Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo were joined at Real Madrid’s training ground on Monday by the club’s irate president, Florentino Perez, unhappy at a humiliating 4-0 derby defeat to Atletico Madrid and the subsequent high-profile birthday party thrown by Ronaldo.
Bale was at least in the clear on the second of those presidential gripes as, along with many other first-team players, he decided not to attend Ronaldo’s 30th birthday party coming as it did so close to what Carlo Ancelotti called the ‘worst performance’ since he had taken over.
Perez met with Real’s Italian coach for just over an hour and then addressed the squad asking them to get back to the kind of form they were showing before Christmas when they out-performed everyone in the group stages of the Champions League and established a healthy lead in the league which has now been trimmed to just one point by a resurgent Barcelona.
Perez has been a ruthless president in the past averaging one sacking a season for much of his time as the head of the most demanding club in football. Jose Mourinho bucked that trend by staying in the job under him for three years and Ancelotti looked on safe ground after winning the European Cup last summer but things change quickly in the Spanish capital.
Real Madrid have been ravaged by injuries of late with Sergio Ramos, Pepe and Luka Modric all out of Saturday’s debacle.
Full-back Marcelo also missed the game and Real had only one of their first choice back four on the pitch but that carried little weight with Perez, who has a history of going to the training ground in times of crisis.
As he drove into the huge Valdebebas complex by Madrid’s Barajas Airport he would have seen around 12 protesting fans holding up a banner which read: Vuestra risa, nuestra verguenza, translating as 'your laughter, our shame'.
The message was a reference to the way some members of the squad were pictured enjoying Ronaldo’s birthday bash just hours after the 4-0 reverse.
Source:Dailymail.
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