4th place in La Liga clearly wasn’t good enough for Real Madrid’s board of directors, who on Sunday made manager Wanderly Luxemburgo the club’s 5th manager to be fired in the past 30 months. From the Telegraph’s Sid Lowe.

Undermined by the same presidential model that curtailed the careers of Jose Antonio Camacho, Carlos Queiroz and Mariano Garcia Remon, Luxemburgo was unable to find a winning formula – despite a £60 million outlay in the summer.

Madrid have lost five of their opening 12 league games, and although Luxemburgo won a temporary reprieve with a late fightback against Real Sociedad last weekend, Saturday’s display against Getafe proved the last straw. Madrid won but played appallingly, and when Luxemburgo replaced Ronaldo with Thomas Gravesen, the Bernabeu fans responded with chants of “Out, out, out”.

Madrid are expected to look for a full-time coach to join the club next summer. Fabio Capello and Sven-Goran Eriksson head a list of candidates which also includes Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Rafael Benitez. Landing them would prove extremely difficult, howevee.