No club director had communicated his fate to him in the aftermath of the Clasico defeat to Barcelona, so the Basque went to work as normal. He had even said his goodbyes to the squad in the Camp Nou dressing room on Sunday evening in case his sacking was made official before this Monday's session, but no ruling had been made by the time the workout commenced.
Just like Antonio Conte did with Chelsea in the begining of this season as he resumed training despite the fact that the London club were already in talks with Maurizio Sarri, Julen Lopetegui also took Real Madrid training on Monday morning even for the fact that rumours are already linking the Italian manager to his job.
It is expected that the board will approve his sacking on Monday afternoon. Antonio Conte is the leading candidate to take the job, but Santiago Solari is likely to be the one in charge for this Wednesday's Copa del Rey fixture in Melilla.
The Italian, who left Chelsea in the summer after two years at Stamford Bridge, is keen to take the job and held talks with the Real Madrid president, Florentino Pérez, on Sunday.
The 49-year-old has a legal dispute to settle with Chelsea and, if that proves a stumbling block, Real are likely to turn to Santiago Solari. Real, however, remain confident that Conte will be in a position to accept the job and hope to announce the change of manager as early as Monday.
Lopetegui, who replaced Zinedine Zidane in the summer, has been on borrowed time of late with Los Blancos losing five of their last eight matches across all competitions and had been expected to be relieved of his duties last week after a home defeat to Levante but earned a stay of execution to oversee a narrow 2-1 win over Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League on Tuesday and the El Clasico over the weekend.
His days were numbered, however, and the painful defeat at Camp Nou on Sunday left his team in ninth place, seven points behind Barcelona. According to reports, the reason Real Madrid want to hire ex-Chelsea boss Antonio Conte is that they want a big personality to replace Julen Lopetegui – and they think Antonio Conte is exactly the right man.
Conte left Chelsea after just two seasons in charge in which he delivered the Premier League title and an FA Cup success. That follows success with Juventus, where he won three straight Serie A titles at the same club he was so successful as a player.
The 49-year-old was widely praised for his first year in charge of Chelsea, in which the Blues achieved a then-league record 30 top-flight wins. He became the first manager in Premier League history to win three straight Manager of the Month awards as Chelsea won 13 successive matches on the way to an emphatic title triumph.
But widespread reports expect Lopetegui to be sacked today. It is claimed by Marca that Conte has resolved a contract wrangle with his former club Chelsea and will be announced as the new manager this week – potentially even today.
Things turned sour in his second year with a below-par second season, with problems off-the-pitch – stemming from the controversial exit of Diego Costa and other transfer disagreements – crucial to his downfall.
Yet Real Madrid hope that Conte’s personality and tactics can help get the club back on track following a poor start to the season that leaves them seven points adrift of La Liga leaders Barca after just 10 games.

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