I don’t like this…

AS has José Mourinho’s desired starting 11 for next season.  You might notice that about half of the faces are not familiar.  And there is one glaring omission: Higuaín!  Seriously, what does Pipa have to do to get the press and the club on his side?  He’s a fan favorite who’s done almost all that we’ve asked of him, yet he’s constantly overlooked.  I like Karim Benzema and all, but what has he done to justify a place in the starting 11, besides being an expensive, FP signing?  You might also notice that Pepe will be the only non-FP signing (besides Iker, of course).

Another thing I don’t like?  How little Spanish players there are in the line-up.

Please don’t tell me Mourinho is going to be one of those coaches who takes direction or feels he needs to take direction from the president…

TSO signed his contract with Madrid and was presented today in the press room of the Bernabéu. His contract expires in June 2014.  How much do you want to bet that he doesn’t last that long?  After all, this is Real Madrid we’re talking about.  TSO left the contract signing with a souvenir pen with the escudo of the club, a replica of the Bernabéu and a Madrid shirt with his name on the back, above the number one.

At the press conference that followed, TSO said that he was born to be a football coach, and that Madrid is a singular team.  Jorge Valdano said that his responsibility is to find the best for the club, and the best for the club is José Mourinho.

Some thoughts from Manuel Pellegrini after the jump…  He says he knew in ¡September! that he would be let go!  I totally sympathize and agree with him.

This is what Manuel Pellegrini had to say, in an interview with AS.

Q:  When did you intuit that you weren’t going to continue in Madrid?

A:  That decision was made many months ago.  I felt that it came from inside the club, and I knew it was an irrevocable decision.

Q: From when, exactly?

A: From before the 4-0 against Alcorcón.

Q:  You mean after the 4-0.

A:  No, you heard right.  It was way before that – in the second matchday of the Liga, back in September.  I knew then that I would not continue, no matter what happened.  We beat Espanyol 0-3, but I left Cristiano, Raúl and Lass on the bench.  From the day, I knew the president didn’t agree with the project that we were carrying out.  I felt that there were doubts coming out from the inside.  I knew in that moment what was awaiting for me.

Q:  And did that happen many more times?

A:  In Villarreal, we won 0-2 but I heard the same questions.  I felt that they never got on board with my project.  And so it was impossible to achieve the objectives.  One can’t work that way.

Q:  Did the sporting team also have that attitude?

A:  No, I always had the support of Valdano, Pardeza, Butragueño, and also Zidane.  I only have good things to say about them.

Q:  How did the team react?

A:  The players gave me all the authority and were committed to my project from the first day.  I told them to always be offensive, and that we had to win on the road, because Madrid had been losing a lot outside the Bernabéu in the last five years.  They never gave up and believed in our project until the last day.

Q:  If you intuited a lack of faith, why didn’t you speak directly with FP?

A:  I reproach myself every day for that.  If I had asked the president to speak with him, this would have been solved.  I was lukewarm about doing that, and that was my big mistake.  I should have insisted.  If we had been able to talk, we would have been able to clear things up.

Q:  Did the Bernabéu stop believing in you after the alcorconazo?

A:  No, because the fans aren’t stupid, and it’s not that easy to manipulate them.  They know what happened and so they only criticized me, and justly, the day after the Alcorcón game in which I subbed out Lass, who had been the best player out there.  But the problem is that in Madrid, the coach has no authority.  The sporting director doesn’t either.

Q:  Do you regret having coached in Madrid?

A:  No.  In fact, I would thank FP for having given me this opportunity.  I’m sure that as time passes, what I achieved will be valued.  Whoever comes next has to surpass 100 points to do better.

Q:  Did leaving Madrid in this way hurt?

A:  I didn’t understand why they made me wait 10 days to let me go when they knew as soon as the game ended against Málaga that the decision was irrevocable.  It wasn’t very ethical to make me wait while they came to terms with Mourinho.  But that’s the past.