Real Madrid’s managerial cycle stars anew

By on May 25, 2015

The moment the whistle hit Jonas Eriksson’s lips at the Santiago Bernabeu, closing a fantastic, if exhausting night of football at the Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid’s history entered yet another new managerial chapter. They might as well have reversed the clock to Manuel Pellegrini’s sacking in 2010, or Juande Ramos the year before that. In fact, most of the seven managerial changes that had taken place since the turn of the century bore resemblances to Ancelotti’s sacking this time around. It’s the same old story again.

Florentino Perez’s election as president of Real Madrid in 2000 promoted a return to the now (in?)famous ‘Galacticos’ philosophy. Luis Figo, Claude Makelele, Zindine Zidane, then Ronaldo, David Beckham and Michael Owen signed on. It seems they cast aside most needs but two: the newest, shiniest footballing stars and, or course, results.

At the top level, Perez is never satisfied without trophies. During the six years of his first term, Perez went through five managers. But stars and trophies don’t necessarily go hand in hand. With constant signings and upheavals, it becomes hard to create a consistently successful team in an ever-changing dressing room with multiple room-filling egos.

The manager feels the resulting pressure, inevitably turning to what is perhaps the very root of the cycle in the first place: the never-ending purse strings. Without the time to develop the next generation or cultivate a philosophy — because that’s the club’s preference, anyway — managers turn to the transfer market. Perez presumably would neither favor nor support another approach.

But if the big-money stars don’t immediately bring titles, much less perform to ever-increasing expectations, they’re cast aside and labeled flops, whether given the appropriate time to settle in and prove themselves or not. The league title is a bare minimum but often the ultimately judgement falls on their performance in the Champions League. Winning the competition is the goal every year, while reaching the finals appears to be a bare minimum goal. Whence these results fall just out of reach, the manager leaves. In the past fifteen years, Madrid have had twelve of these experiences (including a memorable string of Champions League Round of 16 exists) and are now searching for their thirteenth manager after Ancelotti’s sacking.

The club forsake many things by adopting this philosophy, or lack thereof, however. Against Juventus, it couldn’t have been more painfully obvious of their impatience with promising youth in Alvaro Morata’s two vital goals for Juventus against his former club. One of Madrid’s more recent “next big things” was offloaded to Juventus because he didn’t provide oven-ready results within the necessary time span.

For Madrid, an end was briefly in sight when Perez resigned in 2006, admitting the team needed a new direction; basically, Madrid were tired of the trouble. But after failing to discover that new direction in three years, Perez began his second term in 2009. Why? Because he was the only presidential candidate who could pay the necessary €57 million to run for presidency, a sum that may well double come the next cycle.

And so the cycle again whirred into gear with the players — the very summer he took over, Perez signed Cristiano Ronaldo for a then world-record fee. Additionally, Kaka was bought for the all-time third highest fee, at the time, but never found his form and was offloaded at a staggering loss in 2013. Ancelotti is only the latest manager to leave after a disappointing, trophy-less season (remember Manuel Pellegrini) and to some extent Jose Mourinho suffered the same fate, with the obvious twists of personnel.

The question then becomes, is the managerial trouble worth it all? Madrid’s rehiring of Perez in 2009 suggests they believe so — though one might suspect the manager simply serves as a convenient sacrifice to avoid blame being pointed at club executives or their star signings. As such, Perez would view Ancelotti’s sacking is a step forward for the club, if for no reason other than to start anew with a blank slate next year.

Homepage photo credit: FDV on Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.