Real Madrid fire manager Julen Lopetegui after five months in charge

After spending just over five months as the Real Madrid manager and coaching matches for just two months, the 13-time Champions League winners have parted ways with Julen Lopetegui.

He lasted only 14 games – which is shorter than Rafa Benitez remained in charge – and many Madridistas are jumping for joy now that Los Blancos have moved on from the former Spanish national team boss.

After helping La Roja qualify for the 2018 World Cup and Russia, Lopetegui was sitting atop the football world when he was appointed the first team job in the Spanish capital after the departure of Zinedine Zidane.

Now, not half a year later, Lopetegui is without a job and the club he was with now lags seven points back of first place and are in ninth place in La Liga.

The board of directors met late on Monday to discuss Julen’s future with the club, and it was determined that it would be best to move on. Here is the statement released translated from Spanish:

"“The Board of Directors of Real Madrid CF, meeting today October 29, 2018, has agreed to terminate the contract that linked coach Julen Lopetegui with the club. This decision, adopted from the highest level of responsibility, aims to change the dynamics of the first team, when all the objectives of this season are still achievable.”“The Board of Directors understands that there is a great disproportion between the quality of the staff of Real Madrid, which has 8 players nominated for the next Golden Ball, something unprecedented in the history of the club, and the results obtained to date.”“The club thanks Julen Lopetegui and all his technical team for their effort and work and wishes them the best in their professional career. It will be provisionally replaced by Santiago Solari, who will lead the first team starting tomorrow, Tuesday.”"

Former Real Madrid midfielder Santiago Solari will assume the vacated role for the time being as president Florentino Perez and the board hunt for a permanent coach to lead the team out of a very tough spot in the league.

Lopetegui was present at training Monday afternoon, but the 5-1 defeat at FC Barcelona on Sunday was enough for the club board to look for other options.

Solari was in charge of the Real Madrid B team for two years and now will be thrust into the spotlight, hoping to do what Zizou did when he replaced Benitez a few years back. If Solari is half as successful as Zidane was, this club will remain at the top of the footballing world.

The writing was on the wall and there is no questioning as to why the board decided to pull the plug when they did. Lopetegui survived the UCL clash with Viktoria Plzen, but he could not outlast a 5-1 scoreline to the Catalan rivals.

This club is in a very bad run of form both on and off the field. It will take more than a winning manager to fix many of these problems.

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