Phillip Buckley
Real Madrid have surprised many in football by dispensing with German coach Bernd Schuster and replacing him with former Tottenham and Sevilla coach Juande Ramos. It isn’t the fact that Schuster was shown the door that was the surprise, in truth he’d been on the brink for a while, but more the fact that Ramos was brought in.
Schuster had been living on borrowed time. It was bad enough that Real had lost 4 of their 14 La Liga games this season, but even worse that arch rivals Barcelona are topping the table so impressively. Even after Schuster’s capturing of the title last season, few inside the Bernabeu were convinced he could turn it around. The final straw came against, ironically, Ramos’ last Spanish club, Sevilla. On their own patch the reigning champions showed a porous backline in a 4-3 defeat.
Enough was enough for president Ramon Calderon and his sporting director Predrag Mijatovic. No sooner had Bernd Schuster’s face beamed at the prospect of prolific Dutch striker Klass-Jan Huntelaar being put at his disposal from January than he was he out of the door.
But why Juande Ramos? Followers of the English Premier League can be forgiven for wondering just how a coach can go from being a hugely expensive flop at Tottenham Hotspur, to landing in the dugout at arguably the biggest club in the world. Moreover there was no in-between stop, no rehabilitation. Just straight into Real Madrid.
Plainly clear is that Ramos still enjoys an immensely high reputation in Spain. At Sevilla he built a superb machine, a machine that Real Madrid were able to observe at close quarters. Two successive UEFA Cups were recognition on the international stage, with a 3-0 UEFA Super Cup win made all the sweeter by the fact that it was over Barcelona.
The other factor going for Ramos is his availability. Real have been able to move as quickly as they liked, appoint him without fuss, and at little cost, aside from wages. A far cry from the drawn out affair that Tottenham experienced when they moved to make Ramos their boss.
Perhaps too this appointment demonstrates another difference between English and Spanish clubs. Real were not put off by Ramos’ North London failure, in fact, they probably barely considered it. What was important was what he had shown he could achieve. In England failure in any job all too often means a lengthy spell on the sidelines. Just ask David O’Leary, once considered one of the brightest up and coming young coaches in the game. Success at Leeds, failure at Aston Villa, now kicking his heels in some Irish bar. Or Alan Curbishley, a miracle worker at Charlton, far from succeeding at West Ham United, now still waiting for that next Premier League chance.
Real Madrid still have much to play for, sporting director Predrag Mijatovic said as much at Ramos’ unveiling. He expects the club can improve in La Liga and it is still in the Champions League. So Ramos does have time to impress. And because he is only employed until the end of the season this is something of a trial for both parties.
And so the managerial merry-go-round goes on some more.
