yet their destruction had deep roots; the
conditions for crisis went back further.
Absurd though it sounds, winning the
European Cup had hidden some of their
problems, keeping them under wraps,
giving them the sense that all was well
when it wasn’t.
It is also true though that winning the
European Cup brought some of it out into
the open; title won, tension released,
some of it came to the surface, some felt
an era had ended. Not against Ajax, but
nine months earlier.
Madrid’s 2018-19 season could be
measured in numbers, in time. The
figures are incredible, the speed at
which it unravelled is stunning.
Barely three minutes had passed after
the final whistle of the Final in Kiev last
year when Cristiano Ronaldo announced
that he would be leaving. Within 20
minutes Gareth Bale said that he might
too. And within five days, Zinedine Zidane
actually did.
“It’s the right moment,” Zidane had
said. Alongside him, Florentino Perez
was stunned.
And so, it started: more movement,
more numbers. Madrid hadn’t planned
for Zidane leaving and they were under
pressure. The men they wanted didn’t
want to come. How do you follow three
European Cups in a row? The answer, as
SPAINit turned out, was: badly. Spain’s Julen
Lopetegui was signed two days before
the World Cup began. One hundred and
thirty eight days later he was gone.
Amid talk of Antonio Conte, and with
Ramos publicly saying that they were
better off without an authoritarian coach,
Solari was named temporary boss.
Federation rules limit temporary roles to
two weeks, though, so he was soon made
a “permanent” appointment and given a
contract until 2021, the same year that
Lopetegui’s runs out.
Only permanent is never permanent.
Things got worse, not better.
“None of us have been at our level,
myself included,” Toni Kroos admitted the
day before their entire season ended.
Lopetegui had lasted 138 days; Solari
was sacked after 119. And then Zidane
walked back in – just 284 days after
walking out.
When he left, Zidane had said it might
be a “see you later, not a goodbye” but
he had also made it clear that there were
reasons for going. “It’s the right decision,”he said. “I don’t like losing. If I feel like I
am not going to win, I have to make a
change.”
Unlike most coaches he was as swift
to talk about the things he had not won
as the things that he had, not hiding from
the fact that Madrid had finished 17
points behind Barcelona in his final
season. He was aware that there were
things that had to change, and he was
not entirely convinced that they would.
Time proved him right and Madrid did
not win. Those flaws that he foresaw were
shown to be significant. At least now they
were unavoidable, not hidden beneath
success. Now they had to be addressed.
At Zidane’s presentation most of the
enquiries could be reduced to a basic
question: what had changed for you to
come back now if you walked away just
nine months ago? And, of course, what
still would?
In part, what had changed was the
simple fact that he had gone and that
in his absence Madrid had lost. That
brought a shift in the conditions and in
attitudes – among players, fans and the
club. It strengthened Zidane’s hand; he
could get guarantees now. They needed
him more than he needed them. All the
more so with some pointing the finger
at the president.
Asked what his first thought was when
the president called him, Zidane replied:
“To go back...and here I am.” But he had
been called when Lopetegui left too and
this time it had taken him five days to
actually go back. Madrid did have some
convincing to do. Zidane returned with
promises made on how the squad
is rebuilt, and who has the final word.
“Things will change,” he said.
There will be arrivals – Eder Militao,
from Porto, was announced within two
days – and departures too. Zidane’s
return is bad news for Gareth Bale, for a
start. Money will be spent where it wasn’t
before, strikers a priority.
In the long term, whether results
change is yet to be seen of course. It
didn’t feel like it in the warm glow of his
return but Zidane’s time was not perfect.
In the short term, things had already
changed; everything had. Just Zidane’s
presence did that, his aura and authority,
his symbolism.
For Madrid, the days that followed the
loss against Ajax showed that it was not
just about defeat, it has also been about
the damage done: the lid had been lifted,
leaks continued, relationships increasingly
strained and played out in public.
Many of the problems remain but with
the Frenchman’s arrival a crisis had been
calmed, tranquillity returning. Almost as if
it hadn’t happened.
It had of course, and their terrible
season was over ahead of time, but
tomorrow was another day.
They wore different faces now.“We have to stand up, we can’t hide.
We know that we have had a shit
season and that’s it”
Dani CarvajalOn his way?...
Gareth Bale