A good day to herald the birth of Real Madrid Women's team
For Florentino Pérez, the post-match turned out to be even worse than the game itself. He stormed into the dressing room, and launched into a high-handed diatribe directed at an audience who had neither the strength nor the desire to tolerate it. Sergio Ramos stood up to him - to the delight of the others. Florentino is very good when he needs to appear calm and composed, when he is able to read off a well-prepared script; but he’s not so good when he gets caught up in a tense discussion – and even less when he lacks a solid argument. Ramos for one, wasn’t going to just sit there and be bad-mouthed and yelled at and retorted by blaming the president for weakening the squad in favour of a costly refurbishment project on the Bernabéu. No, this was not the time nor the place for an attack on the team and the captain, the one who saved Florentino’s scalp in Lisbon, decided to stand up and put him straight.
Madrid board members have reservations about Mourinho
Later that day he tried to get Solari to do him the favour of stepping down but Solari refused. So if Florentino wants to bring in another coach, first he has to sack Solari, an unpleasant solution which would not reflect well on him. But he’s already been working behind the scenes, and trying to convince his board members that José Mourinho is the man for the job; the only thing is that no one else shares his view. Most of them are against the idea, some pretend to be in agreement but only is certain that the man Madrid need is Mourinho, who he views as a rottweiler who will be able to protect him now that he is feeling exposed. The downside is that Mourinho left a bitter taste here after his three-year spell in the job – one which brings back memories of quarreling and discord and besides, since he left, things haven’t exactly gone that well for him. Right now, United are thrilled that he’s finally gone.
No women's team at Real Madrid
Bad times for Florentino who incidentally, today turns 72 - on International Women’s Day. He’s already looking for ways of relieving the pressure so maybe today wouldn’t be a bad day for Real Madrid to join the rest of Spain’s clubs and finally create a Women’s football team. Luis Rubiales, who he gets on well with (if only for their shared dislike of Tebas), might be very grateful. On the day of the Ajax game, I noticed that both teams entered the pitch accompanied by children – all girls this time, not a single boy among them. It was a gesture which contrasts with the absence of a women’s team at Real Madrid – in both the football and basketball sections. Today would be the perfect day to make the decision to create one, and postpone the whole Mourinho idea for another century.