Julen Lopetegui knew his days as Real Madrid manager were numbered following the 5-1 drubbing dished out by Barcelona in Sunday’s El Clasico.
After an utterly dreadful start to life at the Bernabeu, the 13-time European champions lie in ninth place in La Liga, seven points behind leaders Barcelona with ten games played.
It’s noted that were “evident tensions” during, before and after the training session and many Los Blancos players expected Santiago Solari to be leading training.
However, after a meeting between the board of directors on Monday evening, Los Blancos did then make the decision to sack the former Spain manager and draft in his temporary replacement.
Solari, who joined as a player from rivals Atletico in 2000 and went on to win the Champions League and two La Liga titles, had been working as the club’s Castilla manager.
Meanwhile, Lopetegui’s father has pinned the team’s dire displays on the big-money departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus in the summer, defending his son and saying the club have “stolen 50 goals” from him through not signing an adequate replacement.
“Cristiano Ronaldo was good. Was he cocky? We all have defects, but it turns out he scored 50 goals a season,” Jose Antonio told El Mundo, as per the Daily Mail.
“He is missing. You are missing a prominent goalscorer. They haven’t bought one, not a single one.
“There was talk of Neymar and others, but no one came. They have stolen 50 goals from my son!”
sportbible.com
