Jose Mourinho's Real Madrid bootcamp: Raul is out, Guti is gone and the showbiz is over...

Jose Mourinho has hit the ground running at Real Madrid - almost literally. He touched down on Wednesday in Los Angeles for his first pre-season training camp at his new club. Despite his players' body clocks reading 11.30pm after a seven-hour flight, he had them out training at 10am the next morning.



It was the first of two sessions, repeated on Friday, as they prepare for their first friendly on Wednesday against Club America in San Francisco.

Real changes: Jose Mourinho has wasted no time making his mark in Madrid

Having transformed the club's Valdebebas training complex from beach club to bunker in a matter of days, he has now taken the boot camp on tour in a bid to knock football's most notorious underachievers into shape.



Club staff, who have seen 10 managers leave in the last seven years, have been stunned by the intensity and seriousness of the new Real, with the clockwork precision of Mourinho's training regime designed to maximize the time players spend together while minimising distractions.



The superstars have already been told the team bus waits for nobody - 'I would rather play with 10 than pick someone who arrives a minute late' is his philosophy - and training sessions last precisely 90 minutes.



The coach has reinforced his demands for punctuality by turning up for work at 7.30am each morning, three hours before most of his predecessors.



A lack of unity has also been identified as a problem. Mourinho has turned a VIP area previously filled with autograph-hunting guests of the players into an exclusive relaxation zone, devoid of entourages and fitted with sofa beds so that no-one leaves base camp between morning and afternoon training sessions.



Players can take a siesta on site having eaten lunch together and mobile phones are kept in silent mode at all times.



On the pitch, Cristiano Ronaldo (right, with Mourinho), of whom so much is expected, seems to have been given assurances by his boss that Real will continue to play the attacking football they produced throughout last season.



'Mourinho adapts to the players he has,' said the Portugal forward. 'If he has attacking players then he will play attacking football. Training has been spectacular and we know he is a winning coach whose titles speak for themselves.'



For his part, Mourinho has said one of his first tasks will be to find the best position in which to field Ronaldo.



'We have to find the formation that suits him best,' he said of a player who started his Manchester United career on the right wing, moved to centre forward but ended up playing on the left in his first season in Madrid.



Ronaldo, who recently became a father following a relationship with a mystery woman, occasionally brings with him the showbiz baggage that Mourinho hates. Some see the possibility of a clash of egos but there is every indication that both know the worth of having the other on their side and will do everything to make the relationship work.



For now this is just part of the fascination for the Madrid - supporting press, a group who will devour everything and anything about the new man. Results will dictate how long they put up with the newly created distance between themselves and the team - the tour of the US is the first which has seen the press not travelling with the players.

All pre-season arrangements have required Mourinho's authorisation. It's a far cry from dragging the galacticos halfway around the world on a photo-opportunity tour, regardless of whether or not the coach thought it made for good pre-season preparation.

Task-master: Mourinho has taken his new club to a gut-busting training camp in the US

Real's new manager told the club to scrap a planned tour of Ireland because he believed privacy would be an issue. He then gave the go-ahead for the US tour, saying he preferred the anonymity offered by the team's current Beverly Hills surroundings.

The personnel at the club has also changed. Mourinho has brought in his own team with Rui Faria and Jose Morais joining him in Spain, having followed him from Porto to Chelsea and then on to Inter Milan. But he has also been careful to hire some local knowledge - appointing Aitor Karanka, a popular former Madrid defender, as his assistant.



Just in case the revolution prompted anybody to say 'we never used to do it like this', two of the club's longest serving players - vice-captain Guti and captain and Real Madrid institution Raul - have been consigned to history. The former has been sold to Besiktas and the latter offloaded to Schalke.



Mourinho will not have been the first coach keen to unburden himself of the two untouchables but he is the first to actually manage it.



Underachiever Guti was a thorn in the side of previous coach Manuel Pellegrini. The two had a blazing row at half-time in last season' s embarrassing cup exit to a third division team.



Guti had been reading the riot act to team-mates when Pellegrini had the audacity to question his own performance. A fiery debate broke out and the midfielder was subsequently dropped for a month.



Once asked by Vicente Del Bosque, the Real Madrid manager at the time, when he was going to get his hair cut, Guti famously replied: 'When you shave off your moustache.'



He was a character. But he did not have the character that Mourinho insists upon.

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Raul certainly does have the right temperament but his legs appear to have gone. He made his debut at 17 and 16 years of playing at the highest level has made competing for places with the likes of Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain impossible.



Pellegrini left Raul on the bench last season but from there he often rose to give instructions and call out encouragement as if he was the manager - something that no one could see happening under Mourinho.



His goalscoring record is boosted by the sheer number of games played. He remains Spain's top scorer but second-placed David Villa has scored 43 goals in 65 internationals while Raul's 44 strikes came in 102 matches. That fact aside, he has still - in the words of club president Florentino Perez - amassed more honours than most clubs and is adored by the Madrid fans.



When Spain ditched Raul, much to the ire of most Real supporters, it coincided with the beginning of a golden era for the national team. Mourinho will hope for a similar reaction from Madrid.



Spanish daily El Pais has already bemoaned the low-key send-off Raul was given, saying: 'There was no stage in the centre of the pitch as there was to welcome Cristiano Ronaldo last season.'



But Mourinho will argue that was then and this is now.



He declined the offer of a similar, glitzy showbiz entrance for his own presentation two months ago. This is the new high-tempo, low-key Madrid and from now on no one gets the fireworks out until a trophy has been won.



