Madrid, It has been officially confirmed that

Julen Lopetegui is no longer the coach of Real Madrid and his

temporary replacement will be Santiago Hernan Solari.

The 5-1 defeat at the Camp Nou against Barcelona was the final

straw for president Florentino Perez.

Solari moves up from the Castilla side, as did Zinedine Zidane

did three years ago when replacing Rafa Benitez.

It is a decision that has been taken to pull the club out of a crisis

that has rarely been experienced at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

Florentino didn’t hesitate after giving Lopetegui a week to turn

things around.

Madrid beat Viktoria Plzen at home, but failed miserably in the

visit to a club without Messi last Sunday.

The results and performances (four losses and a draw amid a

historical scoring drought) have weighed heavily against the confidence

in a coach, who was presented at the Bernabeu just over four months

ago following his sacking as Spain coach.

Three successive defeats against CSKA, Alaves and Levante

undermined the coach’s position, just over a month after he received

great praise following the fantastic victory over Roma.

However, the drift has been such that from June to October,

Lopetegui has found himself sacked from the two jobs, which he likely

always dreamed of having.

The coach has also been a victim of the poisoned chalice handed

to him at the three-in-a-row European champions, with holes left by the

departures of Zidane and, above all, the goals of Cristiano Ronaldo.

The team needed reinforcements, but in came a goalkeeper

(Thibaut Courtois) and a right-back (Alvaro Odriozola) in positions that

were not priorities.

Ronaldo wasn’t replaced by the club and in addition, they let

Mateo Kovacic go without bringing in a replacement despite

Lopetegui’s public requests for such.

He asked for a No. 9 and in the end, almost out of panic, they

signed Mariano while Vinicius keeps scoring goals for the Castilla.

Lopetegui has found himself in charge of a squad that is much

worse than it has been in previous years, but the requirements were

the same.

The club also had their doubts in him and in fact, he was not

the first option, or even the second or third.

Mauricio Pochettino, Massimiliano Allegri, Antonio Conte and even

the unknown young German tactician Julian Nagelsmann were

contacted before him.

Lopetegui leaves and Solari enters, a man whose career in the

dugout has been developed at La Fabrica.

He debuted with Cadet B in 2013 and was promoted to the A

side a year later and Juvenil B in 2015.

In 2016, he took over as Castilla coach and is now the latest

emergency solution who Perez has found at home.

The Board of Directors of Real Madrid C. F., meeting have

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 while 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

eight players nominated for the next Ballon d’Or, something

unprecedented in the history of the club, and the results obtained to

date.

The club thanked Julen Lopetegui and his entire technical team

for their effort and work and wished them the best in their professional

career.

He will be provisionally replaced by Santiago Solari, who will lead

the first team starting from today, the Spanish MARCA newspaper

reported.

Source: Oman News Agency