Reports: Zinedine Zidane Will Return To Manage Real Madrid This Week, Santiago Solari Has Already Said His Goodbyes

Chris Wright

11th, March 2019

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Zinedine Zidane is set to return to Real Madrid in their hour of need and coach them out of the darkness, such is word emanating from the Spanish capital.

Initially reported by La Sexta and subsequently corroborated by MARCA, the two papers are both claiming that Zidane will replace Santiago Solari within the next 48 hours.

Solari stepped up from the academy side and took over first-team coaching duties when Julen Lopetegui was fired earlier this season. Lopetegui was the man saddled with replacing Zidane, who departed the previous May, shortly after winning a three consecutive Champions Leagues with Los Blancos in the space of three seasons. 

Real have struggled since, which we firmly suspect has more to do with losing Cristiano Ronaldo, the club’s greatest, most prolific player ever, rather than anything Solari has attempted to establish.

Anyway, as MARCA have it, Solari is likely to be sacked on Monday evening with the Real board due to hold a meeting at 18:00 local time.

Solari is already clear that he is in his last hours as coach and this morning has said goodbye to everyone at Valdebebas (training ground).

The club considers that the situation is unsustainable and that it is necessary to change the coach.

Zidane is expected to be installed immediately thereafter, with an official announcement due on either Tuesday or Wednesday, when he takes training for the first time.

As per La Sexta, Florentino Perez’s grand plan is to have Solari stick around as an assistant first-team coach working with Zidane, depending on whether or not Solari actually wants to stay on.

Is it wise for Zizou return? With things the way they are at Real, it’s only likely that he’ll tarnish an imperious record he purposefully left unblemished – a record that was largely carved out by virtue of having Ronaldo rampaging at his absolute phenomenal peak.

We’re not so sure and even if he does, why not just wait until the end of the season? It’s not like there’s anything left to salvage before then.

Posted in Real Madrid, Transfers & Rumours

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5 Comments

  1. EDub says:

    “last hours as a white coach” … Los Blancos? I’m assuming this statement was run through a Google translator.

    • Chris Wright says:

      Oh, good spot. Yeah, think Marca’s auto-translate got a bit confused there.

      At least we think it did…

  2. Andrew Ritson says:

    Hate to be ‘that’ guy but… has this article forgotten about Lopetegui? Solari didn’t take over the first-team until Oct/Nov last year as a caretaker manager.

    • Nuno says:

      Was thinking the same, Solari did not take charge in May, he started with an already broken team after Lopetegui.
      But then again, I guess it’s easy to forget about Lopetegui…

    • Chris Wright says:

      @Andrew Ritson and @Nuno: Good spot chaps. Had to rush out last night so was unable to amend at the time. All sorted now.

      How could I have *possibly* forgot about Lopetegui’s vast contribution?!

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