Real Madrid (old thread)

[AnfieldEd]

I like him. Yes defensively he can get a lot better but offensively he is quality. He has speed, skill, can score and has many attributes for a full back.

 

[Esteve]

The pundits here called him a "nothing player" after the Liverpool tie.

 

[Beast]

cause he is really good Electric Steve and young ..

the only time i heard about Pablo Sarabia Warik was Gunners interest in stealing him

 

[Esteve]

I watched Madrid a lot last season & I still don't rate him very highly. Casillas (not including games after the clásico) & Higuaín impressed me

 

[Beast]

Marcelo carried Madrid for plenty of games as a creator and goal scorer .. he was very good this season along with Iker (prior to the classico ) Higuain and Lass

 

[Esteve]

Oh yeah! Thought Lass started playing well straight away. Wasn't great in the clásico though.

 

[Esteve]

Did I read a post of yours blaming Gago for the defeat more so than Lass or was that someone else?

 

[Warik]

the only time i heard about Pablo Sarabia Warik was Gunners interest in stealing him

Quite alot of buzz around him I heard. He's a left sided winger, or can play behind the strikers. Him, Alipio, Osede (Nigerian defender) and Jese (forward) are quite big in your youth teams...Moreno left looking for first team football. He thought he was big already, had his own endorsement deal from about 12...as well as opening his own website that he and his family runs. He is even not selected often for the Spanish youth teams because of his attitude and selfishness...

Apparently Opare has had a nightmare with injuries the past year or so though so hasn't developed like your coaches thought he would (though can't blame him).

 

[Assulin]

Why does so many complain about Manchester City when Real Madrid are going to use more money than shitty?

 

[blueduck]

Why does so many complain about Manchester City when Real Madrid are going to use more money than shitty?

Err fuck off. Good point though

 

[Esteve]

Madrid have to build a new team. Pérez is a bit ridiculous though

 

[Beast]

Why does so many complain about Manchester City when Real Madrid are going to use more money than shitty?

cause we own the money without a sugar daddy

 

[Beast]

Did I read a post of yours blaming Gago for the defeat more so than Lass or was that someone else?

Lass although to blame for Messi goal he was playing beside shadows of players par few

Quite alot of buzz around him I heard. He's a left sided winger, or can play behind the strikers. Him, Alipio, Osede (Nigerian defender) and Jese (forward) are quite big in your youth teams...Moreno left looking for first team football. He thought he was big already, had his own endorsement deal from about 12...as well as opening his own website that he and his family runs. He is even not selected often for the Spanish youth teams because of his attitude and selfishness...

Apparently Opare has had a nightmare with injuries the past year or so though so hasn't developed like your coaches thought he would (though can't blame him).

didn't hear that about Moreno before ,
keeping your friends close and your enemies closer , eh ?

 

[Gnegneri]

Why does so many complain about Manchester City when Real Madrid are going to use more money than shitty?

Because City moves the limits. Real is buying, but they are buying with limitations (set before by perez) There is NO WAY that perez would offer 110 mil for kaka. Real is spending a lot but they stay within a certain limit. City just throws with the cash ... to anyone









Football's new arms race is propelling the game to a point where even the stockpilers are starting to squeal for mercy. "Maybe Fifa should put a €50m price cap on transfers," pleaded one of the Real Madrid directors who agreed a €26m forfeit with Cristiano Ronaldo in the event of the Spanish club failing to bring Manchester United's star player to the Bernabéu before the end of June.

To be clear, Real have 23 days to complete Ronaldo's transfer or pay him £20m-plus to stay at United. While this burlesque unfolds, the odds are that Zinedine Zidane's world transfer fee record of £45m, which has stood for eight years, will be smashed. Kaká is expected to finalise a £60m move to Madrid to tomorrow and the club's returning president, the financially incontinent Florentino Pérez, believes he has the right to snatch Ronaldo from United if he can find another €90m (£78.7m).

A new plutocracy is being born, with immense power concentrated in the hands of the elite who appear on Fifa's world player of the year shortlists. Pérez admitted that enticing the past two winners (Ronaldo and Kaká) to Madrid would eclipse even the first wave of galácticos, a phrase we hoped we had consigned to history's composter. Cosily, Zidane is now Pérez's special adviser as we approach the stage where one of these darlings becomes bigger than their club, as David Beckham already is at LA Galaxy.

This traffic in globally acclaimed pin‑ups reflects the tiny margins between losing a tight semi-final and actually winning the Champions League. The T-Rex clubs have now persuaded themselves that there are only half a dozen players in world football who can both win big games with their artistry and send the marketing department into raptures. The smouldering Ronaldo has something of the anti-hero in his make-up. Kaká, meanwhile, is a God-fearing middle-class Brazilian whose angelic aura conceals the avarice of his clan. If Real pay-up this week, it will be raining arrangement fees on Kaká's agent-father, Bosco Leite.

You will notice that four moguls are at the heart of this high-stakes poker: Pérez, Silvio Berlusconi (Milan), Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan at Manchester City, who blew Liverpool out of the marina with a £12m cash offer and astronomical salary package for Aston Villa's Gareth Barry. The Milanese house of Inter are also in the mix, with Barcelona's reported offer of £30m plus Samuel Eto'o for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a Serie A myth who should not be allowed anywhere near the new European champions.

Abramovich is mentioned because of his probably abortive attempt to snare Kaká ahead of Madrid. Chelsea still seek the element of "fantasy" that Frank Lampard talks about, and that Andriy Shevchenko, Michael Ballack and Deco all failed to deliver. While these antics amuse (and delight, if your club is on the winning end), the Neronian dealings between club supremos is less shocking than the sway it confers on the top five-to-10 players, who, in Kaká's case, feel sufficiently empowered to hitch their brothers to their deals. Where Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite goes, apparently, his sibling Digão goes too.

Observing the mega-clubs chase these stars is like watching Russian princes fighting over Fabergé eggs. On this struggle hangs much pride and prestige. Rich men used to buy newspapers to acquire social influence. Now they buy Kaká.

For the players, moving on is now a business: that end of the transfer market is structured to allow the crème de la crème to make at least two big changes of employment between England, Italy or Spain. The template was laid down by the original Ronaldo's shifts from Barcelona to Internazionale and then back to Spain with Real Madrid. Most careers will be planned as 10-year, multi-stop projects with escalating salaries and transfer fees.


Of the current nobility, Lionel Messi is unbuyable at Barcelona. Similarly the SAS would be required to liberate Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández from Camp Nou. Fernando Torres has just signed a new deal at Liverpool and there is no sign of Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard evacuating north-west England. Not content with attempting to raid United, Milan and, for Franck Ribéry, Bayern Munich, Pérez admits he tried to poach Arsène Wenger from Arsenal before appointing Manuel Pellegrini from Villarreal as coach.

Pellegrini: master of his own destiny. Discuss. No wonder Wenger wanted nothing to do with it. Presumably he had no wish to be the disposable conductor of someone else's orchestra. Only part of this butterfly chasing is about the specific tactical needs of the team. It is also an exercise in ostentation: a pirate game of firing shots across bows.

 

[blueduck]

Read this before you comment mate... it's worth it.

Back in January, the footballing world reacted with outrage at the astronomical bid for Kaká by Manchester City. Now comes news that Real Madrid and Chelsea have followed suit with record bids for the AC Milan star.

The media, fans, owners, and managers must respond with the same denunciation that greeted City's attempt to sign the former World Footballer of the Year. Anything less, and a clear hypocrisy will be laid bare for all to see.

If you were one of those Chicken Littles talking about "the death of football" back in the winter, you'd better be experiencing those some apocalyptic visions this time around.

If Manchester City were ruining the game by offering a financially strapped club a lifeline with an obscene amount of money for its prized asset, then Real Madrid and Chelsea are putting the sport in the same danger.

If Manchester City were attempting to turn a great player into a mercenary by offering ridiculous wages, then both clubs currently involved with Kaká are guilty of the same offense.

The sad reality is that we won't see anything like the reaction we did to City's attempt to capture Kaká.

It's clear there are one set of rules for the royalty of football, and another set for the unwashed masses.

Manchester United can do all the ethically dubious poaching of young players from other clubs that it desires. Real Madrid can put together The Galacticos and people are starry-eyed.

Yet, when a club like Manchester City attempts to break up the "Big Four" cabal in the Premier League, suddenly they're demonized for not knowing—or at least not accepting—their station in life.

Fans of the Premier League often bemoan the stratified nature of the league, with the same four teams earning Champions League spots year after year, as they take turns winning titles. (Sorry, Liverpool. I guess your turn hasn't come yet.)

Yet, people ignore the reality that the money is what drives success in football these days. The Big Four are the Big Four because of the financial resources they have.

The only way we'll see a shakeup in the Premier League is when other clubs match those four in financial commitment. Yet, any club that attempts to do so is universally chastised for stepping out of line, as Manchester City can tell you all too well.

How quickly we forget the history of Chelsea, who themselves are newcomers to the upper crust of world football. It wasn't until the club was the fortunate beneficiary of a similar takeover by a wealthy new owner who had the audacity to take on the status quo.

Hundreds of millions of pounds and years later, Chelsea have been transformed from fodder for English comedians into a genuine footballing power. Now, they're on the other side of that fence, apparently free to do as they see fit without fear of public condemnation.

While suffering the slings and arrows of the hypocritical media and fans, at least Manchester City can take comfort in the fact that the nouveau riche apparently are quickly accepted into footballing high society.

Five years from now, Manchester City will be the ones making "sensational" bids, while some other uppity wannabe is threatening the very existence of the sport with a comparable bid.

At least City supporters should be able to empathise with that club's supporters and reserve their worry and vitriol for something that actually deserves it.

The rest of you could use some of that perspective right about now.