Chapter 55: Real Madrid is finished!
Gao Shen returned to Madrid, presided over the afternoon training session, and received a call from Buenaventura when he returned home that night.
The future physical training master said that he accepted the invitation from Gao Shen and Real Madrid. He has already convinced Cadiz and they have agreed to his resignation, but Real Madrid needs to pay a small compensation.
Of course Gao Shen had no problem with that and immediately agreed on behalf of Real Madrid.
Buenaventura said he would prepare a training plan overnight and fly to Madrid early tomorrow morning so that he could start working right away after signing with Valdebebas.
Buenaventura's style of acting on his words is very much to Gao Shen's liking.
After hanging up the phone, Gao Shen first called Butragueno to tell him about the progress on his side.
Gao Shen had already reported the matter of poaching Buenaventura to Butragueno before going to Cadiz. Vulture had also heard of this person, and seeing Gao Shen was so confident and serious about this, he had no objection.
Now that Gao Shen has reached an agreement with Buenaventura, Butragueno has no objection and said he will call the management of Cádiz and rush out a contract overnight so that Buenaventura can start work tomorrow.
After hanging up the phone with Butragueno, Gao Shen called Carlo again and told him the good news.
Then came Raul, Guti, Zidane, Beckham and others, and Gao Shen called them one after another.
This is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of respect.
These players are the backbone of the team and the most core fighting force of Real Madrid in the future. They are also the cornerstone of a stable locker room. Gao Shen must appease them no matter what. Therefore, for such a big thing as appointing Buenaventura, Gao Shen must tell them in advance so that they can be mentally prepared.
Gao Shen had told them about hiring a physical trainer before, and now that they have been hired, they naturally expressed their full cooperation.
Training will definitely be harder than before, but the team has now won three games in a row, especially this week, when Barcelona lost away and Real Madrid successfully narrowed the points gap, which gave everyone hope.
Where there is hope, there is motivation.
Next was Fernando Lucas. He had a car, and Gao Shen asked him to pick him up at the airport tomorrow morning.
Finally, Gao Shen considered it for a while and decided to call Maqueda and tell him about this matter.
Gao Shen's dissatisfaction with the team's low level of daily training had been discussed with the coaching staff before. He also asked the coaching staff to come up with a plan, but to no avail because no one was willing to help Gao Shen offend anyone.
Afterwards, Gao Shen said he wanted to recruit people from outside, but no one reacted. After all, it was already March, and it was not easy to suddenly recruit a capable fitness coach who could come to Real Madrid.
Who would have thought that Gao Shen actually found it.
It is true that Cádiz is a newly promoted team, but it is not very famous in La Liga and is the hottest team to be relegated this season. Buenaventura has some fame in the Spanish coaching circle, which is mostly due to his experience in coaching training courses.
In general, Buenaventura is not well-known nowadays, and he doesn't look like the kind of coach that Gao Shen expected, who can solve Real Madrid's physical difficulties in a short period of time . Instead, he looks like a coach who wants to take the opportunity to gild himself and brush up his resume at Real Madrid.
Maqueda also thought so at first when he was on the phone, so he didn't care at all. Isn't it just one more subordinate?
But when Gao Shen mentioned that the team's physical training, targeted training for the players, and even all aspects including injury recovery and diet should be handed over to Buenaventura, Maqueda panicked.
The first reaction of Real Madrid's assistant coach was that Gao Shen was undermining his power.
Why?
Because he had gone against Gao Shen before and embarrassed Gao Shen on the spot, now he is taking revenge.
But Gao Shen didn't give him any time to react and hung up the phone after he finished speaking.
Gao Shen's tone from beginning to end was one of notification rather than consultation or discussion, which was equivalent to telling Maqueda that whether you agree or not, I'm going to do it anyway, and you either accept it or get out.
If it weren't for Buenaventura, Gao Shen might have hesitated, but now that Buenaventura is here, Gao Shen doesn't care whether Maqueda stays or not.
In fact, Gao Shen also concluded that it was impossible for Maqueda to resign.
If he really wants to quit, he won't give in after the previous fallout.
…
Most of the Real Madrid players, especially the Brazilian gang led by Ronaldo and Carlos, only learned that the club had temporarily hired a physical coach before the training session.
His name is not very well-known. He said that he used to work in Cadiz and was a teacher in the Spanish coach training class.
This made Ronaldo, Carlos and others extremely annoyed.
Because they had not received any notice before, while Raul, Beckham and others had obviously received the news in advance and even knew who the other party was.
Everyone knows that the Brazilian gang has fallen out of favor in the Real Madrid dressing room. Even Ronaldo and Carlos have been completely marginalized and can no longer make any waves.
Before training, Gao Shen took Buenaventura to the locker room to meet all the players.
Maqueda and the coaching staff were also present to support Buenaventura.
This may seem like a formality, but it is the simplest and most direct way to tell everyone that this matter has been decided!
Raul, Guti and Beckham have all reached a consensus with Gao Shen and expressed their welcome to Buenaventura on the spot. Gao Shen also welcomed the new coach on behalf of Zidane.
In other words, the bigwigs in the locker room knew and agreed in advance.
Not only Ronaldo, Carlos and others were surprised and helpless, even Buenaventura was quite surprised.
He had originally thought that he would encounter some obstacles and troubles after taking office, especially resistance from the players.
But unexpectedly, Gao Shen paved the way for him so quickly and eliminated the biggest hidden dangers for him.
This forced him to re-recognize Gao Shen's influence in the Real Madrid locker room.
At most, it’s only been twelve days since I took office!
In front of others, Gao Shen gave Buenaventura enough face and allowed him enough authority, but after leaving the locker room and on the way back to the coach's office, Gao had to give him a few careful instructions.
"Our players are special. On the one hand, they are not young, and on the other hand, they have extremely high prestige in world football. So sometimes, when dealing with some things, we have to consider the methods and the actual situation at the same time."
Gao Shen mentioned this to Buenaventura on the phone last night.
Real Madrid now has many aging players, such as Zidane, Salgado, Carlos and Ronaldo and so on.
When formulating training, we need to improve the training level, but we must also take their actual situation into consideration.
Especially for chronic patients like Ronaldo and Woodgate, they must be considered on a case-by-case basis.
"Don't worry, I am only making a preliminary training plan based on our team's schedule. Next, I will learn more about the actual situation and make targeted training plans for each player. At the same time, I will also make different training plans for players with different roles based on the team's tactics and player positioning."
Buenaventura's training must take into account both the entire team and the actual situation of the individual players, while also taking into account the players' regional cooperation on the court, but all of these require some time to slowly advance.
"The Champions League quarter-final draw is about to begin. There is still about half a month before the first leg of the quarter-finals. Starting from the weekend, we will play three league games in a week, which is also crucial. You have a heavy task ahead of you."
Buenaventura was already in his forties and was not quite used to being led by a 25-year-old boy. However, Gao Shen gave him a very mature feeling, without any of the immaturity of a young man, as if everything was a natural outcome.
This strange feeling was difficult for him to understand when he recalled it.
But standing in Valdebebas, he was still looking forward to his future.
Except for the time when he coached the Argentina national team, his coaching career has always been in Cadiz. This season is his first time in La Liga. Now he has jumped from a La Liga newly promoted team to coach a giant club like Real Madrid. He cherishes this opportunity very much.
More importantly, he could feel Gao Shen's sincere trust in him from all the details.
This made him eager to show off his talents and hold himself high.
…
…
The fact that Buenaventura joined the Real Madrid coaching staff was only briefly mentioned in the media.
No one would pay attention to the fact that this Spanish fitness coach has joined Real Madrid and the changes he will bring to Real Madrid.
All the focus is just on the superstars and the narrowing gap between Real Madrid and Barcelona in the La Liga standings.
And, the Champions League quarter-final draw ceremony was held at UEFA headquarters on Thursday.
On Wednesday, after all the matches of the Champions League round of 16 were played, the eight teams in the quarterfinals were also freshly announced.
A total of three La Liga teams reached the quarterfinals, namely Real Madrid, Barcelona and Villarreal. Serie A also has three teams, Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan, as well as Benfica from the Portuguese Super League and Lyon from Ligue 1.
According to the quarterfinal draw rules, it is not impossible for all teams to be randomly drawn, compete against the same country, or even stage the final in advance.
Real Madrid's luck in draws has not been very good, and the team did not play well in the group stage, so they met the powerful Juventus in the round of 16 last season and Arsenal this season.
Now, after finally reversing the result against Arsenal and reaching the quarterfinals, they avoided the weaker Benfica in the draw and met Juventus led by Capello.
Last season, Real Madrid lost to Juventus in the round of 16 of the Champions League.
Today's Juventus is stronger overall than last season.
How strong is it?
There is no need to mention the head coach Capello. The stars in the team include Buffon, Cannavaro, Zebina, Thuram, Chiellini, Robert Kovac, Zambrotta , Bilindelli, Vieira, Emerson, Tacchinati, Camoranesi, Nedved, Marchisio, Trezeguet, Piero, Ibrahimovic, Mutu, Miccoli, Sarajevo...
Let’s count, how powerful is this lineup?
So much so that when the draw results came out, the whole world sang sad songs for Real Madrid.
In the championship odds of the three major bookmakers, Real Madrid's odds fell sharply and directly fell to the bottom of the quarterfinals.
All the media and fans agree that Real Madrid is finished!
