Real Madrid (old thread)

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Beast

Beast

The Observer
Cule Angles said:
Sell the canterano, keep the expensive foreign import? That sounds like the real madrid I know.
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yep that sound like us... however they did tell Negredo (several times ) they want him to stay but he won't be a starter he will fight for a place .. and it's up to Negredo who do want to leave to secure a starting place.. in a way he deserve it .. cause if Negredo play it means Benzema or Higuain will be benched

Real Madrid Relaxed Despite Hype


`Galacticos? I don`t understand that word." That was Raul speaking at the first press conference given by a Real Madrid player after arriving in Carton House. He said it in English, a language he has been trying to master over the last couple of years.

His grasp has been refreshed by the conversations with hotel staff (although around 12 of them are Spanish) and by reading the Irish Independent, delivered every morning to his room.

That answer caught my Sky Sports colleague Gary Cotterill by surprise. He politely tried to explain to Raul what the word meant. But by then the 32-year-old captain of Real Madrid was laughing. What Raul was trying to say was that he doesn`t agree with the concept of Galacticos - with the notion that there are superstars and water carriers. He is the number one defender of democracy in the dressing room and doesn`t tolerate prima donnas.

This light-hearted interchange perfectly captures the chilled atmosphere in the Real camp. Completely at ease in the oasis of calm that is Carton House, Raul was laughing. That doesn`t happen often in a crowded press conference, when he prefers to keep to the party line with a perfect poker pace. But as his fellow veteran Michel Salgado (34) admitted yesterday, Real Madrid have arrived in Ireland to work hard. That means six hours a day of hard physical training where players hardly see the ball and where free time is to eat and sleep. Carton is the perfect environment to fulfil those goals. And the cool and showery Irish weather is perfect too.

Galacticos or not, nobody likes slogging it out for six hours in 35 degrees Celsius back in Madrid.

"We went to Austria for pre-season training for the last few years but it`s much more professional here," one of the players told me yesterday. Despite the huge interest created by the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, the relative ease with which the media has got to interact with the players has helped create harmony here in Co Kildare. All and all, it`s the kind of atmosphere that allows Raul and co to relax.

Players walk down a fenced route to the training ground from the hotel.

This gives us journalists, and the dozens of fans who have been allowed into the grounds, the chance to have a quiet word with the players.

"Fancy a game of tennis later?", "How are you dealing with aches or pains?", "When will you be back, Ruud?" These are just some of the questions. Some of them light-hearted, some angling to find out when Dutch star Ruud van Nistelrooy will have recovered from injury.

Eighteen correspondents from the Spanish media have travelled to Ireland to follow the team.

They are staying in a hotel around 10 miles from Carton House. Another 50 Irish and British journalists are accredited. Many of them will arrive today for the press conference with Ronaldo.

But there is some tension between the media department of Real Madrid and the Spanish press pack, who are used to talking to most squad members.

Lots of players have been banned from doing media interviews while there is transfer speculation about them (the Dutch contingent mostly).

Controversially, no interviews are allowed with manager Manuel Pellegrini, his assistants or the rest of the Real staff and that has annoyed the Spanish journalists who have to fill around four hours of radio, one hour of television or 10 pages for their sports newspapers each day.

Cristiano Ronaldo prefers to walk at the end of the pack of players, speeding along on the way to training and, after it, stopping every five metres or so to have a picture taken with the fans or sign an autograph. "Still here?" he jokes with me when we cross paths. He cannot say much more. There are no one-on-ones during pre-season, so the few journalists who know him have to keep the chats to a minimum with the promise that once everything has calmed down, there will be time for a proper talk.

Ronaldo has quickly settled in with the Real squad. He loves all the attention and adulation of the fans, but out of the public eye, he has been seen joking around with legendary No 7 Raul (considered a good strategy), and chatting with his fellow Portuguese star Pepe, his former Manchester United team-mate Gabriel Heinze, and with some of the French players. On Monday, when the squad arrived at Madrid Airport before departing for Dublin, the photographers all trained their lenses on Ronaldo, who was typically at ease in the frenzy.

"Stop preening like a peacock!" Raul playfully shouted to the world`s most expensive player as he entered the plane. Ronaldo is making an effort to be natural among his team-mates.

But Raul was just laying down a gentle marker in case the young Portuguese genius gets big-headed - just as Raul would do with any new star joining the Real ranks down the years.

After the first two days of training, the players are so tired by the end of the third session they tend to disappear to their rooms to use their laptops or Playstations and to sleep until 7am. Only defender Salgado and Raul were seen sharing a drink-- fruit juice of course -- on their first night in the VIP bar the hotel has prepared for them near reception. The training regime will soon be reduced to only two sessions, with a morning or an afternoon free, so former Liverpool goalie Jerzy Dudek and midfielder Guti are looking for partners to play some golf on one of Carton`s two excellent courses. "I`m so bad I haven`t got a handicap, but I enjoy it," Jerzy told me.

That game will take place in the next day or two, and Guti, a keen golfer, has brought his clubs.

But after all that arduous training, it will be interesting to see if they still have the energy for 18 holes.
 
AnfieldEd

AnfieldEd

I am Leg End
I think Ramos should be captain................

Shame we can't put Negredo into the Xabi deal. Such a talent is a waste at spurs.
 
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