Euroscene: These have been busy days for the official club photographers at some of Europe's biggest clubs. No sooner had they got the whole squad together and told them to say cheese than they had to start all over again.
Within weeks of the season's start, the "official" team photo at both Real Madrid and AS Roma has had to be retaken, and for the good reason that new coaches have been appointed (indeed at Roma, the photographer is about to take his third "official" snap in just over a month). When Real meet Roma in a Champions League tie at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid tonight, both sides will be led by men who just one week ago were simply faces on the bench.
It falls to former number two coaches, Mariano Garcia Remon of Real and Ezio Sella of Roma, to lead out their teams following the resignations of Jose Antonio Camacho last week and Rudi Voeller on Sunday. Given the hurricane now blowing through management in European football, it comes as no surprise that Sella's appointment is merely a one-match affair (he will probably be replaced by the former Chievo coach Gigi Del Neri) whilst David Beckham last weekend conceded it was hard to predict if Remon would "stay on long".
So then, rather than assess on-field strengths and weaknesses, perhaps we should ask two questions re tonight's game. Whose crisis is bigger and which club will suffer more in the long term? Have both clubs been turned upside down by "player power"? "Roma" and "Yes" are the likely answers.
Reading between the lines, there was a startling similarity about the frustrated resignation speeches of Camacho and Voeller. Camacho said he had his "own way of doing things" but that there was little chance of realising his plans at Real Madrid. Voeller said he likes "to talk to players, to establish a dialogue" but that evidently it was not working for him. Each said the best thing he could do for the club was to resign.
Allowing for the politically correct manager-speak, both men in substance pointed the finger at a lack of discipline and professionalism within their highly paid squads (Figo, Zidane, Roberto Carlos, Raul, Totti, Cassano, et al). Reports from Madrid suggest Camacho banned mobile phones from the dressing-room. When he found one "galactico" busy on his mobile, Camacho reminded him of the rule only to be told to "trot along" - or ruder words to that effect.
Reports from Rome claim when Voeller handed out the bibs for the final team practice last Friday, he was met with a barrage of complaint from disgruntled players destined for the subs' bench. Losing his temper, Voeller told the players to shut up and get on with it. Which they apparently did, but without much enthusiasm. Indeed, the same lack of enthusiasm was apparent on Saturday in Roma's woeful 3-1 defeat by Bologna, where not even a two-man advantage for almost the entire second half was enough to get them back into a game that was all over at 3-0 after 40 minutes.
Nor did Real do much better in a 2-1 away defeat by Athletic Bilbao. The statisticians gleefully point out that Bilbao put the ball into the Real penalty area 41 times, as against six times by Real into the Bilbao area. And Real failed to win even one corner kick.
In crisis in their domestic leagues (Real had also previously lost to Espanol, whilst Roma had lost to little Messina), both sides are linked by equally dreadful starts in the Champions League. Two weeks ago, Roma's tie with Kiev was suspended (and the "win" subsequently awarded to Kiev) on the same night that Real went down 3-0 to Bayer Leverkusen in Germany.
Perhaps the time has come for Messrs Zidane , Figo, Totti, Cassano, et al, to return to their "core business". Maybe it is time to stop being a "galactico" or "fuoriclasse" and just get on with playing football. The fans of Real and Roma await.
