Xabi Alonso’s departure from the Real Madrid bench is still reverberating.
In England, it was the dominant talking point on Champions League night. There was no discussion of Álvaro Arbeloa; instead, the focus was on the reasons behind the Basque coach’s exit. Authoritative voices weighed in on the issue: Jamie Carragher, Thierry Henry and Gareth Bale. The Welshman was live at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on English television, providing commentary on the game between Spurs and Borussia Dortmund.
“You can obviously tell that he’s an unbelievable coach. What he’s done at Bayer [Leverkusen], he’s won trophies, he’s coached the team incredibly well,“ Bale said. ”But coming to Real Madrid, you don’t need to be a manager, you need to manage the egos in the dressing room. You’ve got to massage egos.
“You don’t really need to do much tactical stuff. You’ve got superstars in the changing room who can change games in the blink of an eye.”
Thierry Henry also had his say on the Madrid boos.
“It happened to me in Barcelona. At clubs like this, you’re judged by what you fail to do, not by what you’ve already done. Everyone gets booed. When you play for Madrid or Barcelona, the fans let you know when they’re unhappy. It doesn’t matter what you want – when they’re not happy with something, they make it clear.”
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher went further, saying he had seen it coming. “By the middle of the first half of the season, I looked at the situation and didn’t feel Xabi would still be in the job after the Christmas break. They lost the Barcelona game, but they played well. They couldn’t get it to penalties. I think it’s best that Xabi is out. He arrived with an idea, and it quickly became clear he wasn’t going to be allowed to coach the way he wanted. He wasn’t going to be able to build the team the way he wanted. There were problems with certain players who didn’t buy into his ideas.
Former England international Nigel Reo-Coker, piped up on the Alonso situation.
“It’s better for him. Even if he had won a title, deep down he knew it wasn’t his way of doing things – that he didn’t want to coach Madrid like that. It’s probably the best thing for him. As Henry said a few weeks ago, they need a manager, not a coach. I think it was a mistake to sack Carlo Ancelotti.”