We’ve seen that a lot of big clubs have gone down the route of appointing legendary ex players as managers, but it’s an approach that definitely has mixed results.
It inevitably ends in a situation where it’s not working out but nobody knows a tasteful way to sack a club legend, but Zidane has been an exception with Real Madrid where he’s overseen many successful years.
There is a feeling that he’s not the man to oversee the huge change that needs to happen with the playing squad as a large number of players approach their final years, so it’s reasonable to suggest that he could leave in the next 18 months.
It’s always a good idea to have a succession plan in mind, but a report from Goal has indicated that Real wanted to replace him with Mauricio Pochettino so they need to look elsewhere.
They suggest that the natural replacement is now seen to be Raul who is expected to step up and replace Zidane when he does move on, and it certainly makes sense.
He’s a club legend who understands the pressures of playing and working at the Bernabeu, he’ll have the respect of everyone straight away and he’s the manager of their B team so he will also have confidence in the younger players who will be looking to step up to replace some of the senior stars when they move on.
Of course it’s Real Madrid so everything can change if they panic after a bad season, but it looks like Raul is the next man up.