Real Madrid Sack Wanderley Luxemburgo

Real Madrid have, as expected, sacked coach Wanderley Luxemburgo after less than a year in charge.

The Spanish giants had called an emergency board meeting on Sunday to discuss Luxemburgo's position following a disappointing run of results.

Though Real beat Getafe on Saturday evening, the mauling at the hands of arch-rivals Barcelona last month had placed Luxemburgo's job in jeopardy.

With Real trailing the reigning champions by six points in this season's title race, the club have opted to act now and get rid of Luxemburgo.

He only took over at Santiago Bernabeu 11 months ago and he was the fifth coach in two-and-a-half years in the Spanish capital.

Luxemburgo took Real to second in La Liga last season and has taken the club into the knockout rounds of this term's UEFA Champions League, although they were beaten to top spot in their group by Lyon.

With Luxemburgo dismissed, Real have turned to reserve team coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro to lead Los Galacticos on a temporary basis.

At a press conference to expand on the reasons for Luxemburgo's exit, Real's vice-president Emilio Butragueno admitted the former Brazil national team coach's presence on the bench was no longer tolerable.

"The Real Madrid board has decided that Wanderley Luxemburgo will not continue as coach of the first team," said Butragueno.

"It wasn't an easy decision, but the board considered that we had reached a point where we needed a change.

"The team were not living up to expectations and that worried both us and the fans and that was the fundamental reason for our decision, which was unanimous."

There is now likely to be a furious race to replace Luxemburgo, with former Lyon coach Paul Le Guen believed to be under consideration, while Real president Florentino Perez is a fan of Premiership bosses Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger.

Perez also admires the coaching skills of Fabio Capello, who has already had one spell at the Bernabeu, but the Juventus chief has played down a return to the club.

"I'm flattered by this link because Real aren't a small club," Capello told Sky Italia.

"But I have a contract and I'm happy here."

Meanwhile, reports suggest that Real are set to hold talks with former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane in the coming days.

Who do you guys think will be the next manager? I wouldn't be overly surprised if it's Wenger, but I think it'll end up Capello or someone else with an Italian name.

Also, Roy Keane at Real? He'll never play.

They have been a bit disappointing this year but I feel very sorry for the man. They still had a realistic chance to finish top of the league, plus now this happens in the middle of Champions League. Hopefully it doesnt completely screw up whatever system they had going.

Eh, they're changing managers every year. And theynever get top managers, always some wanabes. And I'm happy cause of that. It's not everything about money, you need to have a little brain as well.

they got owned against Barcelona......

personally i don't care about Real as long as i get to see Barca play every week.

I've read that they were looking to get Svennis, but since he'll stay with England untill at least after the World Cup, it'd be a rather poor move to wait that long...

God knows why they'd want Sven.

I personally dont believe he did that bad a job at real. with all the money they throw into the team I feel they should be held accountable also. Also, when they were hammered by Barca they didnt have their top players. Everything was goin fine til they got hurt. Its unfortunate for him, but I think most people saw this coming anyways.

they'll never get anyone like arsen wenger (sp) (arsenal's manager), they get all these star players and get nowhere. thank god im an arsenal fan.

they wasted money on baptista n robinho who is just a brazilian version of saviola who is to small to play in teh spanish league imo.