Results not enough to save Schuster from board's broom
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Wednesday December 10 2008
As is tradition at the Santiago Bernabeu, it was a matter of when, not if.
Bernd Schuster's concession this week that his depleted, demoralised troops stood no chance of beating bitter rivals Barcelona on Saturday was the final nail in a coffin which has been polished and ready for burial for at least six months.
The gruff German, a hero at both Madrid and Barca in his playing days, became just the latest in a line of coaches to fall foul of the great club's intemperate expectations.
Just as Fabio Capello was harshly fired having wrested the title from Frank Rijkaard's Barcelona side in 2007 only to find his style of football was not up to scratch, so too Schuster found the Bernabeu politics a minefield impossible to navigate indefinitely.
With Capello dumped unceremoniously in the wake of the 2006/07 title celebrations before the bubbly had even lost its fizz, Schuster was brought in to build on the foundations laid by the Italian while restoring the club's traditional footballing ethos.
He fulfilled that job spec last season. Madrid had by far the best attack in La Liga, beat Barca in style at the Nou Camp and won the league comfortably. Unfortunately for Schuster, however, results are not always enough.
Though he won the league, his failure to take Madrid to the Champions League quarter-finals seriously undermined his standing.
At the same time, directors were alarmed by his complete lack of diplomacy and media skills, with the German rapidly earning a reputation for being temperamental, rude and arrogant.
Enemy
Sporting director Predrag Mijatovic was seemingly Schuster's main enemy, constantly in president Ramon Calderon's ear.
Calderon's decision-making since ascending to the presidency in 2006 has been at once ponderous, reckless and invariably contradictory.
In the summer, Calderon unexpectedly continued to allow the manager to sip from the poisoned chalice while passing up the opportunity to snap up Jose Mourinho.
He kept Schuster in place and largely starved him of transfer funds, concentrating exclusively on his doomed campaign to buy Cristiano Ronaldo and instead landing only Rafael van der Vaart in terms of major additions.
And a miserable start to the season -- Madrid lie in fifth, nine points behind Barca going into this weekend's Clasico -- saw Schuster leave "by mutual consent" yesterday to be replaced, for six months at least, by Juande Ramos.
The former Sevilla boss can operate without the pressure of worrying for his long-term future as so little is expected, while rescuing Los Merengues' title defence would catapult him back to the forefront of the sport following his sacking by Tottenham.
But of course the chances of him being given the job long-term are unquestionably slim.
Madrid will spend the next few months fluttering their eyelashes at Rafael Benitez, their number-one target.
But the Liverpool boss, well acquainted with the savage politics of the Bernabeu, is aware that dealing with a rambunctious pair of Americans is a walk in the park in comparison.
- Phil Barnett Analysis
