European exit leaves another Real project in tatters

MADRID, Mar 8 (Reuters) Real Madrid's failure to overcome the first significant hurdle in the Champions League for a third season in a row appears to have ruined yet another of the club's expensive makeover projects.

Last season's exit at the hands of Arsenal signalled the death of Florentino Perez's ''galactico'' experiment and this week's defeat against Bayern Munich looks like spelling the end for Ramon Calderon's revival programme.

Calderon came to power last July promising to stop the club's barren run of form by recruiting Fabio Capello as coach and former player Predrag Mijatovic as sporting director.

Results, Calderon said, would be guaranteed by the recruitment of a string of proven professionals including World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro, Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy and Brazil midfielder Emerson.

At the same time the club said it would lay the foundations of future success by signing a new generation of young players such as Jose Antonio Reyes and Mahamadou Diarra.

Eight months on, after a premature exit from the King's Cup and the Champions League, the new project appears to be on the verge of collapse.

It will take a remarkable reversal of fortunes in the league to stop Real ending a fourth consecutive season without a trophy.

Neither Calderon nor Mijatovic were able to guarantee that Capello would remain coach for the rest of the season following the Bayern debacle.

''I can't answer that question,'' was Mijatovic's initial response, although in a later interview he added ''Capello will sit in the dug out at the Nou Camp on Saturday.'' Calderon told radio station Cadena Ser: ''Everything depends on whether the coach feels capable of getting us out of this situation.'' ''I wouldn't like to change coach in March but we have to analyse the situation.'' CRISIS TALK Real have struggled for form all season but a series of slip-ups by their domestic rivals have helped to stave off talk of crisis.

However, the away goals defeat by Bayern exposed their problems.

A shaky defence, an unimaginative midfield and a toothless attack all contributed to the destruction of Real's dream of claiming a 10th European crown.

Although they shipped a goal within 10 seconds of the start of the return leg, Real had plenty of time to turn the tie around but they were incapable of matching a mediocre Bayern.

Real were not helped by the absence of the injured David Beckham who set up two and had a hand in the build-up for a third in the 3-2 win in the first leg.

But the club's decisions to loan versatile forward Julio Baptista to Arsenal and then offload Ronaldo to AC Milan appear at best ill-advised.

It says a lot about the club's lack of planning that the out-of-favour Antonio Cassano and Robinho were the two players charged with much of the responsibility for leading the comeback.

''I'm worried because things have happened that I can't explain,'' admitted Mijatovic. ''We were knocked out by a team that is not very good.

REUTERS PDS HS1755