into the picture. They will fail as Pellegrini failed. There is a reason why Arsene Wenger refused the opportunity to manage Madrid. Madrid are in bad need of a complete over-haul. You laugh. You say they've already paid for it, but I say they spackled a new paint job on a decayed structure. There is some unfinished business left at hand. There are former first teamers, players who were on the way out at the Bernabeu, who because of injury, and a rotational policy that valued the next match in La Liga and an away tie at the San Siro over a first leg tie to a third tier club in the Copa del Rey, were forced to play in that humiliating defeat to Alcorcon, well these players aren't necessarily the best water-carriers, the best Pavones, and they should be culled from the heap. They are the reason why the team of the last decade lost to a club in the third tier of Spanish Football not once, but twice in two years.

Fire Pellegrini? You'd only be freeing him for another team with a better organizational structure. No, keep Pellegrini and start cutting some excess, remove the cliques and the aging prima-donnas. Cut the heart out of Madrid or it will continue to break yours.