MADRID, 21 September 2004 — Jose Antonio Camacho resigned as Real Madrid coach yesterday four months after taking up the post saying that he felt incapable of getting the most out of the club’s expensively assembled squad.

“I believe that the team has not lived up to expectations and that as long as I remain as coach it will not improve and that’s why I’ve decided to step down,” Camacho told a news conference at the Bernabeu.

“I’ve got my own way of behaving and of coaching. I did not see it reflected on the pitch and I could not see the situation improving. The president asked me if I thought I could turn things around in the short term and I told him that I did not, so we reached an agreement that in order to prevent the club entering into an even bigger crisis I would give up the post.”

Club President Florentino Perez said that Camacho’s former assistant Mariano Garcia Remon would take charge of the first team. “Garcia Remon will be here the whole season and we hope for many more,” Perez told Radio Marca. “It is not a temporary measure, because he fits perfectly into the culture of this club.

“With his appointment we have found a rapid solution to a situation that should not affect the aims of Real Madrid, because the institution is always the most important thing.”

Garcia Remon, an ex-Real Madrid goalkeeper who won six league titles during his 14 seasons at the club between 1971 and 1985, is a former boss of Sporting Gijon and Numancia. He will be Real’s fourth coach since June 2003.

Garcia Remon stressed that he had accepted the job only after Camacho had urged him to do so. Camacho was appointed as coach in place of Carlos Queiroz after the failure of Real — with players like Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham — to win a trophy last season.

Forest Lead Tributes to ‘Cloughie’

Nottingham Forest remembered Brian Clough as the architect of “one of the great football achievements of all time” after their former manager died from stomach cancer yesterday, aged 69.

Clough led Forest to European Cup triumphs in 1979 and 1980 and the east midlands club led the tributes to one of the most successful managers in English football history. “This is a very sad day for everyone connected with Nottingham Forest Football Club,” Forest Chairman Nigel Doughty said in a statement. “The success he had here goes down as one of the great football achievements of all time. Wherever you go in the world, the city has become synonymous with Robin Hood and Brian Clough and there is no doubt he has touched the lives of so many people in the area.”

Clough also took Forest to the English league title as he guided the unfashionable club to the pinnacle of the game.

“It has come as a real shock,” former Forest striker Trevor Francis told Sky Sports News. “We were all together back in May at a (25th anniversary) dinner for the European Cup win and the icing on the cake was seeing the boss and he was in great form.”

Garry Birtles, who played alongside Francis in the 1979 European Cup final in Munich, said Clough would be remembered “with great fondness, with great affection”.

However, despite his achievements, the outspoken former England striker was never appointed national team manager.