Real Madrid 2.0: El Jefe del Bernabeu

When I think of the Bernabeu I am reminded of a quote by Jorge Valdano. After the 2007 Champions League semifinal between Liverpool and Chelsea, the self-professed "football intellectual wrote in Marca that "Football is made up of a subjective feeling, of suggestion and in that Anfield is unbeatable. Put shit hanging from a stick in the middle of this passionate, crazy stadium and there are people who will tell you, it's a work of art. It's not: it's shit hanging from a stick"

He chastised fellow Real Madrid alumnus Rafa Benitez for orchestrating a dour, turgid encounter: tactical and defensive. A game without short passes, no feints, no backheels or periods of invention. He implied that Liverpool or Chelsea might accept a match so controlled by the equivalent micromanagement of a footballing George S. Patton, but certainly not at the Santiago Bernabeu where they expect nutmegs, sombreros and chilenas.

Well, that attractiveness is precisely the sort of football that has been missing at the Bernabeu for a long time now, and Valdano means to change that. So then the last two names on that list would be Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho? Why then was Valdano quoted this week that the Special One, tired of his Italian Holiday, might just be considered as a primary option? Ignore that. He was never a primary option (neither was Benitez I might add before he resined with the Reds) and despite reports to the contrary, Mourinho will be back at Inter for at least one more year.  No, the primary option is Arsene Wenger as it was the last time that Perez took over and he was the first attempted signing for every Summer thereafter.

What is it about Perez that has him returning to the Frenchman so often? Is it the accent or the tailored suits? The tenured-college professor stubbornness? Arsenal are one of the few teams that rival Barcelona for their creativity, but nothing in Wenger's make-up points toward any ability to handle the high-stakes pressure cooker that is Real Madrid today. He won't take outside direction easily (Madrid are top-heavy with upper-management with little to know football experience). He is an idealogue in a club that doesn't have the patience to wait for a Dream Team to materialize and grow into a squad. He would be undermined from both within the club, the shadowy cliques of current and former players that have backstabbed every new manager hired there since Del Bosque, and from without, the Madrid and Barcelona papers who create a shooting gallery of sorts for the morning cafe.

Real Madrid may not want the kind of football that Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho bring with them, but they are the only sort of managers that can live in that hothouse environment; the only kind that would survive and flourish. Benitez would bring a seriousness in preparation that only Capello had before him but without the combative baggage that a veteran of the Madrid media wars like Don Fabio had. Mourinho on the other hand, would play the media game better than anyone has, baiting and switching, cajoling them to turn their glare at him and not at his players. Both would break the favored status that certain players have had and fix the transfer mess that has gripped the club since before Mijatovic took over.

No, Wenger and Mourinho are smokescreens. They want Carlo Ancelotti, but they don't want to get into a bidding war with Chelsea or with Manchester City. I say let them bid against each other. The Italian will bring organization and preparedness to the club and certainly Milan have played for years with the sort of flair that Madrid want. He's won the Champions League twice, and lost it another time in spectacular fashion, so he'll know how to manage Real Madrid through that European minefield. He also works for the only President who is probably harder to work for than Don Florentino. What he won't bring is experience in Spain unfortunately and I don't think that's a small thing. For every Capello there is a Claudio Ranieri. Capello had a string of successes at Milan, Roma and Juventus sandwiched inbetween his times at Madrid. Ancelotti had a year at Reggiana, two at Parma and a disappointing year at Juve before stepping into the role of club saviour for the club that he played for. Milan has been comfortable for him, and no doubt he would do well at another comfort zone: AS Roma where he was club captain, or even England might be easier for him where the tactical nous is measured by "how much a player can get stuck-in or not". In Madrid though, he'd be Vanderlei Luxemburgo with a better suit.

Everyone has a candidate for Florentino. Zidane wants former teamate Laurent Blanc now at Bordeaux. Valdano wants Manuel Pellegrini from Villareal and one of the other candidates even threw around the name of Hugo Sanchez. The only more laughable name I guess would be Juande Ramos. No, you need someone who either played in Spain or has managed successfully in Spain over the last few years. Pep Guardiola was an inspired signing, and a risky one at that for such an inexperienced coach, but not as risky as people thought. Barca play the same way from top to bottom. Madrid need someone with the credentials to lead that group of players and set the groundwork for the integration of a new blend of Galacticos. I would prefer Pellegrini, or better yet a Spanish manager like Marcelino Garcia Toral from Zaragoza, or Unai Emery from Valencia; a young coach with an attacking sensibility and an ability to lead players from the lowest second division defender to the Ballon D'or winner. It would be an exciting change to the older, foreign coaches that have dominated at the Bernabeu recently. If it must be an international manager, then Luciano Spalletti or Slaven Bilic are good shots, too. Whatever the choice, and I think it'll be Carletto, he must be able to change the dynamic around Ciudad Real Madrid.