Julen Lopetegui was fired by Real Madrid after they were beaten 5-1 by Barcelona on Sunday. Solari has been appointed as interim coach, but the Whites have only two weeks to assign a permanent successor.
Florentino Perez and his board of directors met on Monday and agreed upon a decision to sack Julen Lopetegui as the first team manager after a streak of some dispiriting results over the last two months or so. With the 52-year-old manager now fired, Real Madrid now has only two weeks to appoint a permanent successor to him.
As it stands, Real Madrid’s former player and Castilla manager Santiago Solari was brought in to replace the ex-Spain manager. However, he will not be allowed to occupy the hot seat for any more than a fortnight because of the RFEF General Rules and Regulations. Article 60 which pertains to coaches and their license says:
"”If a coaching vacancy occurs after the competition has started, the club will be obliged to find a new coach who is licensed for the category within a maximum time frame of two weeks.”"
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It now means that Santiago Solari will only be able to coach the Real Madrid first team for a period of 14 days. That means that the 42-year-old will be able to oversee their Copa del Rey clash on Wednesday evening while also being able to oversee their hosting of Real Valladolid on Saturday.
In the next week, Real Madrid has away trips to the Czech Republic to face Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League, before heading to Galicia to take on Celta Vigo. Under rational circumstances, the Whites have to find a licensed permanent coach until then.
Antonio Conte is Florentino Perez’s primary choice but talks with the former Chelsea manager have hit a snag due to Chelsea’s hesitance in paying him the due compensation of 9 million pounds which was owed to him following his sacking.
Roberto Martinez is another candidate for the coaching role as well. He is currently on the books of the Belgium national team and guided them to third place at this year’s FIFA World Cup in Russia, behind France and Croatia.
With that said, all of Europe’s leagues will come to a halt as the players head for national duty in the international break. That effectively gives Real Madrid a period of three to four weeks to appoint a new manager, but obviously, they would want to get it done as soon as possible. Perez will be on high alert about Antonio Conte’s situation with Chelsea, otherwise, he will have to turn to someone else.