Ahmed Nashaat on Whether Zidane Will Stay at Real Madrid
Listen to this articleIt was quite the homecoming for Real Madrid legend Zinedine Zidane earlier this year after he was brought back in for a second term managing Los Blancos. Real Madrid had a torrid time last season and the man who brought 3 Champions Leagues to Madrid was drafted back in to start making preparations to ensure that the same thing didn’t happen again this season. Despite his iconic status at the club, the pressure is slowly mounting on the Frenchman before the season has even kicked off. Today myself and La Liga expert Ahmed Nashaat take a look at whether or not Zidane is going to be able to stay at the club for much longer, let’s take a look.
Bale Saga
The Madrid hierarchy doesn’t like negative press coverage yet since the end of the season the Gareth Bale transfer saga has been filling more column inches than the club would like. Bale is out of favor by Zidane and by the fans too, despite his outstanding contribution to the club since his time there. Zidane has been vocal about the fact that he wants to move Bale on, but the Welshman won’t go easily, especially since he still has a 3-year contract bring him in half a million pounds per week, something no other club will pay. Either Bale takes a pay cut or he hangs around where he isn’t wanted. Zidane has played this poorly and it has added to the pressure on his shoulders.
Pre Season
The pre-season form isn’t always an indicator of how a team is playing but Real’s campaign in pre-season has been dreadful. Los Galacticos have lost all of their games pre-season including 7-3 destruction from rivals Atletico Madrid. It isn’t like Real have been playing the kids either, they have been putting strong sides out which just haven’t been able to get going, looking incredibly susceptible in defense and also looking lackluster in the attack, despite bringing in Belgian wizard Eden Hazard. Zidane looks like he doesn’t have a team working as one and that will be something that President Florentino Perez will be looking to Zidane to fix as soon as possible.
Expectation
Zidane has made it clear that youth isn’t something he likes to use, and he is cutting high-quality players out of his side, this is rarely a recipe for success and given his expectations this season, he’ll have to get the team in shape quickly. Real have won La Liga just twice in 10 years and despite their Champions League success, the feeling is that those trophies papered over the domestic cracks. Los Blancos will expect to win La Liga this year and have a solid campaign in the CL, a poor start to the season however and Zidane will be out by Christmas, we learned a long time ago that loyalty doesn’t exist at this club, which is why Zidane should be concerned.
