When you are given players worth €254 million, you are supposed to win trophies; and if you don’t, then you are subjected to the guillotine. No questions raised, no arguments made. You fail, you go out.
And honestly, Manuel Pellegrini’s inability to lead Real Madrid to any silverware in the 2009-2010 campaign merits the axe. After all, he had what is on paper the second most talented team in club football and he ended up winning nothing. Nothing.
The 4-0 humiliation to Alcorcon in the Copa del Rey meant that Madrid remained unable to win the Spanish King’s Cup yet again. Okay, you could argue that the domestic Cup doesn’t matter much to most successful European club of all time, but what about the Spanish Primera Liga and the Champions League?
The Liga title race was always going to be a two-horse one and this time, like last season, Barcelona reached the finishing line first, garnering 99 points in 38 matches, three more than Real Madrid.
One could argue that Madrid’s league disappointment was more because of Barcelona’s superiority than because of their own inferiority but Madrid disappointed in some of the big games in the league in the first half of the season. A 2-1 defeat to Sevilla at the Pizjuan in October saw Madrid lose their first big test in the Liga, and it becomes even more embarrassing when one considers that the loss was as comprehensive as it gets as the Andalucians ripped apart los Blancos.
Then there was the Clasico defeats to Barcelona in what were dubbed as the biggest games of the season. The 1-0 defeat at Camp Nou was perhaps a stroke of bad luck but the 2-0 loss at the Bernabeu was more embarrassing as Barca won with comprehension without actually looking very good.
But it was the Champions League disappointment that broke the camel’s back. Getting past against a Lyon side that were weaker than they had been in the past three or so years wasn’t supposed to be difficult but the 1-1 draw at home following the 1-0 defeat away saw Madrid get knocked out of the last 16 stage for the sixth year in a row. When you consider that Real Madrid had last conquered Europe in 2002 and that the final of this year’s Champions League was held at the Bernabeu, embarrassment turns to downright humiliation.
Bottomline is: you fail to win anything with a talented bunch of players and you go out. It is as simple as that.
Yet Manuel Pellegrini might feel that he is being treated harshly. It is not easy to make a collection of stars play as a team but the Chilean coach actually did that. Of course, it took time for him to make his stars gel but it cannot be denied that the football exhibited under Pellegrini in the second half of the 2009-2010 campaign was attractive. Pellegrini combined silk with steel as Madrid gained the ability to stage amazing comebacks with an aesthetic style.
The former Villarreal coach treated everyone equally. Raul was relegate to the bench what could be his last ever season at Real Madrid and Guti’s tantrums saw him stay on the bench for several months - although the official reason was that the Spanish midfielder was suffering from injuries. Gonzalo Higuain continued to progress and scored 28 league goals, Cristiano Ronaldo was arguably the second most entertaining player to watch in the Spanish top flight and Xabi Alonso looked at home in a ‘White’ shirt.
The now widely assumed law in football is that when a team loses, it is solely the coach’s fault. But Madrid’s players have to shoulder much of the blame. Karim Benzema flopped in his first season at the Bernabeu and so did Kaka, and they were signed in the summer for a total fee of over €100 million. Now both failed to live up the expectations and for this Pellegrini couldn’t be blamed. Moreover, Pepe got injured and missed a large chunk of the season, stretching Madrid’s central defence to the maximum.
Manuel Pellegrini is Madrid’s ninth coach since 2003 and although his sacking in the wake of a very disappointing season at the ‘White House’ wouldn’t exactly be uncalled for, it will also denote the continued lack of discontinuity. For a football club to achieve success in the long run, it should sustain stability and Madrid are anything but stable.
A new coach implies a new outlook, a new era, a new build-up. Whether it will lead Madrid to glory or not, let’s wait and watch.