We Won't Allow A Repeat Of What Happened In 2006 - Florentino Perez

Palma de Mallorca, 12th January 2006. The directors' box at Son Moix. Florentino Pérez shook his head over and over again. He simply could not believe what he was witnessing. Real Madrid lost against Mallorca. It was an embarrassing display by a team lacking in direction not helped by an evidently divided dressing room.

While López Caro's players wandered around the pitch incapable of hiding their shocked reactions, some substitutes (Helguera and Michel Salgado) snacked on sunflower seeds while chuckling to themselves on the bench.


Florentino could not take it any longer and made the decision to take sides. Two days later, he handed in his resignation. A huge institutional crisis at the club ensued.

After the debacle at the Calderón, many club directors and the president himself have seen too many similarities with what occurred in 2006. A team on the way down, a coach who does not seem to hold the key, players with questionable attitudes, criticism in the press, fans turning on the side…

Neither Florentino nor his directors are willing to let history repeat itself. It is not time to throw away five years of hard work with a squad that, according to Florentino and his directors, has a huge present and an even bigger future ahead of it.
The powers that be at the Bernabéu believe that they have detected the problem in time and that the scenes which followed at the end of the 2005-06 season will not be repeated.