~snip
In my personal opinion, Al Ittihad's move to fire Nuno Santos from the coaching chair could be said to be a very appropriate action. Although there are definitely some risks that must be faced. Because firing a coach in the middle of an ongoing competition could have a slight negative impact on the team. Because if Al Ittihad has found a new coach to replace Nuno Santos, then the coach will definitely have to adapt to the Al Ittihad players and the players will also have to adapt to the coach. Therefore, in the midst of the adaptation process, it will more or less hinder Al Ittihad in the current competition. So, the steps taken by Al Ittihad were indeed risky, but these actions were taken to improve the team's performance so that it could be more optimal and better.
Then I also read on a news site that Zidane was a strong candidate to replace Nuno Santo as the next Al Ittihad coach. The reason is, this was due to reasons aimed at Benzema and Kante.
According to Relevo, Wednesday (8/11/2023), Al Ittihad is targeting well-known French coaches who are respected by Benzema and N'Golo Kante to fill the position left by Santo. On that basis, the club considers Zidane to be the most ideal candidate.
Source: https://www.inews.id/amp/sport/soccer/zinedine-zidane-calon-pelatih-baru-al-ittihad-gantikan-nuno-espirito-santo-yang-dipecatSo if it is true, I am sure that Al Ittihad will definitely be able to bounce back from the current downturn. The reason is that Zidane, Benzema and Kante both come from France. So you can be sure their chemistry will be very good. Therefore, let's just wait for the decision and next steps that Al Ittihad will take
Now Al Ittihad is not in a good situation at all and even if gets in better form after firing Nuno Santo, still Al Ittihad should pay too much money to this coach while he didn't have a good performance in Al Ittihad.
Al Ittihad should pay eight million dollars to Santo and they should pay all this money when their team is in sixth place at the table.
Of course, but even so Al Ittihad must accept this gracefully. Because no matter what, a contract is still a contract. So, in any case, Al Ittihad must be willing to pay Nuno Santo according to the contract they have signed. Although it is true, under Santo's coaching this season Al Ittihad's performance has dropped drastically. However, I am sure that Nuno Santo has also brought out his best ability to make the Al Ittihad team a very strong team. Because for example, last season Nuno Santos succeeded in bringing Al Ittihad to win the Saudi Arabian League. So this further strengthens the fact that Santos actually also has very good abilities.
However, this season, as we know, Santos does not have good chemistry with new players like Benzema. Most likely this is one of the factors causing Al Ittihad to experience a decline in performance.
Therefore, Al Ittihad preferred to fire Santos for the comfort of its star player, Benzema. Apart from that, other teams in the Saudi Arabian League have also performed better this season. Maybe this factor also makes it increasingly difficult for Al Ittihad to compete in the Saudi Arabian League.
And in essence, all of this is a risk that Al Ittihad must accept.