As the fallout from the latest El Clásico continues, one man has been placed above all others as El Culpable. Real Madrid President, Florentino Pérez, was the subject of whistling, chants of ‘Pérez, Resign’ and on the end of general finger pointing from his own fans following the 4-0 thrashing at the hands of their great rivals, Barcelona. To those inside the Santiago Bernabéu, although some ire was directed at manager Rafael Benitez, the man they saw a carrying the can for this defeat was El Presidente himself.
Why Pérez Is At Fault For Real Madrid’s Problems
During his two reigns at the club covering a total of 12 seasons, his Galácticos transfer policy has been an undoubted commercial success. Deloitte’s annual league table, ranking the world’s richest football clubs, has seen Real Madrid top the list every year since 2004. But whilst he has been building himself an empire off the pitch, on it the success has been limited.
Both terms of his Presidency have yielded only a mere two La Liga crowns and just two Champions League victories. For an outlay into the billions of Euro’s, this is not a good return on the clubs’ investment.
A string of world class coaches have been hired and fired at great expense, with many having done little more than have the audacity to finish second in La Liga, or fail to win the European Cup. Fabio Capello and Vicente Del Bosque were sacked after title winning seasons, whilst Carlo Ancelotti was sacked a year after delivering the much coveted Decima, Real Madrid’s tenth European Cup success.
Many of the problems at Madrid have been of Florentino’s own making. This was epitomised in 2003 after Real Madrid won the league. Defensive midfield legend Claude Makélélé asked Pérez for a new contract. He was flatly turned down and promptly sold to Chelsea with Pérez understood to have remarked, “We will not miss Makélélé. His technique is average; he lacks the speed and skill to take the ball past opponents, and 90% of his distribution either goes backwards or sideways.”
This story encapsulates his vision of Real Madrid. His team of Galacticos, dressed all in white, must be as graceful and as elegant as a beautiful Swan. What he fails to realise is that whilst above the surface of the water the Swan is graceful and elegant; beneath the surface its feet paddle furiously to make sure it keeps moving forward. His failure to grasp the requirement of a balanced team and to recognise the importance of letting the coach manage the squad, continuously leads to ultimate failure at the final hurdle.
Jose Mourinho famously battled against this in his first Clásico as Madrid manager by picking the team the fans and the President wanted to see. They were hammered 5-0 at the Camp Nou and Mourinho from then on had justification for doing things his way.
Benitez did the same against Barcelona this time and history repeated itself. Whilst credit in both instances must go to Barcelona for their sumptuous football; neither Mourinho nor Benitez would have ever picked their respective line ups had they been at any other club facing such a difficult match.
Whilst Pérez and the board of directors gave a press conference on Monday stating their full support for Benitez, you get the very clear sense that he is already on borrowed time. The wheels of the great Perez propaganda machine are already in motion, with stories of Cristiano Ronaldo’s expected exit not being suppressed. With nothing ever seemingly good enough –and having worked his way through the cream of the world’s coaching talent – it is difficult to see where he can turn to next. There is talk of the players wanting Ancelotti back, which on the face of it is a positive, despite the rumours that he was ironically disliked by Perez due to his indulgence of the senior players. Whilst depending on how things go in London for Mourinho, there could be an opportunity for the ‘Special One’ to become the ‘Spanish One’ for a second time.
One thing is certain and that is Pérez sees himself in power for a long time. Some season ticket holders are taking to him to court over changes made to the Real Madrid Constitution in 2012. The challenge is based on the validity of amendments made regarding the terms and conditions to qualify for candidacy to become President. The minimum number of years required to have held a club membership to qualify was increased from 10 to 20, and the financial guarantees have also risen to be 15% of the Clubs annual budget; thus severely restricting the number of potential challengers to his reign.
Pérez enjoys being an autocrat, albeit in a nominally democratic system and this will inevitably only lead to the end of Benitez and possibly the end of Ronaldo and Benzema to boot. The only guarantee is the influx of more populist transfer signings, another man in place as head coach and the beginning of yet another cycle where the want of one man is valued greater than that of an institution.
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