Long-serving Real Madrid coach demoted by Xabi Alonso

Real Madrid have started a new era this summer with Xabi Alonso’s arrival, and as part of this, one of Carlo Ancelotti’s former staffers has seen his responsibilities stripped back.

Ancelotti’s final season as Real Madrid manager was a big disappointment, but it was not helped by a catalogue of injuries to key players. And there was also concerns about players’ fitness levels, with both issues falling under the jurisdiction of Antonio Pintus, who was the club’s head of fitness at the time.

Pintus received much criticism last season, and it had been the intention of Alonso to not have him as part of his coaching staff. But he was overruled on the matter by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, although this has not stopped the former Bayer Leverkusen head coach from making changes.

Antonio Pintus stripped of Real Madrid responsibilities

As reported by Cadena SER, Alonso has taken away responsibilities from Pintus, who has been at Real Madrid for seven of the last nine years. He is no longer the club’s head of fitness, as was confirmed by Antonio Romero.

“He is here with the expedition, but he has a different job. He is no longer the physical trainer of the first team. We saw him in the area away from the players while they did work on the pitch. I’m not going to say that it doesn’t paint anything, but it doesn’t paint much.”

“Xabi Alonso is a guy with very clear ideas. Pintus was a presidential signing, and precisely for that reason he stays in the expedition and does field work, but he is not going to be involved much with the first team.”

Alonso appears to be laying down the law in his first weeks as Real Madrid manager, and judging by these developments, Pintus is one of the most affected by this.