“I am the Real Madrid manager until something happens”, Zinedine Zidane Insists

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has insisted that he still remains the coach of the Spanish giants “until something happens out of the ordinary”.

The 48-year-old French tactician who was asked about his future at Real Madrid after he was knocked out of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 by Manchester City for the first time in his managerial career, urged newsmen not to inquire about his future at Real Madrid.

For the first time in 4 years, Real Madrid could not get to the final of the UEFA Champions League as they were beaten 2-1 at Bernabeu in March and then 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium on Friday, August 7, to crash out of the tournament 4-2 on aggregate.

Pep & Zizou after the game.
Mutual respect. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/LwhWCn6C9G

— Allu 🦈 (@GreatWhite_9) August 7, 2020

Though Zinedine Zidane led the Spanish giants to win the 2019-2020 Spanish La Liga title ahead of their bitter rival Barcelona; he also led the team to win Supercopa de España for the second time in three years, Madrid has never had it this bad in the Champions League as they won 4 out of the last five editions and winning a record 13 Champions League titles in the club’s rich history.

Real Madrid had a very good season – Zinedine Zidane

Interestingly, Zidane has posed to be one of the most successful managers of the club in recent times as he was at the helm of affairs when Real Madrid won their last three UEFA Champions League titles and their last two Serie A titles. But a club like Real Madrid that always wants to win might not remember the past glories of the French tactician who still has two years on his current contract with the club.

Though he lost out of an opportunity to win a treble for Real Madrid, Zidane believes that Madrid should be proud of their achievement in the 2019-2020 season.

“I am the Real Madrid manager until something happens out of the ordinary”, Zidane said. “You don’t need to ask any more questions about my future. We will all have a rest and come back again next season.

“We’ve got to be really proud of the team and what we’ve achieved. We’ve had an excellent season. The players aren’t happy tonight because they always want to win and that’s the way it goes when you lose. We’ve got to be very proud of what the players have done because the most important thing is to give your all out there. The opposition had their chances tonight and did well.

“We can’t be happy when we lose and we’ve had a very good season. The important thing tonight was to give our all out there and that’s what we did. We’ve likely come up short somewhere, but we have to be happy. Let’s see how we fare next season. We’ve got to finish things now, we’ve got to all rest up a bit and we’ll see”.

Other troubles of Zidane

Besides Zinedine Zidane’s misfortune in the Champions League this season, he has also found it difficult to manage some players in his squad. The most prominent of them is Gareth Bale.

The 31-year-old Wales international has only managed to start 14 matches throughout the 2019-2020 season. Zidane stunned the followers of football when he decided to drop Bale from the team that faced Manchester City on Friday.

The Welshman who scored two goals in the 2018 UEFA Champions League final against Liverpool, is regarded as a big-game player but was left out of a must-win match where Madrid needed to overturn a 2-1 deficit. Most critics believe that Bale who allegedly said he decided not to play against City, would have made a huge difference if he had played a part in the match.

On the other hand, Zidane is still finding it impossible to make judicious use of Real Madrid’s 29-year-old Colombian attacking midfielder, James Rodriguez. Just like Bale, the attacking midfielder has been left out of Zidane’s squad consistently which has left the club with no option than to look for a new club for the Colombian star.