by Reg » Mon Apr 12, 2010 3:03 pm
Real Madrid fans look towards prodigal son Benitez - Feature
Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:32:04 GMT
Madrid - Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez is the favourite of the fans to be the next coach of Real Madrid.
This is the conclusion to be drawn from an online poll taken by sports daily Marca, in which 8,310 votes had been cast by mid-Monday.
Marca, which is close to Real president Florentino Perez, said that present coach Manuel Pellegrini will not continue next season, with the final nail in his coffin being the 2-0 home defeat in Saturday's "Clasico" against arch-rivals Barcelona.
A large number of 44.2 per cent voted for Benitez, who has never hidden his desire to return to the Estadio Bernabeu, in the Marca poll.
Benitez was a player in the club's youth sections but didn't make the grade. He then took up coaching at an early age, and was assistant to caretaker coach Vicente del Bosque - now manager of Spain - briefly in 1994.
Liverpool have endured a disappointing season and, according to Marca on Monday, may be prepared to let Benitez go.
Second in the Marca poll was Jose Mourinho, with 33.7 per cent of the vote.
Mourinho's contract with Inter Milan still has two years to run but there is apparently an "escape clause" in it, albeit an expensive one for the Portuguese coach.
Mourinho would make himself even more attractive to the "madridista" fans if Inter manage to overcome Barca in the semi- finals of the Champions League and thus avoid the prospect of Barca playing in the final in the Estadio Bernabeu.
England manager Fabio Capello - who guided Real to the Spanish title in 1997 and 2007, only to be sacked straight afterwards on both occasions - has taken 12.3 per cent of the vote, Luiz Felipe Scolari 5.7 per cent and Carlo Ancelotti 4.2 per cent.
Interestingly, Marca have not put Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger into the poll.
Wenger was offered the Real job last summer, ahead of Pellegrini, but turned it down.
Real director general Jorge Valdano persuaded Perez not to sack Pellegrini immediately after a 4-0 cup humiliation in October against third division part-timers Alcorcon, and said straight after the March 10 Champions League elimination against Olympique Lyon that Pellegrini will continue next season.
Perez became known as a "devourer of coaches" during his first spell as president, from 2000 to 2006, which finished with his hasty resignation in February 2006.
The whites have gone through nine different coaches in the last seven years since Perez controversially sacked the popular Del Bosque in June 2003.
According to Marca's rival AS on Monday, Valdano and Perez held an impromptu hour-long "emergency meeting" immediately after the Barca defeat, which leaves the whites three points behind Lionel Messi and company.
It seems that Valdano still has faith in Pellegrini, whereas Perez wants Valdano to start considering who should replace the Chilean in the summer.
Valdano told the media after the meeting, in the early hours of Sunday, that "it is not the right moment to talk about possible future coaches ... There are seven games left and we must not think about anything else."
Later on Sunday, Valdano insisted that "the league is not lost. Neither the coach nor the players are going to let down their guard. There are 21 points left to play for and it would be immoral for us to throw in the towel."
He added that "if we win the last seven matches, then we will finish with 98 points, an all-time league record."
Valdano refused to talk about summer signings, and finished by saying that Pellegrini "has our complete support."
by