Jorge Valdano Leaves Real Madrid, is that a good thing?

*If you don't know who Valdano is read the following article http://madridista1812.blogspot.com/2011/06/who-is-valdano-true-madridista-would-of.html so you understand the importance of this article**


Jorge Alberto Francisco Valdano Castellanos, born October 4, 1955 in Las Parejas, Santa Fe Province, Argentina. Real Madrid C.F.’s latest General Manager (Basically the club President’s right hand), Valdano has been linked with the club for 27 years. Ever since the beginning of the past season there were reports of many disagreements with coach Jose Mourinho, and now the sparks blew out and Valdano has been let go of his position to the surprise of many. Was this really the right move for Real Madrid?


Jose Mourinho is hired as coach of Madrid after once again proving his status as best coach in the world by giving the treble to a mediocre Inter Milan team who in the process took out a strong Barcelona side from the Champions League, much to the dislike of Valdano however as he has always been critical of Mourinho’s style since his Chelsea days, they decided to hide their differences to the public but inside was a different story, the tension between the 2 was noticeable since Mou’s first press conference as Madrid’s boss, Valdano wanted Mou to play a certain style and bring in more stars although Mou won the battle for signing by bringing young excellent, and improving, talent to the Bernabeu in Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Angel DiMaria; Valdano’s pressure to play attacking football was evident which later proved to be costly, one November 29, 2010 night in Barcelona where our fiercest rivals defeated the beautiful Blancos 5 – 0.

Mou decided to ignore the pressure since that night and play his style of play which combined attacking football with the skill of fast paced counter attack and solid defending, it proved to be efficient as Madrid and Barcelona were lucky enough to be paired up four more times, the second round of the Liga clasico, the Copa del Rey final and the two-legged semi-final of the Champions League all within 18 days of one another. Amongst the controversy these matches brought it proved that when Mou’s Madrid has a full squad Barcelona finds it difficult to win. Taking the Copa del Rey in the process and losing in the Champions League only by favoritism towards Barcelona from the referee the message was loud and clear; Jose Mourinho is the man to lead Madrid into success.

Valdano however felt he needed to be involved in all aspects of the game, still complained behind the public, demanded more access to the first team and the club’s board of directors along with Florentino decided this interfered with the club’s current process and plans to continue improving and so on May 25 it was official, Valdano was released from his position in an official press conference in which Valdano took the time to as a gentleman state Mourinho was the right coach for Madrid but at the same time criticize the Portuguese tactician stating “I hope Benzema does not stay on the bench for too long, the situation surrounding him is unfair.” Pointing out at Mou’s decision to bench Benz near the end of the season and although President Perez tried to give the idea that it was a peaceful and mutual agreement of all parties involved by stating “Mourinho did not make any demands, he asked for more autonomy in line with how English clubs are organized. Everything that we do, we do because they are the right decisions that do not take into account personal sentiment." Valdano suggested otherwise and said: "If this was a battle, this decision clearly states who the winner of the fight is. I haven’t spoken to him [Mourinho] personally for a long time, but I haven't needed to. This club has educated me, taught me a lot. It's always painful to move away from what you want."

Mou & Valdano

As a devoted Madrid fan I love and always will love Valdano, he has been part of this prestigious club for so long it’s hard to picture Real Madrid without him, just like it was hard to picture Real Madrid without our eternal captain Raul Gonzalez Blanco, but at the end history and past happy moments cannot justify bad decisions and harmful acts towards the club. Valdano’s biggest mistake to date is undoubtedly the sacking of Vicente del Bosque in 2003, this was Valdano's decision with the reasoning that Madrid needed a fresh face. WRONG! As any team Madrid needed consistency, and Valdano's real reason for firing del Bosque was simply because he failed to deliver "La Decima", the tenth European crown that is, del Bosque of course won La Liga that year but this wasn't enough to him and he was sacked, they paid the price as Madrid failed to replicate the beautiful brand of football that had just give them 4 domestic titles, 4 European titles, and 2 international titles in only 6 years and Valdano was RIGHTLY accused of this due to del Bosque's absence.


Real Madrid spent the next few seasons switching coaches, due to lack of performance, so often it even seemed hard to keep up with them all, a total of 10 Coaches in 7 seasons between 2003 and 2010 which included Carlos Quieroz, Jose Antonio Camacho, Mariano Garcia Remon, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, Juan Ramon Lopez Caro, Fabio Capello, Bernd Schuster, Juande Ramos, Manuel Pellegrini and our current Jose Mourinho. Of all these only two have been given the chance to stay at the club more than one season, Berndt Schuster who lasted a season and a half as well as Jose Mourinho who is staying another year with us. The inability of Valdano to provide enough time to coaches so they can get the team adjusted as well as not having a set system of team play and dynamic showed that Valdano was looking for one thing and one thing only, quick results, which when you are playing at the top is very hard to accomplish.

Perez is often blamed for the lack of success from the Galacticos, maybe in a sense it’s true but for the simple matter that he is more of a businessman than he is a footballer, Perez is responsible for Real Madrid’s wealthiest time periods, because of him Madrid is the richest, most profitable team worldwide! Is this so surprising? Of course not he is the CEO of one of the world’s richest and most successful construction and real states companies in the world, but that’s where Valdano came into effect, his role was to oversee that the club made the right decisions, ensure the youth team was progressing along and most importantly work with the coach to make the right player purchases, this however was something Valdano failed to understand as he wanted all the say so in the transfer market.

Valdano frequently complained that Mourinho gave him limited access to the first team, ignored his orders to play football the way he wanted to and left players on the bench that Valdano would have preferred to have been playing. This is NOT and has NEVER been the General Manager’s job! That role belongs to the coach who is hired for a reason and that is to mould the team into champions. His job, for starters is to decide how the team is going to play, which means he decides what kind of players he needs, how the player is going to perform that role, team tactics, where on the field the team could improve, what position needs improvement and what players would improve those positions! We all know this it’s basic knowledge; along other not so obvious roles such as ensure players are receiving the proper nutrition and such. Valdano felt as if he had every right to have a say so on all this and ultimately led to a falling out between him and Mourinho.

At the beginning of the season Perez decided to put faith Mourinho’s transfers rather than Valdano’s in what proved to be Perez’s first sign of mentality change as the high profile potential signings of Cesc Fabregas, Didier Drogba, Maicon, Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard were later switched for Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Angel DiMaria, who all proved to be a bargain as their performances were those that one would expect from Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaka, yet Valdano was still complaining! Why?! Madrid has that creativity and flair that they had been lacking for so many years! Mesut Ozil is the next Zidane in the making, or is at least being highly regarded as that, and when we compare other successful clubs, one thing they have in common is the freedom the coach is given to coach his players, and Mourinho to be more specific has shown to bring a lot of success when you put your trust in him.
Perez finally came to this realization, and in co-operation with Mourinho has now started a new project to revamp the club and make clear the roles of everyone involved, should Valdano have continued Mourinho would have become the next Vicente del Bosque. I knew it, you knew it, Mourinho knew it and finally at the end of the season Perez knew it, as the president he had to take action and see what was best for the club and that is exactly what he did so Mr. Perez, you have my personal support and I salute you for it!

Florentino Perez & Jose Mourinho

Who knows? Maybe Mourinho will even stay past his 4 year contract at the club, seems almost impossible when we’re talking about Madrid but if changes are being implemented in the club why not go a step further? He’s a proven winner and should receive the respect he deserves! Rumours are Zinedine Zidane will be the next to take his post; this will certainly please many of us! Without a doubt one of our biggest legends of recent times, his humbleness and love of Mou and Madrid is exactly what the club needs… Harmony.

Whether the new system and plans for the future will work is yet to be seen, what is certain is that the club is moving in the right direction, it’s scary to think the world’s most successful club can become even bigger! Barcelona may be stronger but as always the case… Form is temporary but class is permanent, this has happened in the past and just like always we at the end have come out on top! Lastly Valdano remains a big figure in our club so thank you for all you have done for us! We hope you will still be involved in club affairs in the future! A future filled with many victories, trophies and joy! Hala Madrid!

The History of Jorge Valdano with Real Madrid

**This article was created with the idea of educating those who are interested on knowing who Valdano is to Madrid so you better understand the idea of the real article I am posting “Valdano Leaves Madrid. Good or Bad?”, if you already know the history of Valdano or aren't too interested in it and just wanna get to the real article skip this one. **

Who is Valdano? A true Madridista would of course know the answer but let’s review it anyways, Valdano’s first involvement with the club happened in the summer of 1984 as a player, signed from Real Zaragoza to help reinforce a team about to conquer Spain and Europe with its flair and skills alongside “La Quinta de Buitre”. During his time with Madrid, Valdano won 2 Ligas (1986, 1987), 2 UEFA Cups (1985, 1986), and the now defunct Copa de Liga (1985).

Valdano (right) playing for Argentina in the 80's

Much to the sadness of Madridistas he retired from the beautiful game in the summer of 1987, Madrid went on to win 3 more consecutive Liga titles to make it 5 in a row along with a Copa del Rey (1989) and  2 Supercopa España (1988, 1989) and thus the legendary “Quinta de Buitre” accomplishments were completed. Of course like every lover of the game he couldn’t stay away for too long and came back to the club of his most success in 1991 as coach of the Cantera.

Following “La Quinta de Buitre” success, Cryuff’s Barcelona went on to dominate La Liga between 1991 and 1994 as well as adding 3 Spanish Supercups in 1991, 1992, 1994 and their very first Champions League crown in 1992 with what is now known as “The Dream Team”.  During this time Madrid only accomplished one Copa del Rey title in 1993, certainly unacceptable for a team that had just dazzled the entire planet with their beautiful brand of football. A change was needed, that change was Jorge Valdano.

After a very short spell as La Cantera’s coach Valdano left for a post as Tenerife’s coach between 1992 and 1994, in the summer of 1994 Madrid brought him back as the replacement for Vicente del Bosque at his first stint being a Madrid coach following his step in of Benito Floro’s position for the last 2 months of the 1993-94 season. During his time as coach Valdano gave the now legendary Raul Gonzalez Blanco his debut one chilly October 29, 1994 and subsequently the Liga title. He parted ways again in January 1994 after a series of bad performances. He came back to coaching 2 years later until 1997 for Valencia C.F.

Valdano (left) and Raul  (right), Valdano is an important figure to Raul as the ex-Captain named his son after him.

This would be Valdano’s last coaching job to date, making a return to football as Real Madrid’s Sporting Director (Basically the man that takes care of buying players) after Florentino Perez’s first presidential victory in 2000. The Galacticos era was born thanks to both Valdano and Perez, the men responsible for the highly controversial transfer of Luis Figo from FC Barcelona to the royal club of Madrid. The transfer policy at the beginning of course was referred by the media as “Zidanes y Pavones”, being that the purpose was to each year buy an expensive world class superstar (Such as Zinedine Zidane) and at the same time promote a Cantera graduate player (Such as Francisco Pavon), which was placed in effect the second season of Valdano’s stint as in 2001 the very name of the policy took effect, Zinedine Zidane was purchased from Juventus for a then world record fee of what would now be €75 million and Francisco Pavon was given his La Liga debut that season against Athletic Bilbao on October 6, 2001.

The limited showcase of talent from the youth team plus the skill shown by world class signings made the promotion of youth players into the team nearly impossible however, therefore with the purchase of Ronaldo Nazario in 2002 after his amazing performance at the Korea/Japan World Cup with then Champions Brazil and of David Beckham from Manchester United in 2003 the policy came to be known as “Los Galacticos” ("The Galactics" due to the number of stars in the team), one last Galactico addition was Michael Owen from Liverpool in 2004. In 2005 there were key purchases made of young very promising players such as Robinho and Sergio Ramos, they are not considered Galacticos however as at the time they were promising talents not stars, Valdano of course was responsible for all this activity.

 

Zidane (left) and Valdano (right) at a press conference

The Galactico era was mainly seen as a failure by Valdano and Perez from the media, Looking at statistics the club was actually successful during this time as Madrid went on to win 3 Ligas, 2 Supercopa de España, 1 UEFA Champions League and 1 UEFA Supercup in addition to making the Copa del Rey final against Deportivo la Coruña in 2003, the main reason for being seen as a failure however was the fact that so many world class players on the team could not help the team win a title for four years in a row in which Valencia and Barcelona won the La Liga title twice each, the main reason for this however was that long time coach Vicente del Bosque was VERY STUPIDLY fired as in 2003, this was Valdano's decision with the reasoning that Madrid needed a fresh face. WRONG! As any team Madrid needed consistency, and Valdano's real reason for firing del Bosque was simply because he failed to deliver "La Decima", the tenth European crown that is, del Bosque of course won La Liga but this wasn't enough and he was sacked, they paid the price however as Madrid failed to replicate the beautiful brand of football that had just give them 4 domestic titles, 4 European titles, and 2 international titles in only 6 years and Valdano was RIGHTLY accused of this due to del Bosque's absence.

During Perez’s last year Barcelona took complete domination in La Liga and subsequently went on to become champions of Spain and Europe by the end of the 2005/2006 season. Perez resigned to his position as President, Valdano decided to go with him, the Galactico era seemed over. Ramon Calderon became president and after a couple of year of success where Madrid won La Liga twice in a row and the Supercopa de España the 2008/2009 campaign arrived, which saw Barcelona begin their current football domination on the world stage, Calderon is found to have rigged the elections and amidst the scandal resigned to his position as president too, Vicente Boluda took over however the problems continued most notably on the pitch as that season Madrid lost to Barcelona 2 – 6 at the Bernabeu in what is now one of the most infamous games for Madridistas, Boluda stated he would not continue next year, there was an interesting scene during the game, the cameraman points the camera to the VIP booth, in it was Florentino with a disappointing look on his face, ESPN en Español’s Mario Kempes stated “Perez looks upset, as if he cannot allow this to happen again, as if he needs to do something”, how right he was, because at that very moment, Perez decided to come back as president.

He won the race unopposed in 2009, and as expected he brought Valdano with him again as his Director General and presidential aide. May have a different title but it is the same role… Who am I buying? The second stint of Galacticos is born again spending a mammoth amount of about €250 Million in one summer on new players which included Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United (Current record of €94 Million), Kaka’ from AC Milan (€68 Million), Karim Benzema (€35 Million) and Xabi Alonso (€35 Million). Appointing Manuel Pellegrini as coach and saw Madrid end the season 3 points behind Barcelona, no trophies, and Pellegrini sacked, which brings us to the beginning of this past season and the signing of our current coach, Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho (left) and Valdano (right) hiding their disagreements at a press conference.

Ever since Mou was hired there were reports of many disagreements between him and Valdano, and now we are past the boiling point Valdano was let go of his position to the surprise of many on May 25th, 2011. Being such an obvious important part of Madrid's history was this really the right move for Madrid?