Rumours have surfaced this week that the Real Madrid hierarchy are growing increasingly restless with manager Jose Mourinho. Despite Real's impressive start to the season - they currently lead rivals Barcelona by five points in La Liga - Mourinho has found himself under-fire, with Real's president Florentino Perez reportedly running out of patience with the former Chelsea boss as he is constantly embroiled in controversy.
In the aftermath of Real's home defeat to Barcelona in the first-leg of their Copa del Rey quarter-final media reports surfaced that Mourinho had a bust-up with players Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas. A few days later Real fans booed Mourinho during their game with Athletic Bilbao for employing negative tactics, even though they came out on top 4-1. This week Mourinho's poor record against Barcelona continued when they got knocked out of the cup, although they deserve huge credit for the character they showed in fighting back from two goals down to draw level. It is believed that Mourinho must now win both La Liga and the Champions League in order to hold onto his job.
Bookmakers Stan James have reacted to the speculation by opening up a Next Real Madrid Manager betting market. Germany boss Joachim Low is the frontrunner in the betting, while Arsene Wenger, Guus Hiddink and Fabio Capello also feature. Mourinho has not been shy in stating his love for English football and is almost certainly expected to return at some point in the future. He is currently the favourite in the next Man Utd, Man City and Tottenham manager betting markets, as well as featuring prominantly in the Chelsea and Liverpool manager odds.
Real are at home to bottom of the table Real Zaragoza on Saturday. They are the overwhelming odds-on 1/20 favourites for the match, while Zaragoza have been handed long odds of 33/1, with a draw available at 11/1. Real are the 4/7 favourites to win La Liga and second favourites (behind Barcelona) at 5/2 to win the Champions League for the first time since 2002.
Odds courtesy of Stan James.
Odds courtesy of Stan James.
