Fabio Capello faces an uncertain future as the Spanish club has a record of sacking triumphant coaches, writes Bikash Mohapatra.
Faces an uncertain future as the Spanish club has a record of sacking triumphant coaches, writes Bikash Mohapatra
Real Madrid have won the Spanish Primera Liga title for a record 30th time.
And Fabio Capello, after an indifferent start to his second stint, has managed to keep his impeccable record at Santiago Barnebeu intact — in his first season in charge at Real in 1996-97, he had also managed to win the league title. This is something we all know by now. But the question is what next?
In the last few years, Real have been a troubled club. And with no league title since 2003 and no European success since 2002, the management has been somewhat reckless in its decisions. So despite the title win, the key players like David Beckham and Roberto Carlos are on their way out and coach Capello is uncertain about his future. Real’s poor start to the 2006-07 season, followed by their even poorer progress had brought Capello’s job on the line and instigated the Real management to look out for alternatives.
The Italian was the villain of the piece with the honchos as well as the fans, — blame it on his defensive style or bad luck. His decision to bench David Beckham — which made the England star to look for another club, his selling-off of Brazilian superstar Ronaldo to AC Milan and his spat with compatriot Antonio Cassano which led to the latter’s suspension made things worse.
So much so that the Real president, Ramon Calderon reportedly offered the job to Getafe coach Bernd Schuster in the middle of the season. Now with Real winning the league the situation is what can be termed as a ‘Real dilemma.’ There are two questions which will be answered in the coming days. One, will Fabio Capello continue? Two, will he get the boot? For the record, the club has had seven coaches in the last four years.
The coaches per se haven’t had a good experience at the Spanish club. History suggests Real have been one of the most thankless of clubs in Europe. Sample this. Jupp Heynckes leads the club to their first Champions’ League title in 32 years (1998) and is given the pink slip thereafter. Vicente Del Bosque guides the club to multiple league and European wins and is given a cold shoulder later on.
Capello himself has had a similar bitter experience previously. Despite winning the league title in his first stint in 1996-97, he was sacked.
A turbulent start, a tempestuous middle phase and a phoenix like rise in the end — Capello has seen all in a year. Quite like the previous year when, he, then at the helm of Juventus, had a smooth victory in the Italian league and subsequently saw the title being stripped and his side demoted in the aftermath of the match fixing scandal. Capello had found a way out then — he quit Juve in favour of Real. Will he find a way out now? That remains to be answered.
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