Solari’s days were always numbered, even before Madrid’s Champions league elimination
Real Madrid are reportedly set to sack manager Santiago Solari and appoint Jose Mourinho as manager of the club for the second time.
According to a report by Madrid media outlet Telemadrid, Solari could be sacked as soon as within the next few hours and immediately replaced with the Portuguese manager.
Mourinho is available having been sacked by Manchester United in December 2018 after a dismal set of results and style of play left the board with no other choice but to replace him with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Acaba de anunciar Juanma Cueto en @InformativosTM que Santiago Solari será destituido esta noche y en breve se anunciará a José Mourinho como nuevo entrenador del Real Madrid.
— Javi Gómez (@javigomezTV) March 7, 2019
El #TN2 pendiente de la última hora del Real Madrid: inminente destitución de Solari y regreso de Mourinho. Te informan @RocioDelgadoP_ y @javigomezTV. Síguelo en DIRECTO 📡 https://t.co/LcalQCRTVv pic.twitter.com/ktZt5y938J
— Telenoticias Telemadrid (@InformativosTM) March 7, 2019
Solari’s days were always expected to be numbered thanks to the club’s inconsistent form this season, which sees them sitting in third place in the LaLiga table, 12 points behind leaders and arch-rivals FC Barcelona.
Their empathic elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Ajax on Tuesday ended their hopes of a fourth consecutive European Cup triumph, and no doubt pushed the hand of president Florentino Perez.
Should they hire Mourinho he will be the club’s third manager of the season, after Solari and the man he replaced, Julen Lopetegui.
Lopetegui was appointed on the eve of Spain’s opening World Cup match during the summer, after the shock resignation of coach Zinedine Zidane.
Despite jumping at the opportunity to take the job, the former FC Porto manager never got going at the Santiago Bernabeu and was replaced by youth coach Solari in October 2018.
Any hopes of his being a Zidane-esque appointment were quickly vanquished however, as Madrid veered from disappointing performance to disappointing performance.
Managers are rarely given too many chances to prove the doubters wrong at Madrid, and it appears that the 4-1 home defeat (5-3 on aggregate) defeat to Ajax on Tuesday was the final straw.
