Football news - Hubris, inertia and mediocrity: Ajax defeat had been coming for Real rabble

A brilliant, vibrant Ajax side handed out a thrashing to a dispirited, sluggish Real Madrid in the Champions League round-of-16 second leg at the Bernabeu on Tuesday. The 4-1 win on the night saw Ajax through 5-3 on aggregate. A shock, yes, but it has been coming. That is not to belittle the excellence of Ajax, led by Frenkie de Jong and Dusan Tadic, but Madrid were a rabble. It was their fourth loss at home in a row. Fourth. A feat the club has endured just two times previously in their history.

And yet, it has been coming.

The warning signs were there. Zinedine Zidane, if reports are to be believed, heeded them and left. Alas, for those of a Real Madrid persuasion, the club, its president and, increasingly, it seems, the players have not. Madrid, the 33-time Liga champions, finished third last season some 17 points shy of perennial rivals Barcelona. Zidane’s charges were dispatched in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey, over two legs, by Leganes, who would finish just one place above the relegation zone come season’s end.

Had Madrid’s individual brilliance not dragged them to a third consecutive Champions League crown, last season would have represented an unmitigated disaster. The merits of Zidane’s tactical acumen remain open to debate, and the question mark will remain so until he dips back into management. However, it is inarguable that much of Madrid’s recent success, particularly last season, was built on individual brilliance.

Cristiano Ronaldo, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner, provided a disproportionate amount of that individual brilliance. However, it would be reductive to attribute the mess that is this season to his exit. Perhaps it, much like the departure of Zidane, was a symptom of the mess, and not the cause. For Zidane, according to former Real president Ramon Calderon, left following disagreements over the club’s transfer policy moving forward.

The team, despite their European achievements, were at the end of their cycle, and needed substantial reconstructive surgery over the summer. Zidane knew that, so did Ronaldo. Instead, they signed a goalkeeper, in Thibaut Courtois, they did not need; a right-back, in Alvaro Odriozola, they do not fancy; a striker, in Mariano Diaz, who can’t stay fit and they do not seemingly rate. Of their marquee signings, only Vinicius Junior, 18, who has scored two goals in 18 league games, could be deemed a success. Or a partial one.

Buried among that summer of transfer incompetence was the appointment of Julen Lopetegui, handled abominably by all involved, but particularly Madrid president Perez. The debacle began with the sacking of the aforementioned Lopetegui as Spain boss ahead of the World Cup in Russia and ended with the sacking of Lopetegui as Real boss just 14 games into his tenure. Yet, the arrogance that marked the pursuit, appointment and sacking of the former national coach was again in full view ahead of the Ajax match.

A campaign that has taken in losses to CSKA Moscow (twice), a five-goal thrashing to Barcelona and humbling defeats against surprise package Alaves, Levante, Eibar and Real Sociedad might have curtailed the hubris that the club is steeped in. Not so, it would seem. Sergio Ramos, though he tried to row back on the comments, admitted after the first leg that he had intentionally got himself suspended for this second leg, because, it would appear, the captain of Real Madrid, the player who sets the tone for the whole club, saw his side’s progression as a given. Hubris in the extreme. And completely inexcusable considering the Champions League was his side’s only hope – as it was last year – of salvaging a season from the jaws of mediocrity.

That Nacho, the one-club 29-year-old who has never been good enough to command a starting role at the Bernabeu, was his replacement is illustrative of a club that, blinded by its European successes, has stood still. That inertia makes Ramos’ decision-making even more dumbfounding. This Madrid lack personality and direction. Yet their club captain sat in the stands serving, according to the man himself, a self-imposed one-game ban. While his replacement was run so ragged he contrived to get himself sent off in the death throes of the match.

Ajax, it goes without saying, are due enormous credit for the result and also the performance – for the Amsterdam club, whose Champions League campaign began on July 25 in the second qualifying round, were fully worth the win, with Barcelona-bound De Jong setting the tone in midfield and Tadic, a £9.5 million signing from Southampton, running amok in the final third.

However, a club of Madrid’s resources should not be getting admonished at home by a club of Ajax’s resources, whose record signing remains Miralem Sulejmani (£14.5 million, 2008). Yet, that is exactly where Madrid found themselves on Tuesday night, and, truth be told, the historic defeat, their biggest ever in a home knockout game in European competition, was largely of their own doing. It has been coming.

It occurred because hubris has allowed mediocrity to fester.