Xabi Alonso is one of the most scurutinized managers in the world right now. However, that's only due to him managing the most scrutinized club in the world: Real Madrid.
Xabi Alonso took on the high-pressure, high-stakes job at the end of last season. He already had a mammoth task on his hands to replace Carlo Ancelotti, who is a fellow club legend.
The former Real Madrid midfielder, Alonso, was no stranger to taking on seemingly impossible tasks, though. Early in his managerial career, he took the Bundesliga title away from Bayern Munich and handed it to Bayer Leverkusen. What's more is that he did so without losing a single league game.
And now, his old club Bayer Leverkusen has spoken out in support of Xabi Alonso. Fair enough, right? Wrong; just wait until you hear what their club president had to say about Florentino Perez.
Bayer Leverkusen president just called out Florentino Perez
In his own words, Bayer Leverkusen president Fernando Carro said "[Xabi Alonso] finds himself in a different situation at Madrid. If the president says a coach is a necessary evil, if the coach is left to fend for himself and is always the one who receives the criticism, then the situation is quite different from what he had in Leverkusen, where we all pulled in the same direction and didn't leave the coach politically isolated.”
It's a bizarre, uncalled-for attack on Florentino Perez' character. Not once did the Real Madrid president publicly speak out against the Real Madrid coach. If we want to base personality based on media representation, then we could frankly believe and say anything about anyone.
Sure, the Real Madrid decision-makers would have been keeping a close eye on Xabi Alonso amid the team's poor performance. However, the players have also been under scrutiny. Just last week, it was claimed that Perez thinks the players are equally to blame as the head coach, as their behavior has not been the standard that a club like Real Madrid should accept.
Frankly, Carro's comments are bizarre. Of course, Real Madrid is run in a different way to Bayer Leverkusen. That comparison can be made for most soccer clubs in the world, but Florentino Perez has not unfairly targeted Xabi Alonso.
Xabi Alonso has been given time, and hopefully, he will continue to be given time. A few acts over the last few weeks have shown that he is getting the players on board.