Jose Mourinho and the 5 Greatest Real Madrid Managers

It is not unfair to say there were no shock waves felt when Real Madrid president Florentino Perez announced on Monday that the club and Jose Mourinho had agreed to part ways by mutual consent.

The Portuguese coach leaves Los Blancos having won La Liga once, the Copa del Rey once and the Supercopa—you guessed it—once.

Debates were prevalent long before Perez did the honor of telling us what we'd known anyway, about how much of a success Mourinho could be considered at the Bernabeu.

A glimpse into Real Madrid's history reveals he's far from their biggest managerial flop, but it also reveals he's far from their greatest coach, too.

Here are five managers whose time was much more successful that the 50-year-old's.

5. Leo Beenhakker

Leo Beenhakker enjoyed a tremendous amount of success in the league during his three-year tenure at Real Madrid, but it is his lack of a European trophy which keeps him as low as fifth on this list.

The Dutch coach succeeded Luis Molowny—who had won La Liga, the Copa del Rey and two UEFA cups in the Spanish capital—in 1986.

Aided by strikers such as Hugo Sanchez, Emilio Butragueno and midfielders Michel and Bernd Schuster, Beenhakker led Los Blancos to three successive Primera Division titles.

In the same period, they also won the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Supercopa.

But it was this great Madrid side's inability to win the European Cup which keeps them from being remembered in the same light as the Barcelona "Dream Team" which succeeded them.

4. Luis Carniglia

Argentinian coach Luis Carniglia was fortunate enough to manage the Real Madrid side which dominated football upon the introduction of the European Cup in the mid-'50s.

With players such as Alfredo Di Stefano, Raymond Kopa and Ferenc Puskas at his disposal, it would have been criminal for Carniglia to not produce the goods to keep him in the memories of Madridistas.

During a two-year spell as the boss—briefly interrupted in 1959 when Miguel Munoz took the reins for six weeks—he continued Madrid's monopoly on the European Cup by winning it twice ('58 and '59).

He also led them to one La Liga title. When he left the club in 1959, he left with a win percentage of close to 70. 

3. Jose Villalonga

Jose Villalonga, to this day, remains the youngest ever coach to win the European Cup. He was 36 years and 184 days old when Real Madrid won the first ever edition in 1956.

He was handed the reins halfway through the 1954/55 season and went on to help the club to the double, winning La Liga and the Copa Latino.

The following season, the European Cup followed thanks to Villalonga's deployment of players who remain stars to this day.

Raymond Kopa, Alfredo Di Stefano, Hector Rial, Francisco Gento and a certain Miguel Munoz, who will also feature in this countdown, were all vital members of his side.

He left the club at the end of the 1956/57 season, but he left on a wonderful note. His leaving present was the treble; Primera Division, European Cup and Copa Latino.

Jose Mourinho would have done well to take some notes.

2. Vicente Del Bosque

Spain's greatest coach of the modern era also happens to be Real Madrid's greatest coach of the modern era.

Vicente Del Bosque had already had two spells as a caretaker manager at the Bernabeu, in 1994 and 1996, when he was handed the job properly in 1999.

In 2000, he won the Champions League in an age in the club's history just before the galacticos; Raul Gonzalez, Fernando Hierro and Roberto Carlos were prominent members of his side.

La Liga followed in 2001, ending a five-year wait for the title, and in 2002 Los Blancos were again crowned kings of Europe—by then, Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane had checked in.

Del Bosque won the league again in 2003, adding to the UEFA super cup, Spanish super cup and Intercontinental Cup which he had also won while he was in the Bernabeu hot seat, before leaving the club. 

1. Miguel Munoz

It's hard to imagine these days, given the frequency with which not just Real Madrid, but all clubs change their manager, but Miguel Munoz was afforded 14 years in charge of Los Blancos.

Admittedly, it's barely even half of the time Sir Alex Ferguson racked up at Old Trafford, but it's impressive nonetheless.

The trophy haul was not bad, either.

Carrying on where others had left off, Munoz led Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas and company to their fifth straight European Cup win in 1960.

Munoz had been a player in three of the previous four triumphs, and by winning the competition as manager, he became the first man to win as both a player and a boss.

He only won the European Cup once more in his time at the club, steering the club back to the top of Europe in 1966.

By then, Puskas was nearly 40, and Munoz was turning to players such as Amancio, Francisco Gento and Pirri.

Domestically, Real Madrid were relentless under the guidance of Munoz. They won nine titles during his 14 seasons and three domestic cups, too.

It's unlikely, as with Manchester United and Sir Alex, that Real will ever have a manager like Munoz again.