Why some managers succeed at Real Madrid and why some fail as club legend makes comparison to Arne Slot and Pep Guardiola

Xabi Alonso took over the reins at the Bernabeu last summer but even he - despite a glittering spell at Bayer Leverkusen and status as a Madrid icon - was not able to survive. We spoke to club legend Steve McManaman to explain why some succeed - and some fail.

Alonso's CV for taking the Real Madrid manager's job was impeccable. Club legend? Tick. Sparkling coaching resume? Tick? Experience playing under the game's greatest brains? Tick.

It looked like his appointment as Los Blancos' boss would be a match made in heaven. However, just over seven months into his reign, he was sacked.

The season had not been a disaster by any means, but then the standards of Real are not like any other club, and Alonso paid for it with his job.

A strained relationship with some of the players - including, visibly, Vinicius Junior - and a painful Spanish Super Cup defeat to Barcelona were said to be among the reasons for his departure, which was announced as being "by mutual consent".

Prior to Alonso's appointment, Carlo Ancelotti had presided over two spells at the club where he won a swathe of trophies, including three UEFA Champions League titles.

And fellow previous incumbent Zinedine Zidane oversaw three consecutive Champions League crowns, in a glorious period between 2015 and 2018.

With Alonso gone, ex-Madrid defender Alvaro Arbeloa was appointed into the role of first-team coach, having previously managed Madrid's reserve side, Castilla.

But it remains to be seen what direction the Madrid hierarchy will take in the summer, with Arbeloa on uncertain ground after a season which sees them well behind Barcelona in La Liga, out of the Copa del Rey and facing a huge uphill task in the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Bayern Munich.

That clash, to be shown live on TNT Sports and HBO Max on Wednesday night, will see Real seek to overturn a 2-1 first-leg deficit.

McManaman spent four years with Los Blancos between 1999 and 2003, winning two La Ligas and two Champions Leagues, and playing in an era with some of the game's all-time greats.

As such, he is well-placed to ask the million-dollar question - why are some managers successful at Real and some not?

"The players are incredibly powerful. I think that's the crux of the matter," McManaman told TNT Sports.

"Arne Slot is the boss of Liverpool. Pep Guardiola is the boss of Manchester City. The players are the boss of Real Madrid.

"Once the manager tells them to play a certain way, they go out and play a completely different way, and that's always been the case.

"The manager has to be a cross between a bit of a genius in his coaching methods, but also be able to put his arm round 25 players and make them feel that they're part of the team, and when they're not playing, that they're part of the team.

"They have to really enjoy the training sessions, and you can't do much tactical work, and you can't do too many sessions of watching videos and boring the players.

"So it's a fine line between keeping them happy and getting them to play well."

McManaman, who said Real's season would be a "disaster" if they exit the Champions League at the quarter-final stage, looked back on his own career and identified another managerial figure who had great success at the Madrid helm.

He said: "Carlo [Ancelotti] did it, the manager I had - Vicente del Bosque - he did it. Other managers have come in, have shouted and have been out the door very quickly.

"I don't think Xabi was a shouter, I just think that he wanted to put his ideas of how he played and how he set up at Leverkusen and the players didn't buy into it.

"They didn't have the personnel to buy into it. I think that was a major thing as well. Xabi didn't buy those players, he probably had an insight into a couple of them, but others were bought for him, and they certainly didn't play the way Xabi Alonso wanted to play.

"I think when that happens, the players speak to the president - because, of course, the president needs to get elected every four years because there's a popularity contest - and then the president makes decisions.

"But I don't think the form was necessarily bad, I thought they played very well when they lost in the Super Cup final to Barcelona.

"But he left after that game, and there was a reason why he left: I think Xabi had had enough.

"The noise that he was listening to, it just got too much, so he almost forced it himself and said 'look, this is going nowhere, we need to do something about it'.

"You wouldn't say Arbeloa's form is better than Xabi's since he arrived, it's just the players are happier - that's all it is."

Watch and stream Bayern Munich v Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final second leg on Wednesday, 15 April from 19:30 on TNT Sports 2 and HBO Max.