Zidane Could Not Have Planned His Real Madrid Return More Perfectly

Photo Credit: Laurens Lindhout

So yesterday it was officially announced that Zinedine Zidane is back at Real Madrid as manager after a brief 9-10 month absence. For those that aren’t aware, Zinedine Zidane is a footballing legend who was a club legend as a player at Real Madrid and became a club legend as a coach as well at Real Madrid over the past 3 years. Zidane was appointed manager of Real Madrid midseason in January of 2016 as Real Madrid “struggled” by their standards under Rafa Benitez. Well, in that first season Zidane would almost lead Real Madrid back to win La Liga as they fell just short of Barcelona for the title but most importantly he would lead them on to win the biggest prize of the all, the Champions League. It’s just what Roberto Di Matteo had done at Chelsea 4 years prior, take over a club midseason and still win Champions League, only unlike Di Matteo who wouldn’t last 3 months in charge the following season, Zidane would follow up his 2016 triumph with both a La Liga title and another Champions League title. It was literally the greatest start to a managerial career we have ever seen. In the following 2017-18 season, Real Madrid got off to a rocky start in La Liga and were in 3rd and 4th place much of the season finishing in 3rd. Not terrible, but by Real Madrid’s ridiculous standards, very similar to George Steinbrenner, this spelled the end of Zidane at Real Madrid, regardless of how he finished the Champions League campaign. Well low and behold, Zidane wins the damn thing again, making it 3 straight Champions League titles, which is unheard of it today’s footballing world, and then walks away from the club a week later stating that the club “needed a change”. So there you go folks, there’s your back story to Zidane’s previous two and a half years at Real Madrid. It’s arguably the best 3 years a club in all of Europe has ever had and it all came to an abrupt end. But here’s why him stepping down last summer and rejoining yesterday looks to be a brilliant move.

When Zidane stepped down after his 3rd consecutive Champions League triumph, the Madrid squad was facing it’s biggest dilemma in years. The departure of arguably the greatest player of all time and hands down the greatest player to play for Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo. 2 La Liga titles, 4 Champions League titles and 450+ goals cannot simply be replaced. It’s truly funny that people thought this squad would go on without missing a beat. They’re a talented squad but an aging squad and despite father time creeping up on Ronaldo, he was 33 last summer, he was the linchpin of that team till the very end. So with his departure and with Real Madrid not planning on spending big in the 2018 summer transfer window, Zidane played this perfectly. Would Real Madrid have been in this same position had Zidane stayed coach? Maybe not quite as bad, but at least to some extent because you can’t replace Ronaldo with an 18 yr old Brazilian or the oft-injured Welshman, Gareth Bale, and expect to continue winning Champions League titles. Instead you get bounced in the R16 by Ajax. With Zidane stepping away while Real Madrid got exposed he’s coming back at the perfect time for Real Madrid to spend big this coming summer. I’m a Chelsea fan, but now that Zidane is back in charge you can go ahead and put it in the books that Eden Hazard is joining Madrid over the summer. Hazard is a top 5 player in the world. Hazard is the type of player that you replace Ronaldo with. Hazard is going to light up La Liga next year and Zidane will reap the benefits. Throw in a striker and another center back and Real Madrid could be challenging for the Champions League again under Zidane’s watch. Instead of getting canned this year had he stayed aboard, he’ll come back with tons of cash to spend on big players and get a chance to turn this into a winning team without Ronaldo.

Granted I will say that the ultimate downside for Zidane coming back is that he can never top what he’s done. You only can only go down after winning 3 straight Champions League titles, not up.