|
Camacho says he quit Madrid because he lacked authority
Story Tools: Print Email
Associated Press
Posted: 1 day ago
MADRID, Spain (AP) - Breaking his silence for the first time since his sudden resignation as Real Madrid coach, Jose Antonio Camacho said he departed because he felt unable to exert a major influence on the star-studded team.
"I'm used to giving orders and here I couldn't do so. Everything stopped me. If I'd been able to do more, I wouldn't have left," said Camacho, who quit on Sept. 19 after less than four months in charge.
Camacho, a former coach of the Spanish national team, said in an interview with broadcaster Cadena SER on Tuesday night that his relationship with Florentino Perez was "good," before describing the Madrid president as someone "who doesn't take advice."
"He runs the club in a different way to a typical soccer president," Camacho said. "We got on well because I understand him. However, perhaps we can't work well together because where I coach, I like to give orders and I couldn't do this the way I wished. That's why I decided to leave," he said.
Camacho, a former Madrid stalwart, who also coached the team for three weeks in 1998 before quitting after a dispute with the then president Lorenzo Sanz, replaced Carlos Queiroz in May.
Queiroz was fired after Madrid ended the season without a major trophy despite boasting stars of the caliber of Ronaldo, David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane.
Yet Camacho was unable to improve the team's fortunes and resigned after just three rounds of the season following successive defeats by Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League and Espanyol in the league.
"I felt my role wasn't going to be important. I wasn't going to stay just to be one of the crowd," Camacho said. "If I can't work as I want then I have to leave."
Providing an example, Camacho said he had failed in his attempt to get Madrid's players to take lunch at the training ground before practicing in the afternoon.
"Madrid has another policy when it comes to work which works fine for them and so they didn't accept the change I was proposing," he said.
Camacho added he was unable to influence the club's transfer policy, saying he preferred to bolster the team with AS Roma's Emerson or Arsenal's Patrick Vieira, or even Real Sociedad's Xabi Alonso, rather than England striker Michael Owen, who joined from Liverpool in August.
Emerson preferred Juventus, Vieira rejected Madrid's offer and stayed with Arsenal, while Alonso joined Liverpool.
"I didn't ask for Owen, although I said he wouldn't get in the way. Xabi Alonso was an option, but the priorities were Vieira and Emerson," he said.
Camacho's replacement and former assistant Mariano Garcia Remon has steered Madrid into second place in the standings after 10 games, trailing FC Barcelona by seven points.
___________________
"A style that's impossible to define. Prog? Hardly. Tech house? Not boring enough. It's like trippy twisted acid house but deep and funky. See, I told you - impossible."
|
hes back!!!
