Real Madrid players pledged support for Jose Mourinho

Posted on January 25, 2013 by SoccerPunter

Spain and Real Madrid‘s goalkeeper Iker Casillas has denied Marca newspaper reports that he demanded Florentino Perez to sack Jose Mourinho as soon as possible. It is rumored that vice captain Sergio Ramos also did not get along well with the Portuguese manager.

The Spanish Primera Division champions is in a precarious situation, sitting on third placing of the league table, behind Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

Mourinho has thrown in the towel after claiming that Real Madrid have no chance to win La Liga this season.

Casillas and Ramos, two influential members of the Real squad who have reportedly clashed with the Portuguese coach, rejected the report and president Florentino Perez branded it an attempt to “destabilise” the club.

“No kind of ultimatum was ever made by us concerning our coach” at the meeting, the two players said in a statement.

“We want to demonstrate our support for our coach, Jose Mourinho, to whom we owe the utmost respect.”

Marca said the two had told club president Florentino Perez that several players were ready to leave the club if Mourinho remained in charge for next season.

Mourinho kept Casillas — a hero of Real Madrid and the Spanish national teams that won the last World Cup and two European championships — on the bench for two matches in December and January.

The coach said it was a question of the keeper’s form but the move was widely interpreted as a bid by Mourinho to assert his authority over Casillas, whom he reportedly sees as a dissenter in the dressing room.

Ramos was left on the bench following a defeat to Sevilla, and later appeared to defy Mourinho by visibly wearing under his strip the name of his teammate Mesut Ozil, who was being sidelined from the squad.

Perez, a construction magnate, said he had met on Tuesday with Casillas and Ramos as well as Real Madrid director general Jose Angel Sanchez but denied the details reported by Marca.

“What was published is simply a lie,” Perez told a news conference at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

“The meeting was to agree on the bonuses to be given players for various competitions. It is completely false that during this meeting we received such an ultimatum,” he added.

The editor of Marca, Oscar Campillo, acknowledged there may not have been an “ultimatum” as such but stood by the story that various Real players were thinking of leaving if Mourinho stayed.

Over recent months Spanish media have been full of reports of a rift in the dressing room between Mourinho and heavyweights such as Casillas and Ramos complaining about his aloof style.

Last week Marca reported that star striker Cristiano Ronaldo clashed with Mourinho after the Portuguese coach criticised his performance in the final minutes of the side’s 2-0 win over Valencia in the first leg of their Spanish Cup quarter-final tie.

A poll published in the newspaper earlier this month said Real Madrid supporters have also started to lose faith in Mourinho: 54.4 per cent said he should stay next season and 41.8 per cent said it was time for him to go.

Mourinho was jeered at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium this month after he benched Casillas for two matches.

Real Madrid won the Spanish league last year but are lagging in third this season with 40 points, 15 behind their arch-rivals, league leaders Barcelona, and seven behind city rivals Atletico.

Mourinho has admitted the league title is out of reach this season but Real have qualified for the semi-finals of the Spanish cup and host Manchester United on February 13 in the first leg of the Champions League quarter finals.