Valdano reluctant to take over as coach of troubled Real Madrid

By Duncan Shaw Oct 29, 2009, 10:22 GMT

Madrid - Florentino Perez, president of troubled Spanish giants Real Madrid, would like general director Jorge Valdano to take over as team coach, according to sports daily AS on Thursday.

AS said that Perez 'wants to get rid of' embattled coach Manuel Pellegrini, after losing three of the last five matches.

The final straw for Perez was Tuesday's 4-0 meltdown in the King's Cup away to third division part-timers Alcorcon, generally considered one of the biggest humiliations in Real's proud 107-year history.

Pellegrini seems to have already lost control of what has always been a difficult dressing-room.

According to Marca on Thursday, Pellegrini had an irate slanging match at half-time in Alcorcon with veteran playmaker Guti, who apparently swore violently at the coach - and has still not been punished for it.

An online poll in AS - in which 51,990 votes had been registered by Thursday morning - revealed that 63 per cent of readers who like to see Pellegrini sacked.

However, according to AS, Valdano is reluctant to axe the Chilean - and to take over as coach himself.

Valdano, who helped Argentina to win the World Cup in 1986, played for Real 1984-1987, was coach at the Estadio Bernabeu 1995-1996, and sporting director under Perez from 2000-2004, quitting when Perez' infamous 'Galactico' team was on the decline.

The laconic Argentine has the image of a kind of 'philosopher prince' of Hispanic football, after having written several short stories and coined several memorable phrases for the media.

Not everyone is enamoured of Valdano. Argentina coach Diego Maradona, one of Valdano's team-mates in 1986, recently said that 'I am not a philosopher, for that role there is Valdano, who tells more lies than 'el truco'(a popular Argentine card game)'.

Perez, however, swears by Valdano, despite the way the Argentine abandoned the sinking 'Galactico' ship in 2004. Perez insisted upon him as right-hand man when he decided to return to the Real presidency five months ago.

Valdano usually does everything that Perez asks of him - except taking over as coach.

It was Valdano who signed up Pellegrini in July, on the basis of the latter's five years of success at modest Villarreal.

According to AS on Thursday, the favourites to succeed Pellegrini, if Valdano continues to refuse to step in, are Michael Laudrup and Luciano Spalletti.

However, an online poll in AS shows that the fans' favourite is Liverpool coach Rafa Benitez, with 37 per cent of the votes.

Laudrup has 22 per cent, Victor Fernandez 15 per cent, Juande Ramos (Real coach in the second half of last season) 12 per cent and former Spain manager Luis Aragones seven per cent.