Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has labelled Jose Mourinho's three-year tenure at the club "a failure".
The 61-year-old, who held the role between 2006 and 2009, believes that one La Liga title and one Copa del Rey was not good enough from the Portuguese manager, despite competing with one of the strongest Barcelona teams of recent times.
This season Madrid were 13 points behind their Catalan opponents at the top of the league, they lost to city rivals Atletico Madrid in the Cope del Rey final and were beaten by Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League semi-final.
Following an underwhelming campaign, Calderon was pleased to hear current president Florentino Perez's announcement that the former Chelsea boss will be leaving the club by mutual consent.
"Of course he (Mourinho) has been a failure," he told Sky Sports' Revista de la Liga.
"It is the worst record of any Real Madrid manager who has had three years or more there.
"I insist that it is not only that reason. I think you can be unsuccessful at a club for many reasons. What I really don't like and what many followers of Real Madrid don't like is the way he has behaved.
"His behaviour in Spain wasn't compatible with Real Madrid's history. We have a part of our hymn which says 'when we lose, we shake hands' — we don't poke fingers in eyes, which is what he did to (Barcelona manager) Tito Vilanova.
"I have always said that he wasn't the only one to blame — that's also down to the people who brought him to Real Madrid.
"Mourinho was like that before he arrived at Real Madrid."
Calderon did defend Mourinho, though, after Perez had criticised him for not being able to handle the pressure that comes with managing the club, something the former president did not agree with.
"Listening
to the president, I don't think Mourinho will be happy with what he
said about him not being able to cope with the pressure," he continued.
"He's not that kind of person. He likes the pressure and he is happy with that. I don't think Mourinho is one of those people who suffers with pressure.
"On the contrary, he feels happy with that and he feels like the star. He likes that.
"I will admit it's not nice for Mourinho but I think his character has made it more difficult. But it's true that the situation came to a point now and it was not easy to keep him at the club.
"I'm really excited to know what Mourinho is going to say after the president said he couldn't cope with the pressure. He must be very angry at this moment and I can't wait to hear what he says when he is in England.”
The eye gouging incident with Vilanova, at the end of the 2011 Supercopa de Espana, was just one of many incidents that angered Calderon and he felt the club should not have backed him in the way they did after the aggregate defeat to Barcelona.
"After that incident happened — when Mourinho did that with his finger — we had a big 60-metre banner behind the goal, sanctioned by the president, saying 'Mou, your finger shows us the way'," he said.
"That's provoking violence and that is an unacceptable point of view.
"I think that the president thought that, with money, you can get anything you like but that was a big mistake.
"Fortunately in life, you can't buy success and as that was a failure, he decided to go even further.
"He did something that is even worse with Mourinho by believing the end justifies the means."
Early in 2013 Mourinho admitted that Real were out of the title race in La Liga and focused all his attentions on winning the club a 10th UEFA Champions League title, and Calderon believes that attitude was the wrong one from the 50-year-old.
"He thought that by winning the Champions League would be enough in the end," he added. "So the whole building collapsed.
"I don't know what's going to happen with Mourinho now but I think it will be a relief for Real Madrid that he leaves."
Mourinho has been heavily linked with a return to Stamford Bridge, where he was in charge between 2004 and 2007, winning two Premier League titles.
