Lopetegui gets the boot

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Julen Lopetegui was sacked from the Real Madrid job last night as a result from Madrid's heavy 5-1 defeat against Barcelona on Sunday. It was expected that Florentino Pérez will remove the former Spain manager after Madrid's poor start to the La Liga season currently 9th in the table, seven points away from Barcelona with the El Clasico defeat being the last straw. Santiago Solaris, manager of Real Madrid Castilla will take temporary charge of the first team with former Chelsea manager, Antonio Conte, the favourite to take over from Lopetegui.

It's fair to say Lopetegui's career is in tatters right now having been removed from both the Spanish National Team and Real Madrid within just four months with the likes of Sergio Ramos, who defended Lopetegui when he was sacked from La Roja, turned against him. However, it's not all Lopetegui's fault. Madrid don't have a goal-scorer they can rely on like Cristiano Ronaldo and have an ageing squad with the likes of Ramos, Modric, Benzema, Marcelo, Kroos and Bale all 28 and over signalling an end to a successful era, winning the La Liga title, the Copa de Rey and four Champions League titles in the past five years. 

Conte will fix Madrid but he's not what they want so it'll be interesting what Madrid will do in the coming months in sorting out their situation.  


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