Wasn`t Perez an underdog when he ran back in 03`? Sanz was doing great imo.
Sanz is by far the best president Real had in the last 30 years.. he did great won 2 Cl gave Del Bosque his chance.. etc the team had plenty of very good foundation from the youth ranks.. etc
Perez was the underdog but in 2000 Elections.. some vote by mail rigging and the promise of Figo turned the tables .. i think the socios thought it would be very easy to run the club under any name they went for the big name promise.
tbh despite this the debt situation was not dealt with during Sanz era and it was a big problem we could've ended like Valencia now.
the idea to sell the training ground which was located in Madrid business district was on the table from the early 90's.. but Perez managed to make it happen and clear the debts..
however on the sporting side Sanz is still the best president we had since Santiago Bernabeu
in 2004 elections Perez won with a landslide of 94 % of the votes over Sanz (partly rigged votes again and Perez was in his peak )
.. Sadly owning Malaga will not enable Sanz to run again and as i said the socio's don't vote for an ex-president .. it remains to be seen if Perez can break this