The crisis enveloping Florentino Perez at Real Madrid is beginning to deepen, and even the threat of legal action seemingly hasn’t stopped El Confidencial from releasing more taped recordings of the president slamming former players.
The latest involves a Manchester United star, Juan Mata, and former Real Madrid Castilla coach, Michel, himself a former Los Blancos legend.
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Perez had already been outed for speaking ill of club legends such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Raul and Jose Mourinho.
Now it’s transpired that Michel, another club stalwart, has been the subject of the president’s ire.
“I think Michel is the one who made the hole for Mata [to leave], he is the one who threw him out of Real Madrid Castilla to put his son in the team,” he has been caught as saying, per the Daily Mirror, with the audio recording dating back to 2009.
“He is a fraud. He is a very bad coach, a guy who has done nothing. He is not a coach.”
Though Florentino maintains that the recordings have been taken out of context in a bid to smear him, the fact remains that the words attributed to him have indeed been said by him.
His power within the Spanish media appears likely to be put to the sternest test as he seeks to clear his name.