Real sociedad have released a statement on the club website announcing that manager Jose Maria Bakero has left the club.
It had become a matter of ‘when’, rather than ‘if’, for the beleagured coach. Languishing at the bottom of the table, winless and with just two points to their name, things took a turn for the worse when the Basque club were hammered 4-1 by Malaga in the Copa del Reylast night.
Bakero also relinquishes his position as technical director of the club and is joined by his assistant and fitness coach in seeking pastures new. The club have announced a press conference for midday tomorrow, at the Anoeta, but have remained tight lipped over the identity of Bakero's succesor. Vicente del Bosque, the former Real Madrid manager is amongst the names being touted by the Spanish press.
There will be few surprised at the dismissal. In a recent press conference, Bakero, once a combative midfielder at Barcelona, looked like a man who had lost all hope and his trademark swagger had disappeared. In a bizarre response to a question about the teams position at the bottom of the table, Bakero replied "Its because of the way I am, my way of talking, ambitious and aggressive, that the message people are getting is a double deception. Maybe I’ve created such a high level of expectation that, when we don’t deliver, it feels even worse than it is”
Unfortunately for Bakero, it would seem that his bosses at the club felt that it was actually as bad as it looked to the rest of us.
