Calderon says Conte is reluctant to become Real manager

Ex-club president Ramon Calderon was interview on BBC Radio recently where he talked about the Antonio Conte managerial rumors. He also took the opportunity to take a dig at Florentino Perez.

“He’s asked for three years to come in with five people and have hands-free for signings and transfers.”

“But that’s something the president isn’t willing to accept.”

“I don’t think Antonio Conte will be the coach the Bernabéu is expecting. He’s like Jose Mourinho, a defensive coach with normally three centre-backs playing counter-attacking football.”

“That’s not what Real Madrid expect to see. The president tried this before with Mourinho. They didn’t win the Champions League and he left the club in a bad situation.”

There doesn’t seem to be a person in the world who hates Perez more than Ramon Calderon. It seems like any chance he gets these days to badmouth him, he does. There’s definitely a lot of sour grapes on Calderon’s end that he just can’t seem to get over.

Who knows if Calderon actually knows anything with regards to Conte contemplating the Real Madrid managerial job. It’s hard to take someone seriously when they clearly have an agenda they’re trying to push.

Should it be true though, comparing Conte to a current Mourinho isn’t exactly encouraging for the club or the fans. Conte is certainly one of the better candidates for the full-time position, alongside Leonardo Jardim. According to recent sources, namely Sky Sports, they have reported that Conte has ruled himself out of the running.

At this point, it seems like no one is really close to taking over the managerial role long-term, but that could change towards the end of Solari’s two-week interim tenure.

Real Madrid have not officially reached out to Roberto Martinez

According to ESPN FC and a spokesperson from the Belgium FA they have cited, Real Madrid have yet to reach out to Belgium manager Roberto Martinez.

All I can say is, hopefully Real Madrid never officially reach out to Martinez. He’s just not a very good manager. He was pretty average for Wigan, winning them an FA Cup before getting them relegated from the Premier League.

He was bad as manager of Everton, despite a good first season, before landing the job at Belgium. He is a pretty good manager with regards to attacking football, but woeful when it comes to the defensive side of the ball. He’s certainly not the worst option, but he’s not a manager that is even close to level of coaching Real Madrid.

It doesn’t seem that there are credible links, as you can see from this report that no official approach has even been made. It just seems like outlets are trying to link a realistic Spanish manager with the Real job.

Dejan Lovren disses Ramos, praises Varane

Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren was interviewed by Copa90 recently where he has appeared to have gone off the deep end.

“If you look, Ramos, he has many more mistakes than me but he’s at Real Madrid. With Ronaldo, when you make a mistake, it’s 5-1, 5-2 and nobody sees the mistake.”

“I’m quite unlucky, when I make the mistake it’s 1-0. When I do a mistake I don’t talk to anyone, not even my wife… you don’t know how it is.”

“I said I’m one of the best, not the best. It can be five, but look at this season and tell me who played in the Champions League final and then a month later in the World Cup final. I was second after Thierry Henry, I searched that information.”

Yikes....Lovren is actually trying to draw a comparison between himself and Thierry Henry. Certainly, Ramos has made some individual mistakes this season so far, he’s been bad at times. That being said, it would be foolish to not think he is still a top defender.

Meanwhile, Lovren has essentially lost his starting job to a 21-year-old Joe Gomez. Being completely honest here, and really not trying to insult Lovren, he’s not even close to being a top defender let alone in the top 5 worldwide. I could think of about 15, at least, who are better defenders.

While he clearly still is against Ramos for the Mohamed Salah incident, someone he is good friends with aside from being teammates, he has gone a bit too far with the comparisons.

He did get asked about Varane and whether he is better than Ramos also, in which he gave rather nice compliments about Varane. It’s sounding like some Calderon-level sour grapes in this interview.

“I like Varane, he deserves a lot of credit but he doesn’t get it as much. Ramos got it, I don’t agree with that.”

“Definitely. At this moment and in previous years, yeah. He won the Champions League and the World Cup, I think he should be the best defender in the world but they chose Ramos.”

Many French teammates have also backed Varane as one of the world’s best defenders who is worthy of contention for the Ballon d’Or. Being so young and just entering his prime age, he can only get better while he’s already so good.

Even though Lovren was doing a backhanded compliment towards Ramos, it’s nice to see that other defenders recognize truly how good Raphael Varane is.