Firing leaves Spain a headless monster
As pre-World Cup disasters go, this is a big one.
Spain’s training camp was rocked Wednesday morning with the news that head coach Julen Lopetegui had been fired — immediately after news broke that he would be the new manager of Real Madrid.
The decision to announce such an appointment so close to the start of the World Cup was perplexing to start with, so it is unsurprising that this is the course of action taken.
From a business perspective, there was very little else that could have been done by the Spanish FA.
But it begs the question: Why? Why — with so little time until Spain kick off their tournament — would Lopetegui decide to not only agree to take the Real Madrid job, but to also publicize it.
Nothing is more destabilizing to a squad than having a manager who clearly isn’t as committed as he’s made out.
Well, apart from having your manager fired with immediate effect so close to kickoff.
It is a PR disaster that will now follow Spain throughout this tournament.
The repercussions of this could be huge for this Spanish squad.
They have worked under Lopetegui for two years and in that time have transformed themselves into a much better cohesive unit than they were in the latter years of the Del Bosque reign. They were unbeaten under him and breezed through the qualifying stages without barely breaking a sweat.
The changes that Lopetegui brought to a stale and outdated Spanish squad drastically changed their performances and results, making his departure that much more of a hard pill to swallow.
He was the youthful leader of a resurgent Spain, hoping to once again dominate the international football scene.
A departure of this magnitude will only prove to be the most unnecessary of distractions to a squad that had real hopes of winning Julen Lopetegui has been fired as he takes a job as the new manager of Real Madrid.
the competition.
The issues that come with such an important change in personnel cannot be overstated.
It will change everything about how this team operates.
Spain is now a headless monster.
A team blessed with such quality and balance but now without direction.
Their World Cup campaign is in tatters before it has even begun and now the recovery process must be as quick and seamless as possible.
This has derailed Spain’s World Cup campaign and time is certainly not in its favour.
The players have to find a way to regroup and unify before they kick off their tournament against Portugal on Friday.
Frankly, it’s simply not enough time and Spain faces the most monumental task now.
As pre-tournament disasters go, I don’t think there has been one that has topped what Spain is going through now.
David Lewis is a sportswriter from Manchester, U.K., with a focus on international and European club soccer.