By Stephen Larkin
Julen Logetegui shocked the football world last summer when he agreed to become Real Madrid head coach, despite being the Spanish national team manager at the time.
The Spanish FA were left with no option but to sack Logetegui just two days before the World Cup started, which was perhaps the reason for Spain's downfall at the tournament.
However, four months on, there were no surprises when the news broke on Monday that Real Madrid sacked the Spaniard as the current Champions League holders sit ninth in La Liga and were hammered 5-1 at the weekend by Barcelona.
Speaking on Tuesday night's football show on Off The Ball, Spanish football writer Richard Fitzpatrick said, “He (Lopetegui) was a weak character. He got off to a bad start because of the situation he found himself in with the club president Florentino Perez, who bullied Lopetegui into making the announcement (that he was joining Madrid).”
He was also seen as a weak character by the Real Madrid players according to Fitzpatrick. “In an efford to blood new players, he was upsetting and unsettling some of the senior players in the squad. He just didn’t carry that weight or personality that is needed at a club like Real Madrid.”
When comparing Lopetegui to his predecessor, Fitzpatrick believes it was Zidane’s ruthlessness that gained him the respect of the players, something that Lopetegui didn’t have. “Zidane wasn’t a great tactician, but he had the ability to make big decisions. He had the status where he could drop Gareth Bale for most of last season, despite Bale being personally signed by Perez to be Ronaldo’s replacement. Lopetegui just didn’t have that power.”
Throughout his 14 games in charge of the club, Fitzpatrick said Madrid only played one good game which came against Roma in the Champions League, but overall it has been a terrible four months for everyone at the club.
Fitzpatrick was also critical of Gareth Bale and said that his relationship with the fans is “really bad”. “With the Wales national team, he is the refernce point who leads the team, but he doesn’t have that personality at Madrid because of language and cultural issues. He is like an outsider who has been riddled with injuries over his five years at the club,” he said.
“The club love a luchador (a fighter) and fans don’t see that fight in Gareth Bale,” he finished.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
