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Marca have reported that Raul Gonzalez will be given temporary charge of Juvenil A for the return of the UEFA Youth League in August.
Alongside plans to bring back the Champions League, UEFA also announced, following a meeting last Wednesday, that the UEFA Youth League would be finished over the course of nine days in August. The under-19s, whom represent Real Madrid in the competition, are to face Juventus on August 16th in the round of 16, however, they are currently without a coach.
Dani Poyatos is leaving the manager role at the end of June to join Greek side Panathinakos and his natural successor, the Juvenil B manager, was recently promoted to Director of football and the cantera.
Left with few other alternatives, Real Madrid have reportedly gone for the obvious option of putting Raul in temporary charge of Juvenil A for the competition.
Real Madrid have never won the UEFA Youth League and the appointment of Raul would certainly increase their chances of success given the Spaniard’s knowledge of the squad already. Four Castilla players (Antonio Blanco, Miguel Baeza, Marvin Park and Victor Chust) were amongst the squad that finished the group stages and two of them (Baeza and Blanco) played key roles in the team topping the group. Outside of the four Castilla players, there are also plenty of players who worked under Raul when he was at Juvenil B, namely the starting full back Sergio Santos and goalkeeper Toni Fuidas.
The short stint will also give Raul a better idea of whose ready to be promoted to Castilla with promotion favourites Pablo Ramon, Xavier Sintes and Ivan Morante likely to feature in the coming matches
Marca don’t offer a date for when this decision will be made official, however, one suspects it will come quite soon after Poyatos officially leaves the club at the end of June. Reliable Castilla sources have said that the return of European youth football caught Real Madrid off guard so Raul will likely have plenty of work to do to get his team in title fighting shape before that August showdown with Juventus.