Debate: Should Schuster Have Been Sacked?

Tempting fate is a very bad idea. Just ask Julius Caesar. He didn't heed the apprehensions and premonitions of Calpurnia and marched on to the Capitol disregardful of the Gods. And lo! Down he fell with a hundred daggers pecking at him. 'Caesar shall forth; The things that threaten'd me Ne'er look'd but on my back.' Eh!

Maybe Bernd Schuster hasn't read Julius Caesar. Or perhaps he has studied it too intently. Because he has been tempting fate and more worryingly the Real Madrid hierarchy since the summer, tempting them to discard the guillotine and bring on the hacksaw to finish him off.

And now his wish has been granted. He has been finished off, hurriedly shoved into a coffin with the epitaph "Good riddance, you b******. Never come back" and has been tossed into the 'sacked Real Madrid coaches' grave. Happy now, Schuster? Surely you are….this is what you have been eager for all season, right?

Bernd Schuster's sacking as the Real Madrid coach on Tuesday didn't really come as a surprise. Rather than like the sky falling on your head, it was more like the wait for puberty. It was, as the cliche would have it, written in the stars.

On Pitch Problems

After all, Real Madrid at the moment are enveloped in a very tenacious crisis. They are currently fifth in the league table, nine points off the pace and have no clue whatsoever how to bridge the gap between themselves and FC Barcelona. The players- that is the ones who are fit- in spite of possessing the passion and hunger, lack effectiveness and coherence; the defence is one of the worst in Spain, the attack has been subtly blunted by the loss of their main striker and even the custodian seems to have been affected by the fast spreading cancer.

And it is the coach, isn't it, who has to shoulder the blame? After all, he is paid to see that his team keeps on winning matches and keeps on winning titles and Schuster has been discerned guilty of not doing his job.

Real Madrid have only just managed to creep into the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League, having suffered defeats to Juventus, and were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by a Segunda Division B side. In the league, they have been defeated by Deportivo la Coruna, Valladolid, Getafe and Sevilla.

He has been unable to fix the defence, which has conceded 24 goals in the league already this season, more than any other team in the top half of the table and five more than bottom side Osasuna. Schuster has also been unable to find a proper system on the pitch, flirting with formations and tactics as if they were a bunch of girls on the cheap on a beach and he a certain Brad Pitt.

In fact, he has hardly played the same backline in consecutive matches and has not come anywhere close to playing the fantasy football he was supposed to play when he was appointed as the Real coach in the summer of 2007.

Boardroom Crisis

But perhaps more crucially, Schuster has threatened to go against the Real Madrid hierarchy. Last season he seemed to be on good terms with his employers but since the summer things have taken a dip towards the south.

Schuster was less than impressed with President Ramon Calderon and sporting director Predrag Mijatovic's antics concerning the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga. Not that he wasn't eager to land the player but perhaps he had been quick to realize that Ronaldo wasn't going to come to the Bernabeu.

The Ronaldo transfer case was just the tip of the iceberg as far as summer (and winter) transfers are concerned. Last season Schuster invested faith in Robinho, playing him even when Mijatovic complained the Brazilian smelled of booze but then he had to see him leave so agonizingly.

It was not Schuster's fault that he lost a very talented player in Robinho at the start of the season. It was also not his fault that David Villa refused to board the Madrid ship, Santi Cazorla actually (rather reportedly) did but then leapt off while the players whom he wanted weren't even invited.

And then of course, there was the to-sign-or-not-to-sign-in-the-winter controversy. Schuster said that January reinforcements were required, Mijatovic said they were not and the latter would have almost certainly won this dual had Madrid not been so severely crippled by injuries as the season has progressed.

Ah yes, the injuries. Seems like the Injury God too was not kind to Schuster. Defenders Pepe, Gabriel Heinze, Miguel Torres and Christophe Metzelder all have suffered injuries and so have Wesley Sneijder, Ruben de la Red and Royston Drenthe. Arjen Robben's attraction for the medic's table has still not been tempered and as for key striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and anchoring midfielder Mahamadou Diarra, they have been ruled out for the rest of the season.

Controversial Comments

But perhaps what was most damaging about Schuster was his comments. Never wash your dirty linen in public is a maxim that was seemingly never taught to Schuster. In the summer the German declared that he didn't know what goes on at the club regarding transfer dealings, implying that he has no control over them. He then clamored for winter signings in public even after Mijatovic had said no.

Then there is his remarkable ability not to see things the way they are. Last season, for Schuster certain defeats were not defeats and this season he has been able to forecast the defeats but didn't do anything about them.

After their 3-0 loss to his former side last month, Schuster said, "From the very first minute, we could see that it would be difficult", tidily forgetting his task of managing the situation as his job of a coach entails. And after Sunday's 4-3 defeat to Sevilla, the German dropped the bombshell by lamenting, "Winning at the Camp Nou is impossible."

Good Or Bad?

Maybe Bernd Schuster's sacking is not that bad, just as his appointment was not that good - after all, Getafe's success in the 2006-2007 season was built on their best defensive record in the league; also only five teams had scored fewer than them. And so fantasy football from Schuster was perhaps a bit too much to expect.

Although the players were still working hard for him, typified by the overwhelming energy and passion they exhibited in the second half of the match against Sevilla, the German certainly had lost the plot and probably the interest to salvage the situation.

But the stark, naked truth is that he is not the only person responsible for the mess that Real Madrid are immersed in at the moment. He was a fraction of the problem plaguing the Bernabeu and although removing him has debugged the system in one area, there are a few other areas that need some holy water.

Until that happens, things are not going to improve.

Subhankar Mondal