Real Madrid chief Zinedine Zidane says the club needed Jose Mourinho to arrive last summer to change their fortunes around.
Mourinho has quickly rebuilt Real's squad to challenge Barcelona.
Zidane reflected: ''At Real Madrid, we lacked someone like [Jose] Mourinho. Someone who knows football, someone who has character but also knows the direction to take the club in. When players come here, they expect to succeed and he is the right person to do this with.''
''We know the difficulties [of last season] but Mourinho's latter years [coaching clubs] are the best. With this coach we are going to do something very important this year.''
''We've grown a lot over the summer because the signings are good. It's a new template with young players and we're very happy with them.''
