Impatient Real Madrid chief Perez could not handle nerves – Benitez

Former Real Madrid boss Rafael Benitez has hit out at the lack of patience he was afforded by Santiago Bernabeu chiefs before being sacked last month.

Benitez was in charge of the Liga giants for just seven months before president Florentino Perez fired him amid regular fan protests. 

Zinedine Zidane has since assumed Benitez’s role, winning five of his six games in charge, but third-placed Madrid remain seven points adrift of La Liga leaders and arch-rivals Barcelona.

Benitez remains convinced he was the man to bring success to the Bernabeu and says his sacking is just the latest in a line of rash decisions by Perez.

“You need to know exactly what happened in the last few years,” the former Liverpool and Napoli manager told BT Sport. 

“You can see [Jose Antonio] Camacho, [Vicente] Del Bosque, [Manuel] Pellegrini, [Jose] Mourinho, [Carlo] Ancelotti – it’s not easy to be the manager there.

“You have to do everything perfect. As soon as something is wrong, or the chairman thinks something is wrong, you have problems.

“Obviously you should expect to improve at the end of the season because the experience we have is to manage two games a week and train for five. I think we could do really well but they were a little bit nervous, the fans were, the chairman was, and they changed the manager.”

Benitez’s reign was beset by reports that he had a strained relationship with Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, but the coach claimed to enjoy working with the Portugal captain.

“He was quite happy with the way we were training because we trained with the ball,” Benitez explained. 

“We had top-class players, they enjoy training with the ball, he’s a winner, he’s very competitive, he wants to win, to score goals. It’s fine. 

“The problem is Barcelona are winning and that is difficult to manage for Real Madrid. They have to keep winning and if you do well, Barca are still doing well and that is a big problem for Real Madrid.”