Zidane snaps in his press conference: “Show some respect”

Zinedine Zidane had his first press conference in more than two weeks on Friday, his first since he tested positive for COVID-19. The French coach was much more agitated than usual as he spoke to the media and snapped at one point when asked about his mood.

He went on a mini rant, saying: “We deserve to keep fighting for the title. It was us who won LaLiga last year, it was Real Madrid. That was last year, it’s not like it was 10 years ago. So let us fight. The questions make me laugh. You are doing your job, but one day you say I’ll be kicked out of the club and the next day I’m inside the club. If we draw or lose then apparently I’ll be sacked. That’s what you’re doing. So it upsets me because we’re trying to do our job. We do our job and you do your job, but you should show some respect for our work.”

One of his other snappy lines came when he was asked about Sergio Ramos’ renewal talks. He replied: “I don’t know anything about it. You don’t either.”

The coach was calmer when discussing Martin Ødegaard’s departure, with this his first press conference since the midfielder left for Arsenal. On that, Zidane said: “He wanted to leave and play more. We spoke about it two or three times. When it’s a request from the player... I mean, I said that he should stay and fight and be calm because it’s a long process. He’s a player who I asked for us to bring in. But, it wasn’t to be. It was a decision taken by everyone.”

Eden Hazard’s latest injury was brought up too. On that, Zidane said: “We want to see the best version of Eden. But, what can I say about his bad luck? It’s really difficult, for him first and foremost. He wants to play for Real Madrid. It’s really tough for him right now. I hope we can see him back and playing well and not injured after this current injury. I think it’ll be two or three weeks of recovery for him right now.”

Finally, he previewed the match against Huesca that will take place on Saturday afternoon, saying: “We’re very focused on tomorrow’s game and nothing else. We want to get back to the form we were in recently. I can guarantee that we won’t give up. What has to happen will happen. We have to fight and, as the coach, I’m the first who has to do so. If people want me to go, I’m not going to give up. We want to show what we are. There’s a lot of talk about this being an uncomfortable situation. We’ve not been winning enough matches recently, but we’re going to try to get back to winning ways.”