the coach who stifles Real Madrid

“In Madrid, victory is simply a relief of not having lost, and defeat is a crisis. And since losing is not part of the plan, when you lose, great nervousness sets in. Let’s not forget that we are talking about a club that destroyed Heynckes, the coach who won the European Cup after 32 years,” analyzes Cañizares, former goalkeeper of the white club.

“Madrid is a complex club in which the pressure that a coach receives is totally different from that of other clubs and his position of command is colored by the importance of the club itself and the dressing room,” recalls Sanchís, legendary central defender and captain of the meringues.

“Madrid has two faces. When you’re winning and winning titles, everything flows and that’s the best place to be. Now, when results don’t work out, there is too much pressure, more than anywhere else, and not all coaches are ready to deal with it,” says Baptista, another midfielder who once wore white.

“Being second in Madrid is no use,” says Alfonso Pérez, the only Alfonso during his time as a goalscorer for the Bernabéu club. “In Madrid, a draw is a defeat and a defeat is a crisis,” adds Kiko Casilla, the white goalkeeper without many minutes of possession, but with many games in the locker room.

“It’s a club in which only victory is worth it. And when you win, you have to keep winning,” says Paco Jémez. “I go further. Winning doesn’t guarantee you anything because if you lose three games, they throw you out on the street. It’s a machine to eat up coaches if you’re not always on top,” Pavón understands.

“In Madrid, a coach will find a locker room where there are the best players in the world, each with his own ego and, surely, the most important thing is not what we know about football,” says Milla. Luis, who played for the white club between 1990 and 1997, puts his finger on this ego which corrupts so many things in life. And football is no exception. Not even in Madrid: “I had coaches who didn’t have the best knowledge of football, but they were exceptional in managing egos in the dressing room.”

“Greatness, success and luxury are correlative to the ego. And the ego, which is nothing other than the absence of humility, is the worst enemy of human beings. The Madrid dressing room is full of ego, but also of its management, its presidency, its supporters and its journalists,” says Cañizares.

Win the locker room

“It is very difficult to conquer the Madrid dressing room and very easy to lose it. Footballers quickly perceive their weakness. It surprises me that such an intelligent guy and such a great footballer, like Xabi, could not see it,” comments Fernando Sanz.

“They say that everything that is talked about around Madrid doesn’t happen, but of course it reaches the dressing room and the coaches. And if it affects you and influences you, it means that you are not ready to be Madrid’s coach,” Casilla analyzes.

“Madrid doesn’t marry anyone and doesn’t wait for anyone. And neither are his environment and his means”, recalls Pavón, who knows well what he is talking about. “No information regarding Madrid and, in this case, Xabi Alonso, is as strong and as demanding as with Barça or with his coach, currently Flick”, underlines the former footballer raised at La Fábrica. “The fact is that nothing else is worth the highest level. “Xabi has just won the Bundesliga with Leverkusen, undefeated, something. This will never be seen again in the history of Germany, and in Madrid it is only December, he is no longer valid and a replacement is sought.”

25 years of training

If we look at this century so far, in these 25 years Real Madrid has had 17 coaches, two of them (Ancelotti and Zidane) with two stages under their shoulders. The list is long. And various: Del Bosque, Queiroz, Camacho, García Remón, Luxemburgo, López Caro, Capello, Schuster, Juande Ramos, Pellegrini, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Rafa Benítez, Zidane, Lopetegui, Solari, Zidane again, Ancelotti and, for the moment, Xabi Alonso.

In this quarter of a century that is about to end, Madrid has had on average a new coach every 16 months, which represents a little more than one season and a third of another: “The Madrid coach, who is normally tested in other clubs, the first thing he finds here is a different club. Because? Because it’s the best club in history and you don’t become the best club in history without a certain complexity,” explains Sanchís.

Guardiola had already said it this week before facing Madrid: “If the managers want the players to have control, the players will have it. And if you want the coaches to have it, they will have it. A thought that had an obvious recipient, none other than Florentino: “Who does the president of Madrid give control to? “You know this answer much better than me,” Pep replied to ABC when we asked him to clarify this statement in merengue key.

“It shouldn’t be that difficult to coach Madrid. As long as the strength of the coach comes from the club hierarchy, it must flow from the managers to the coach and from the coach to the players. Respecting this hierarchy, everything must be fluid,” says Quique Sánchez Flores.

The Wrath of Vinicius

A hierarchy that, in the eyes of Fernando Sanz, Alonso let slip: “Listen, I remember that in my time, several coaches arrived with a strong hand, but this strong hand was fictitious. A lot of stupid things are said. In the specific case of Xabi, I think he entered the locker room well, he managed to sympathize with the players, but he ruined everything on the day of the classic with the anger of Vinicius. There he was given the opportunity to become stronger and not only did that not happen, but he became completely weak. Indiscipline must be penalized so that the rest of the teammates see that they cannot do the same. I would have given him the heaviest sanction in the internal locker room regime, I would have forced him to apologize in the locker room, with him by my side, and after this pardon I would have announced in front of everyone that he would not play the next match as punishment for his affront. To do anything other than that is to lose the locker room. And that’s what happened to him.”

That’s when the humming factory and its surroundings began to smoke 24 hours a day. And that’s usually the beginning of the end. In Madrid, and especially at Florentino, to be a coach is to be the first sports manager. And everything you do and say is appreciated. “Of course, the number of people who have opinions about Madrid influences. And it is a symptom of greatness, but also of instability. Everything is conditioned by what is written, said or thought, whether true or invented. “We constantly have to make decisions that, in many cases, coexist with a toxic external environment,” explains Cañizares.

“The coach who arrives in the Madrid locker room must, firstly, integrate into the club and understand its dynamics, and secondly, adapt his conception of football. I say this because there are coaches who think that the most important thing is to apply their idea of ​​football, and I believe that what a Madrid coach must do is bring out the best version of his 25 players, who perhaps do not have the characteristics that he needs for his idea of ​​football. “It may seem like a truism, but it’s a question that concerns some coaches,” says Sanchís. A reflection that coincides with the statistics: the most tactical and interventionist coaches have been those who have already failed in Madrid. The most flexible and communicative good locker room managers (even if the term hurts them so much) are those who have performed the best and lasted the longest in office.