After a series of a poor run of results, European Champions, Real Madrid has a few hours ago, announced the sacking of their coach, Julen Lopetegui from the club, after just four months in charge.
The sacking of Julen Lopetegui is not coming as a surprise though, as the humiliation in the hands of Barcelona where the European Champions were thrashed by 5-1 over the weekend, we all knew he was leaving.
We also reported here that he (Julen Lopetegui) was going to be replaced by former Chelsea coach, Antonio Conte, and this could happen before their next league game at the weekend.
The full statement released by Real Madrid of the sacking of Julen Lopetegui reads:
The Real Madrid C.F. board of directors, which met today, 29 October 2018, has made the decision to terminate Julen Lopetegui’s contract as the club’s coach.
This decision, which was taken with the utmost responsibility, seeks to bring about a turnaround in the first-team’s fortunes at a time when all of this season’s targets are still achievable.
The board considers there to be a large disparity between the quality within the Real Madrid squad, which boasts eight nominees for the next Ballon d’Or award – an unprecedented number in the club’s history – and the team’s results to date.
The club places on record its thanks to Julen Lopetegui and all of his coaching staff for their efforts and work and wishes them all the best in their future careers.
Santiago Solari will take temporary charge of the team, assuming his role as first-team coach from tomorrow, Tuesday.”
Antonio Conte will bring with him alot of experience and could be an instant success at the club, if the players are willing and ready to learn and adopt his system of playing, especially those that are not used to playing from the back, with three-man defense.