ANALYSIS-Soccer-Deja vu as Real Madrid devour yet another coach

By Simon Baskett

MADRID, June 28 (Reuters) - It was a case of deja vu at Real Madrid when the nine-times European champions sacked Fabio Capello on Thursday.

The Spanish giants have devoured seven coaches in the space of the last four years and the decision to fire the Italian just over a week after he led the club to the league title is further proof that the job of Real coach is one of the most insecure in European football.

It is the second time Capello has left the club soon after lifting the title, but in 1997 he decided to leave of his own volition and return to AC Milan.

The following year, 1998, Jupp Heynckes was sacked after guiding Real to the European Cup for the first time in 32 years and his successor Jose Antonio Camacho lasted just 22 days before throwing in the towel after disagreements with club president Lorenzo Sanz.

Dutchman Guus Hiddink was chewed up and spat out after less than a season while John Toshack was famously discarded after saying that there was "more chance of a pig flying over the Bernabeu" than him retracting his criticisms of his underperforming players.

The only man to break the relentless cycle of hirings and firings was the lugubrious former player Vicente del Bosque who managed to hold on to the job for three and a half years as he steered the team to two European Cups and two league titles.

He was eventually sacked by then club president Florentino Perez a few days after leading Real to the championship because he was deemed too "old-fashioned" to match the club's glamorous "Galactico" image.

His departure ushered in four years of instability and failure.