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Florentino Perezas will have to quickly come to terms with the fact that finding a coach capable of managing a star-studded squad is a task of the "Mission Impossible" category.
Jose Antonio Camacho's resignation on Monday turned his assistant, Mariano Garcia Remon, into the fourth coach of "Los Galacticos" in the last 15 months.
Camacho and his predecessors, Carlos Queiroz and Vincente del Bosque, fell victim to Perez's player buying policy, based more on marketing power than on the team's needs.
This gave "Real" a very solid image of a team, with excellent attackers playing alongside defenders who often joined the attack, and rumors that the dressing room became a place of disagreements more and more often.
"When I was appointed as coach, the president, the board, and the fans had complete trust in me as a coach... But the performance on the field did not reflect the hopes placed in me," Camacho said on Monday.
The president, the board, and the fans may have trusted him, but it quickly became apparent that the players did not.
Merciless policy
Since becoming president in 2000, Perez has included Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, David Beckham, and Michael Owen in the squad. Almost one superstar per year. Meanwhile, talented, hard-working midfielders and defenders were ruthlessly pushed out of the team.
The team won the league championships in 2001 and 2003 and brought the club their ninth Champions League trophy in 2002 after Zidane's amazing goal.
Although the titles continued to come, so did the problems.
The Champions League semifinal loss cost del Bosque his job, but instead of strengthening the defense, Perez sold Claude Makelele to Chelsea, dismissed the captain, Fernando Hierro, and bought David Beckham to spice things up.
Camacho came with a condition that the club would be strengthened, and Perez spent 45 million euros bringing in center-backs Walter Samuel and Jonathan Woodgate, as well as acquiring his fifth "galactico" - Michael Owen.
At that point, the problems with team discipline were so deep that there was little hope that the new coach would be able to change the players' attitude.
Well-informed Spanish newspapers soon began to print reports that the key players were complaining about Camacho's heavy demands.
There were also discussions about Raul's place in the starting lineup, due to his loss of form, but Camacho received no support when he decided to bench the captain for this weekend's match against.
Three failures
Perez has now worked with three coaches with three different styles, trying to find someone who can restore balance to the unbalanced squad.
Del Bosque, being humble, gently coaxed the best out of his players but glaring holes in the defense proved his downfall.
Queiroz, the savvy polyglot and technocrat, seemed the perfect candidate in front of the colorful club, but he failed to do anything to stop the morale decline at the end of last season.
That's when Perez turned to Camacho, an old-school demanding coach, to restore the team's competitiveness, but even for him, the job was too difficult.
Garcia Remon now has a chance to build a reputation for himself by achieving results where Camacho and company failed, but Perez already anticipates possible successors with a more famous name.
He would certainly be delighted to attract such a successful and respected coach as Arsene Wenger from.
There are also rumors that Sven Goran Eriksson will receive an offer from the club. After all, three members of the England national team play for "Real".
Spanish sports newspapers like to say that when Real Madrid calls, no one can refuse.
However, Perez's problem is that the position of the chief strategist at "Real" is no longer as attractive as it used to be...
