An absurd decision

The last days of June were characterised by the Fabio Capello saga.

Just days after leading Real Madrid to their first Primera Liga title in four years, Capello, 61, was shown the backdoor despite the fact that he had two years remaining in his contract.

Real's decision to part company with Capello brought about plenty of controversy in the international soccer scene.

Various reasons were attributed to Real's decision to sack 'Don Fabio', as he is popularly known in Spain. But, what was really behind his dismissal?

Capello is a coach of immense qualities. He is disciplined with the players, his tactical acumen is second to none, and, above all, he has claimed silverware wherever he was. It was due to his vast track record at the highest level that Real had hired Capello a year ago in the first place.

Then newly-elected club president Ramon Calderon gave the former Milan, Roma and Juventus coach a blank cheque to sign new players and bring back to Madrid the glory days of the past.

A year ago, Real were very active on the transfer market as Capello assembled a solid team, that seemed strong enough to challenge for the honours at home and in Europe.

Before Capello was hired, the Real supporters had witnessed the signings of high-profile players like Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Michael Owen and David Beckham.

Real, under Florentino Perez, used to focus most of their spending on creative midfielders or strikers.

At first, results looked encouraging. However, ever since Vicente Del Bosque was sacked, after helping Real win the Primera Liga in 2003, the Spanish giants simply went off the boil.

In the summer of 2006, Capello's first two signings were Fabio Cannavaro - a central defender - and Emerson - a midfielder, both from Juventus.

From then on, the wily coach went on to recruit players who could help him adopt his preferred 4-4-2 system, a module that yielded him so much success at Milan, Roma and Juventus, besides, obviously, Real a decade ago.

At the Bernabeu, Capello had to build the team from scratch. To start with, he had to strip the squad of its primadonnas. It was an open secret that Real's dressing room atmosphere was far from serene.

There were several battles of ego between the club's most acclaimed and highest-paid recruits. No wonder that Real had changed so many players and coaches in the previous three years and, at the same time, the club had attained no success worth of note except for becoming the richest club in the world, surpassing Manchester United.

The transfer policy which used to be adopted by former club president Perez may have been popular with the fans but left much to be desired in terms of honours won.

The truth is that at Real, people are not happy with honours only. They want to see a spectacle each time the team plays.

What happened to Capello last month had already happened to Del Bosque four years before and to Juup Heynckes in 1998, just after he had helped Real lift their first Champions Cup since 1966... incredible but true!

So, why should one be surprised with the way Capello was treated by Real?

Capello's style

What is even more absurd is the fact that Calderon and Predrag Mijatovic knew exactly what Capello's style was when they hired him on a lucrative three-year contract a year ago.

It is no secret that Capello is a highly-successful coach but his teams have seldom played attractive or open football, like the Real supporters want to see at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.

Even more significant is the fact that at the end of season 1996/97, just after Capello's Real had won the Liga title, the majority of the supporters were happy that Capello had decided to return to Italy and Milan.

It still remains to be seen why Calderon and club director general Mijatovic decided to bring back a coach that did not satisfy the expectations of the fans.

But, perhaps, at Real things work out differently.