Sport
Real Madrid decline continues under Florentino Perez
The influence of Florentino Perez at Real Madrid is waning. The man who famously ushered in the Galacticos era is increasingly resembling one of the old-fashioned American radio hosts of the 1950s, denouncing the rock and roll craze sweeping through the country, refusing to concede that life was no longer how he knew it.
Still harping on about the joys of a European Super League, this is a man who seems hell-bent on laying new foundations across the continent all just to keep his house in order. After all, the great Real Madrid do not accept failure, do they?
No, rather than actually run the club with any kind of sense, it is the landscape of football in Europe that has to change in order to protect their finances. The mighty Madrid, the club who have built a dynasty in the European Cup over the years, simply cannot show weakness. Except they did.
Criticised by Real Madrid club legend Zinedine Zidane as he left the Santiago Bernabeu for the third time in his career, Florentino Perez has been left reeling. Indeed, so much so, that he had to stoop as low as bringing Everton’s manager back to the Spanish capital half a decade after sacking him.
Absolutely no disrespect intended towards Everton with that statement but during those grotesque plans to make European football a closed shop for the elite teams such as Real Madrid, the whole notion of Florentino Perez was that the superpowers did not need teams like Everton in the game.
Granted, Ancelotti is a somewhat special case. One of only three managers to win the Champions League on three different occasions, it’s not as if Madrid have appointed Marco Silva, the Italian’s predecessor at Goodison Park.
What might offer more of an insight into Ancelotti’s career, however, is his record in league management. A 26-year managerial career to have taken him to the San Siro, the Allianz Arena, Stamford Bridge, the Parc des Princes and the Bernabeu has yielded only four league titles. Given the resources he’s had available to him, that is an underwhelming – if not alarming – return.
Ancelotti is not a philosopher. He is a gun for hire. An experienced pair of hands who, when the stars align, seems like the perfect manager to let his usual band of superstars get on with their jobs. More pertinently, however, he was managing Everton. A 10th-placed Everton with a truly abysmal home record at that.
Prior to the shock return to Madrid, Ancelotti looked as if he was on the way down. Perhaps that is only natural for a man to have straddled the decades managing any one of Europe’s soulless superclubs but nothing about his short reign on Merseyside should inspire Madrid’s confidence.
Aside from that, the move is also indicative of the current standing of Real Madrid in the game, during a period in which Florentino Perez is steering them. Do any of Europe’s elite coaches want to go to Madrid right now?
It’s hard to imagine the likes of Thomas Tuchel, Mauricio Pochettino, Jurgen Klopp or Antonio Conte being tempted by their project. With their finances look limited at the moment and an aging squad presided over by a man to have embarrassed himself so publicly, the Real Madrid job just doesn’t look appealing anymore.
That’s why they raided Everton for a man they’ve already sacked, having seen his weaknesses in league management first-hand. That is the best they can do. The 13-time champions of Europe trying to leave the competition they are so widely associated with in a desperate attempt to make up for their own financial mismanagement.
It is a situation that highlights just how far Real Madrid have sunk, with the decline of the European giants entirely the fault of Florentino Perez.
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