Real Madrid To Appoint Manuel Pellegrini As New Manager – A Wise Move?

The first part of the Real Madrid summer revolution was announced today. As expected, Florentino Pérez has been elected new club president. The second phase of the rebuilding will be announced within the next 24 hours. Manuel Pellegrini has agreed to take over as the new coach at the Santiago Bernabeu, and will leave Villarreal to replace the outgoing Juande Ramos.

It is thought that Pellegrini will sign a two-year contract at Real Madrid after the two clubs thrashed out a compensation fee rumoured to be around €4million Euros. The directors at El Madrigal initially wanted the deal to include the transfer of one or two Real Madrid players, but Pérez refused this and instead opted to pay the agreed buyout fee. Rubén Cousillas, Pellegrini’s assistant at Villarreal, is also thought to be joining Madrid.

The question now will inevitably be – is Manuel Pellegrini the right man for the Real Madrid job?

For now it is hard to tell. The feats achieved by the Chilean during 5 years in Castellon have really been nothing short of wondrous. You have to bear in mind that, with a population of around 50,000, the entire city of Villarreal could fit quite snugly inside the Bernabeu with plenty of room to spare.

Despite this Pellegrini consistently maintained the ‘Yellow Submarines’‘ status as one of the top clubs in Spain, with a minimum top seven finish in each of his five seasons in charge. The club have only ever participated in top flight football 10 times in their history, but with Pellegrini in charge Villarreal managed their best ever finish as runners-up to Real Madrid in 2007/2008, while a Champions League semi-final berth in 2005/2006 and reaching the quarters in 2008/2009 also go down as stand-out achievements.

Known as an astute, intelligent and calm coach, Pellegrini’s Villarreal were highly respected in Spain for their brand of smart, offensive football and, as an obvious result, Pellegrini is adored in Castellon.

Nonetheless, this is Real Madrid we are talking about. Notoriously impatient (even inclined to sack managers for winning the league), will the Chilean even be granted time enough to build a squad as he sees fit? Will he even be allowed to choose his own transfer targets? Especially with Florentino Pérez, overseer of the famous ‘galactico’ era, back in charge.

Pellegrini is used to working in a low pressure environment with players predominantly stripped of the egos he will no doubt be confronted with in Madrid. Will the South American be able to handle the constant press attention, the lack of total control and the bigshot superstars in the dressing room?

Juande Ramos, for his part, must be feeling pretty let down. He did a decent enough job at Real, and already had visions of his team heading into 2009/2010. But this is the tumultuous, wacky world of Real Madrid, where results are demanded not now but yesterday.

Pellegrini will have to learn to deal with all that, and fast.

What do you think of Real Madrid’s new appointment? A good move for the club? And what of Villarreal, where do they go from here? Comments welcome.

Coaching, Manuel Pellegrini, Real Madrid, Villarreal