MADRID (AFP) - Real Madrid's under-fire coach Jose Antonio Camacho has offered to resign after the club's poor start to the campaign.
Cadena Ser radio said Camacho had spoken to Real chairman Florentino Perez and offered to stand down but Perez had asked him to sleep on it until Monday.
Real lost at Espanyol on Saturday, their first defeat in the league this season, but the reverse came hot on the heels of Wednesday's Champions League 3-0 drubbing at Bayer Leverkusen, which sparked huge criticism of the club's poor form.
The 49-year-old Camacho has only been in the post since taking over from the sacked Carlos Queiroz, fired after the nine-times European champions could only reach the last eight of the Champions League last season while losing five straight league games to place fourth in La Liga.
Camacho was a stalwart with Real as a player, making more than 400 appearances for the meringues between 1973-89 during which time he won nine Spanish league titles, three Spanish Cups and two UEFA Cups.
He won 81 caps for Spain and played in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups.
He is currently in his second stint as coach at Real, where he lasted just three weeks in the summer of 1998 before resigning over a disagreement with former chairman Lorenzo Sanz over transfer policy.
He then went on to coach the Spanish national side for four years, after which he returned to the Bernabeu via a short stint with Portugal's Benfica.
But after persuading Perez to invest in the team's defence following four years of constantly landing attacking players such as Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham, Camacho has been frustrated by his side's poor showings.
They registered two single-goal wins over run-of-the-mill sides at the start of the campaign but were embarrassed in Leverkusen, who overran them in their Champions League opener.
In addition, there are reports of dressing room unease.
Saturday's loss to Espanyol has led to widespread talk of a club in crisis, despite the summer arrival of two top-drawer centre halves in the shape of Argentine Walter Samuel and England's Jonathan Woodgate, as well as England striker Michael Owen.