GUILLEM BALAGUE EXCLUSIVE: No experience and no motivational skills: Is Zidane the Real deal?

Zinedine Zidane was certainly one of the greatest players ever to wear the white of Real Madrid but is he the right man to steady the ship and take it back to its former glories?

His appointment as new top man at the Santiago Bernabeu at the expense of the unfortunate Rafael Benitez after less than half a season, may well have come with the approval of the players, some of the fans and most importantly the President, Florentino Perez, but that’s a long way of saying it’s the right decision.

For a man who likes to give the impression that money is no object when signing the best players in the world, when it comes to coaches, Perez it would seem is a little more cautious with the club’s purse strings.

Although he thanked Benitez for his efforts at the press conference he never actually explained just why he’d sacked him and speaking to the media off the record afterwards told them that, actually, he wasn’t really sure why he had.

What he omitted to mention was that had he waited until January 15 then the club would have been contractually obliged to pay Benitez up the full value of his three- year contract. He has paid him off the value of the next six months instead.

The truth is he is very much of the opinion that, actually, coaches aren’t really that important or relevant as long as enough money is thrown at bringing the best players on board.

Which is just as well in the case of Zidane because while the former ‘blancos’ superstar puts a bold tick in the box labelled Real Madrid icon, when it comes to coaching experience then he has precious little of it.

The haste with which he has stepped into Benitez’s shoes was a bit disappointing. At no point in his acceptance speech did he make any reference to the previous manager nor to Carlo Ancelotti nor to Mourinho who was the first to take him on as an assistant.

There are also doubts within the club about his ability to coach but not so much about managing egos, which was his main role when working as an assistant, first with Ancelotti, and before then with Jose Mourinho, was as a bridge between management and players.

[THE CLOWN STILL RUNS THE CIRCUS: PEREZ APPOINTS ANOTHER MANAGER]

[PICTURE THIS: ZIDANE TAKES FIRST REAL MADRID TRAINING SESSION]

This season with the B team he has had people like his assistant Santiago Sanchez doing most of the coaching work while his main brief was to create a football style and deal with the players, albeit players in Second Division B, the third tier of Spanish football.

The first major test he faced in that department, he failed. It involved the handling – or more appropriately perhaps, the mishandling – of the prodigiously talented Norwegian youngster Martin Odegaard who trained with the first team squad but was assigned to play with the reserves side two leagues lower.

Under his tutelage and man-management skills, Real Madrid should have helped the 17-year-old potential superstar blossom into the great football talent everyone knows him to be, in the largest football club in the world.

Instead what has been created is an unhappy player stuck in a miserable limbo, considered not quite good enough yet for the first team, and simultaneously resented by his team mates in the reserve side that consider him to have been given preferential treatment.

It is difficult to imagine how it could have been handled worse. 25 bigger egos are waiting for him at the Bernabeu.

His season last year with the ‘B’ team was a disaster when he failed to take the side into the play-offs for a place in the Spanish second division and one of the main reasons for that was that one of his main focuses involved him going here, there and everywhere to get the badges he needed to do the job, including going to watch Marcelo Bielsa and Pep Guardiola.

This season has seen something of an improvement although he takes his place at the top table, on the back of just one win and five draws in the last six games for the B side, and that a 1-0 win over bottom placed Portugalete who have just won twice all season.

Neither is he perceived by anyone at the club as the greatest of motivators or the type of man you would want at your side in the trenches.

The mischievous Jose Mourinho has been known to tell the story about the time in the Real Madrid dressing room when he asked Zizou in front of everyone to give the pre-match ‘up and at ‘em’ talk. It was not, by all accounts, his finest hour, with a number of players doing their best to suppress their giggles. More importantly it does not bode well for the future.

As he looks to start his new role he would have hoped to have brought with him the former Real Madrid player, the extremely capable Argentine coach, Santi Solari as his right hand man.

This would have left Zizou, despite his limited communication skills, as the Real Madrid front man with Solari doing the real work behind the scenes. Solari has thought about it and declined the club offer.

In truth his original plan was probably to move on to another club and learn his trade, although that idea was swiftly abandoned as soon as it became abundantly clear that poor Rafa’s days were numbered and he was very much the name in the frame to take over.

Many of the Real Madrid fans, as much as they adore him and respect his achievements as a player, do not regard him as a coach – at least certainly not yet – and fear that a bad year that merely proves that fact, would see him disappear into the sunset, tail between his legs and branded a failure.

His first training session with the side attracted more than 5000 people and was followed by his first press conference to the world’s sporting media.

Described by Emilio Butragueno as a Real Madrid legend who has finally made it where he belongs as manager, the Frenchman looked anything but comfortable as he nervously re-adjusted his microphone and gave out stock answers to predictable questions thrown at him in both French and Spanish.

The predictable platitudes came thick and fast. Yes, all players including the likes of Isco and James were vital to the club, of course he was delighted to be here, naturally Real Madrid could win their 11^th European Cup, yes, everything is possible when you wear this shirt and Real Madrid must play beautiful football and he was going to continue on that line. Plus he will surely play the BBC, in some eyes the origin of many problems with the team.

As far as Florentino is concerned all Zizou has to do is bring a little bit of order to the house while he writes out the cheques to guarantee the arrival of even more superstars.

Unfortunately, however, the President finds himself in a position not dissimilar to the one he was in when he previously resigned, namely that he has created a situation where players have an awful lot of power.

An example of this can be seen by his decision to ask the players in a poll, even while the last manager was still at his desk, who they wanted to be their next coach, and the vast majority opted for Zidane.

I’m not sure any of the players went into any great detail why they wanted Zizou at the helm, but it’s fairly safe to assume one of the reasons was that he was a great ex-player they felt they could look up to and the other could well have been that they thought that under him they would have an easier life.

Whatever the reasons, one could be forgiven for thinking that once the players get to choose their manager, then it should come as no surprise if at some point down the line when things get a bit rocky, the old maxim “We hired you, we can fire you,” kicks in.

But before they get too settled or complacent the players would do well to remember something. This Real Madrid side is merely a group of individuals rather than a team, and more importantly looks to be reaching the end of an era.

There was a distinct lack of interest shown by many of the players against Valencia recently, particularly after having taken an early lead.

Perez knows it and his ‘solution’ will be to give Zidane a long contract (just how long we will find out in due course but could be two years and a half) and then get rid of at least five or six players, including Cristiano and Benzema if the money is right and depending on a possible FIFA ban similar to FC Barcelona's. If the ban gets confirmed it won't apply till at least next winter which would make next summer a crucial timing for the rebuilding.

In their place might come the likes of Lewandowski, Eden Hazard and David de Gea, different cast, same play; new names, old mentality. As the phrase has it, "the more things change, the more they stay the same".

And perhaps the most damning indictment of the Perez regime is that despite the money, the signings, the adulation, the worldwide support and the fact that this is the biggest sporting institution in the world bar none, to date, it hasn’t worked.

This is a side that has won just one La Liga title since he retook control on June 1, 2009.

The Gods were shining on them in Lisbon when Sergio Ramos headed the last gasp equaliser that earned them an undeserved period of extra time and eventually the club’s tenth European title.

Since then the only pot to make its way into the Santiago Bernabeu trophy cabinet has been the FIFA Club World Cup won in December 2014.

But if anyone thought things were bad now, then waiting in the wings is the possibility of a FIFA ruling that could turn what is presently a bad dream into a veritable nightmare and devastate the entire Perez plan.

On November 27 El Mundo Deportivo published an article stating that FIFA had already found Real Madrid and Atletico guilty of precisely the same irregularities involving the signing of young minors to the club that had seen Barcelona banned from two transfer windows.

If, as the newspaper claims, the decision has already been made, then there’s every reason to assume that the clubs will receive exactly the same punishment as Barcelona did. Just why the clubs have not yet been informed if the decision has been made is a matter no doubt to be discussed at a later date.

This team undoubtedly needs a ‘spring-clean’ and a FIFA ban that prevents it could prove to be a disaster, simply because there are too many players at the club that look like they would rather be enjoying an easier life somewhere else.

With no one to replace them, Ronaldo, Benzema and all others on the list would have to stay where they are, happy or not. Now that really would be interesting.