When Bernd Schuster was 24, he retired from international football. As he saw it, he was “taking a stand”. He had been a regular for West Germany from the age of 20, playing a key part in winning the 1980 European Championship, and was rightly hailed as one of the most talented midfield players in Europe. But when Jupp Derwall, the national team’s coach, refused to let him skip a friendly match so that he could be home for the birth of his son, he walked out, never to return.

Schuster the player was strong-willed, mercurial and abrasive. Schuster the manager is a different story. Indeed, it is hard to see him as anything but a yes-man, conforming to the wishes of Ramón Calderón, the Real Madrid president, and Predrag Mijatovic, the side’s sporting director. Real’s defeat away to Valladolid on Saturday night was their fourth in their past eight matches in all competitions. And in that time span, their victories have been distinctly unimpressive: a hard-fought 3-2 over Athletic Bilbao and two controversial 4-3 wins over Málaga and Real Union, of the third division. While they remain in the top four in La Liga and are in a decent position to reach the knockout phase of the Champions League, there is no escaping the fact that this is a club in crisis.

Speculation over his future was already rife after the club were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Union in midweek and Saturday’s defeat only intensified the whispering campaign. As inevitably happens at the most media-scrutinised club on Earth, rumours were spinning out of control. One radio station reported that several players were no longer on speaking terms with the coach. Another said that the players were flummoxed when he did not give a half-time team talk in their last game and that, on one occasion, he failed even to show his face in the dressing-room after the match. Others were busy figuring out who would replace him, with Michel, the legendary former midfield player who is coach of the youth team, among the most accredited options.

It is difficult to ascertain just how much truth is in these rumours. Yet it seems pretty clear that, since replacing Fabio Capello in June 2007, Schuster has been something of a passenger, rather than a driver, at Real Madrid. He was brought in with a clear brief: replace Capello’s supposedly dull football with a more entertaining, attacking style, one that fits the club’s brand and image.

Yet despite winning the title last year, much of the media failed to give him credit. Indeed, they said he was simply riding the coat-tails of Capello’s success, which, given that many of these same pundits had been calling for Capello’s head just a few months earlier, shows just how fickle the media can be. Schuster’s response? Silence, interspersed with cliché and words of praise for the president and the sporting director.

But praise for what, beyond the fact that one pays his wages and the other got him his job? The fact that Real, after 16 months of Schuster, lack an identity on the pitch and win via individual excellence rather than any kind of cohesion may be down to the coach, or, according to his critics, the coach’s predecessor.

But the transfer policy has been nothing short of calamitous. Of the 12 players signed since his arrival, not one has started as many as three quarters of Real’s league games. For some it has been as a result of injuries (Pepe, Arjen Robben, Gabriel Heinze), for others, it has been ineptitude (Roysten Drenthe, Christoph Metzelder, Javier Saviola). And Calderón’s fruitless chase for Cristiano Ronaldo last summer and verbal jousting with Sir Alex Ferguson did little but embarrass the club.

Now Schuster’s future hangs by a thread. If he is to save himself, he will have to do it without Ruud van Nistelrooy, as the Dutchman is out for the season. Dealing with such problems is par for the course for a Real coach. What is surprising, though, is how meekly Schuster is taking all of this.

He has not stood up to Mijatovic or Calderón or the press or even the players. Which is pretty much the opposite of what Schuster the player would have done. But then, we were all more courageous when we were 24.

And another thing...

Grondona advised to give Maradona what he wants

Memo to Julio Grondona, head of the Argentine Football Association: if you hire a national coach, it is usually a good idea to let him pick his own staff. Especially when that coach is a certain Diego Maradona, with everything those 13 letters imply.

Fewer than two weeks after his appointment, Maradona and the senior official are apparently at loggerheads over the appointment of Oscar Ruggeri, the former Argentina and Real Madrid defender, as an assistant coach.

There is bad blood between Grondona and Ruggeri and the former continues to veto Maradona’s choice. If this dispute continues and leads to Maradona’s resignation, it would rank somewhere between the farcical and the tragic.

A Portuguese fairytale

It is the fairytale story of European football. Tiny Leixoes, with their 5,000-odd per match attendance, are top of the table in Portugal. Next season, they are likely to be in the Champions League. Evidence that, while money may bring success, it is not absolutely necessary, as long as you are well organised, professional and, to some degree, lucky.