Zinedine Zidane’s shock return as Real Madrid coach was immediately seen as bad news for Gareth Bale’s future at the Bernabeu, given how things ended between the pair last June.
However Zidane’s second coming as coach also spells trouble for many of Madrid’s other underperforming big names – and they don’t come bigger, or more underperforming, than club captain Sergio Ramos.
“I am looking forward to this second project,” Zidane said at his latest presentation at the Bernabeu Monday evening. “I want to put this club back where it should be. We will change things, for sure, for the years to come. But now is not about that – the important thing is I am back.”
Zidane is ready to get back to work pic.twitter.com/txJzvOjCwW
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) March 12, 2019
For sure this season has been a disaster for everyone at the Bernabeu – culminating in the worst week in the club’s entire 119-year history bringing the Champions League exit to Ajax and Clasico defeats at home to Barcelona ending their interest in the Copa del Rey and La Liga title race. But at his presentation, Zidane spoke more about his final season in charge – when a team which had won so much was already starting to slide.
“I do not want to forget what we won, but also not forget the bad things we did all together last year,” he said. “We lost La Liga early, we lost the Copa del Rey, we won the Champions League, okay, but I know where I am. When you are at the top, sometimes, you must know that some things are wrong. Many players had won for five, six, seven years.”
The impression given was that Zidane had left last summer as he felt unable to continue to control and motivate the big personalities in the Bernabeu dressing room. And he was now coming back as Perez had given him the nod to move many of them out.
It is not difficult to now see Bale’s time at the Bernabeu coming to an end, given how his relationship with Zidane deteriorated during their last season working together. But then the Welshman had also fallen out of favour recently under previous coach Santi Solari and has been a peripheral figure really over the last 12 months at least.
Throwback to last summer when I took on one of the greatest tests on the @PGATOUR.
Looking forward to tuning into @theplayerschamp at @TPCSawgrass March 14-17th. ⛳ pic.twitter.com/yGnwXtgA4o
— Gareth Bale (@GarethBale11) March 11, 2019
An extra irony was Bale's unfortunately timed golf related tweet – just as news was breaking of Zidane replacing Solari yesterday afternoon – which just confirmed for many around the Bernabeu that the Welshman just still did not understand how things worked at their club.
However, Bale’s presumably pre-planned tweet was not the only unfortunate social media posting from the Madrid dressing room on Monday. Earlier in the day, before anybody really believed that Zidane was returning, Ramos published a bizarre Q&A session with himself on his own social media accounts.
The club captain admitted to a “disastrous” 2018/19 and to making an “error” in getting deliberately booked to miss the second leg against Ajax. Most of Ramos’ answers were confirmations of stories his own camp had leaked to the Spanish press through the last week – including him rowing with Florentino after the Ajax disaster last Tuesday. This was the latest part of a clearly organised PR campaign to position the defender as the only leader who could sort out the crisis at the club.
As footballers we like to do our talking on the pitch but this season is not turning out that way.
Recent events have been disastrous and I’m not hiding. We are not hiding. We the players are primarily responsible and I, as captain, more than anyone. pic.twitter.com/QtooxgoJLY— Sergio Ramos (@SergioRamos) March 11, 2019
It is true that any analysis of the 2018/19 disaster must focus on the captain’s role. Ramos has been a key figure, for sure, as Madrid were champions of Europe for over 1,000 days. But the moment he went over the edge was the controversial challenge which injured Liverpool’s Mo Salah in last year’s UCL decider in Kiev – and especially the way he revelled in the notoriety afterwards. That was soon followed by the Spain national team captain being centrally involved as Julen Lopetegui left the La Roja job to replace Zidane at the Bernabeu, a move which does not now look so clever.
Ramos then arrived a day late for pre-season training in the US, with the skipper posting photos of himself backflipping off a boat when his Spanish teammates were already back hard at work. He then made a personal howler as Atletico Madrid beat their neighbours 4-2 in the season-opening UEFA Supercup in Tallinn.
The slips and slides continued into the campaign proper. Even as Ramos was ‘showing leadership’ by replacing Cristiano Ronaldo by taking over penalty-duties, opposition attacks were targeting his area of the defence. When Lopetegui was fired after October’s 1-5 La Liga Clasico defeat at the Camp Nou, Ramos was culpable on three of Barca’s five goals.
The rot continued up to Ramos being clearly at fault for Ivan Rakitic’s only goal of the recent reverse La Liga Clasico. And then – of course – to to deliberately picking up a suspension which meant he was being filmed by an Amazon Prime documentary crew as Ajax ended Madrid’s reign as Champions League holders.
All of this is exactly the type of thing that Zidane is returning to stamp out. On Monday evening, the Frenchman was careful not to give any specifics of the changes he was planning on implementing. But when asked whether he had spoken to Ramos about his return he gave a swift and emphatic negative.
“The most important thing is to be back at the club, and I am just thinking now about these remaining 11 [La Liga] games,” Zidane said. “We will have time to look at the rest, with the appropriate people, then we will plan for next season.”
What Perez thought of a mere player positioning himself as the club’s most important leader would also be interesting to know – and the pair have a difficult personal history going back years. Ramos trying to nix the club signing either Antonio Conte or Jose Mourinho must also have been difficult to take.
If Perez and Zidane really do want to move on and create a whole new team, then moving out Bale should only be the beginning. There could be no bigger statement that real change is coming at the Bernabeu than letting Ramos know he is no longer needed.
