Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said on Monday he has accepted Jose Antonio Camacho’s resignation as coach and appointed his deputy Mariano Garcia Remon in a caretaker role.
Real won their first two Liga games 1-0, but were thrashed 3-0 by Bayer Leverkusen in the European Champions League last week and lost 1-0 to modest Espanyol on Sunday when Camacho benched club captain Raul and England captain David Beckham.
The win put Espanyol, who finished fifth from bottom last season, top of the table. Real are currently eighth.
The tough-talking Camacho admitted he had been unable to work with the Real superstars.
”This year, the president, the board and the fans believed in me,” he told a news conference at which he refused to answer any questions.
”But I can only admit that the team has not performed as they should have and they are not going to improve with me staying. By staying the crisis could have got worse, so I decided to go.”
It is the second time Camacho has walked out on Real. Six years ago, the 49-year-old Camacho resigned just three weeks after arriving at Real following a disagreement with former president Lorenzo Sanz over transfer policy.
That led to four years as coach of Spain’s underachieving national side and a season at Benfica of Portugal before the revolving door at Real spun once again with the ejection of Carlos Queiroz following a Champions League quarterfinal exit to Monaco and only fourth place in the league.
If Camacho looked to have won the transfer game with the signings of big-name defenders Walter Samuel and Jonathan Woodgate, as well as England hitman Michael Owen, his second reign has ended after just 120 days.
Remon, a former Real goalkeeper in the Seventies, has coached Sporting Gijon, Albacete, Las Palmas, Salamanca, Numancia and Cordoba in the lower divisions.
He was called back to Real in 1996 when Jorge Valdano was relieved of his duties and coached the side for a few weeks at the end of that season before leaving.
He returned to Real this year with Camacho after Real sacked Queiroz, who had lasted a year in the job after replacing Vicente Del Bosque.
”This is a sad day for Real,” said Remon, who added he had only accepted the job at the request of Camacho. — Sapa-AFP