Bernabeu hot seat is never warm for long

AS is traditional at the Santiago Bernabeu, it was a matter of when, not if.

Bernd Schuster's confession this week that his Real Madrid side stood no chance of beating bitter rivals Barcelona today was the final nail in a coffin which has been ready for burial for at least six months.

The gruff German, a hero at both Madrid and Barca in his playing days, became the latest in a line of coaches to fall foul of the great club's excessive expectations.

Fabio Capello was fired despite wrestling the title from Barcelona in 2007 because his style of football was not up to scratch.

Now Schuster too has found the Bernabeu politics a minefield impossible to navigate indefinitely.

With Capello dumped before the bubbly from the title celebrations had even lost its fizz, Schuster was brought in to build on the foundations laid by the Italian while restoring the club's traditional footballing ethos.

Madrid had by far the best attack in La Liga last season, beat Barca at the Nou Camp and won the league comfortably – but that is not always enough.

Schuster's failure to take Madrid to the Champions League quarter-finals seriously undermined his standing.

Directors were also alarmed by his lack of media skills, with the German rapidly earning a reputation for being temperamental, rude and arrogant.

Meanwhile, Frank Rijkaard's Barca, despite being miles off the pace in the league, were still managing to play nicer football than the pleasingly efficient Madrid.

Club President Ramon Calderon's decision-making since ascending to the top job in 2006 has been at once ponderous, reckless and invariably contradictory.

In the summer, with the board having long decided Schuster was not the man for the job, Calderon passed up the opportunity to snap up Jose Mourinho.

He kept Schuster in place but largely starved him of transfer funds, concentrating on his doomed campaign to buy Cristiano Ronaldo and landing only Rafael van der Vaart in terms of major additions.

A miserable start to the season, with Madrid fifth and nine points behind Barca, saw Schuster leave "by mutual consent" to be replaced for six months by Juande Ramos.

The former Sevilla and Tottenham boss can at least operate without the pressure of worrying for his long-term future, as so little is expected of him. But the chances of him being given the job long-term are unquestionably slim.

Madrid will spend the next few months fluttering their eyelashes at Rafael Benitez. But the Liverpool boss is only too aware that dealing with Liverpool's warring American owners is a walk in the park in comparison to a spell at the Bernabeu.