Zidane has finished blowing up. The man from Marseille had spent several weeks brooding, indoors, what he considers an unfair situation towards him. Problems and ‘insults’ have accumulated. The relationship between Zidane and Real Madrid has seen better times and the quarantine period due to his positive for COVID, far from calming him, has served to fuel the fire. Although he has dumped it on the media during the telematic press conference prior to the trip to Huesca, Zidane has also been sending messages to the club for a long time and feels unprotected by the entity.
These are the reasons for the anger of the Marseille coach …
The critics have overcome their armor
On January 21, Zidane offered an aperitif of what was coming this Friday. “What do you want, that we leave the season?”. This is how abrupt the French responded to Ricardo Sierra in the flash interview after 1-2 against Athletic that threw Madrid from the Super Cup in the semifinals. The journalist from Let’s go he had simply asked him if he thought that defeat “was going to take its toll on the team.” An out of tone that showed the more edgy Zizou, away from their smiles, jokes with the language or non-verbal balls. He was also seen like this when he did not dodge the melee with Javier Tebas in the riff-raff of the trip to Pamplona. Zidane believes that the media are going for him (“If you don’t love me, say so” was his complaint today) and he thinks that Madrid does not protect him in the media.
Doesn’t feel endorsed by the club
Madrid’s only spokesperson is Emilio Butragueño, director of institutional relations, a more diplomatic than executive figure. Without the presence of Florentino Pérez or José Ángel Sánchez before the microphones, Zidane finds it difficult to face twice a week, at least, to face issues many times (that controversial transfer to Pamplona in the middle of Filomena, the signings …) that he believes are not his plot of decision. The entity has been preparing Raúl as future heir under the spotlight and for a long time the ghost of Mourinho haunted the Frenchman’s shaved head and then the possibility of Pochettino, very well regarded coach in the entity. Not even the fact that the Argentine has just signed for PSG has released that pressure.
Lack of signings … and impoverishment of the squad
The squad has been losing troops one after another since the sale of Cristiano and Madrid has not had a remedy. Transfers decided by the entity and for important prices, such as Militao (€ 50M), Odriozola (€ 30M) and even Vinicius (€ 45M), do not quite fit into their plans. He also did not like that Madrid took so long to get rid (temporarily) of Bale and that despite the pandemic there have been no signings in the last three market windows, something that has not happened since 1980. They did not arrive, but they did, like Achraf, Mayoral, Odegaard, Jovic … Zidane understands the precarious economic situation, but the result is that the white squad relies heavily on very veteran players and many of those young people (Militao, Rodrygo, Odriozola, Valverde …) have suffered multiple injuries. Zizou has had to take refuge in his Praetorians.
The relationship between Zidane and Ramos is very close and the Marseillais is not comfortable with the non-renewal of his captain.
LALIGA / RAFA APARICIO
Ramos’ ‘non-renewal’
One of those infallible ones is Sergio Ramos. The camero and Zizou have known each other since their time as teammates, a bond that has been reinforced in the change of role from the Frenchman to coach and that it is now noticeable in the pulse between central and club to renew. Ramos gave his face like a wild boar for Zidane in Istanbul in October last year, when his coach was waiting to be sacked if he lost to Galatasaray. “With other coaches there have been other measuring sticks …”, assured the captain in reference to Mourinho: “Zizou deserves respect.” Zidane has given it back by publicly getting wet. First he said of his center that he was the best in history and then he was impatient for the fact that he does not renew. That matter also worries him greatly. This relatively low-intensity tension between Ramos and Madrid for months has been making a dent in the locker room, already uncomfortable due to the salary cut. He has even jumped onto social networks with Nacho in between. It squeaks Zidane that a captain with so much weight (“he is our leader”, he argues) like Ramos is in this uncertainty about his future and that that could de-center him …
Odegaard receives instructions from Arteta before making his debut with Arsenal.
DPA via Europa Press
Frictions by Odegaard, Jovic, Brahim …
For some time now, a current of opinion has been generated about how Zidane manages (or rather, how he does not manage) the growth of the young pearls that Madrid has signed in recent years. A strategy of signing unexploited talent that collides with the long-standing of the undisputed starters (Ramos, Modric, Kroos, Lucas, Benzema …) for Zidane. Criticism of his lack of left hand with the kids that aligns with the vision of the club, where There are important sectors that do not understand why Brahim did not scratch the ball in Chamartín and now he is leaving in Milan, or how it is possible that Jovic will return to Frankfurt and in half an hour he will be a killer and score the same goals, two, as in a year and a half as a madridista. Even the tricky Odegaard case, strategic signing of the entity and jewel in the crown of this new way of signing. Zidane tried to accommodate him and not receiving a performance from the Norwegian quickly put him in the caboose. “Madrid believes that Odegaard was right, it would have been worse to stay with Zidane”, was the news that Antón Meana revealed in The spar as soon as the loan of the Nordic to Arsenal closed. Madrid does not understand how Odegaard, for whom numerous clubs in Europe ‘stick’, has not had more help from Zidane. More fuel for a fire that Zidane himself cannot hide. Not in private … not now in public.
