How fair is it to expect Real to win it all this season?

Morning all,

It has been a tremendous week for Real Madrid. Following Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo and Raúl Albiol is the young French international Karim Benzema who will be at the Bernabéu for the next six-seasons. We have now spent over €200m and that just isn’t the end. Florentino says two more signings are on their way. One of them might just be Franck Ribery who has just done the maximum a player could possibly do to join Real Madrid. And the other hopefully should be a defender. At this point anyone could join Real Madrid. ANYONE. And that is what makes this club so special. At one point we were loaning in mediocre players like Julien Faubert just to give a shot at the title and now its players like Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema who are giving out an SOS for us to go and get ‘em. But are these the players whom we really need to get, if not better, then at least to equal Barcelona’s feat last season? There can be no doubts when it comes to the quality and the temperament of each player we have bought. The likes of Kaka and Ronaldo have done it all. But my question at this juncture is whether their strengths will get added or be nullified in the course of playing time.

The Galacticos, the real ones, didn’t succeed too well when they were overloaded with stars. When that era began it was only Zidane, Figo, Raul and Roberto Carlos and it was then that we won the Ninth title. (Luiz) Ronaldo joined and was crowned the Pichichi in his first season itself. We went only till the last 4 of the Champions league but still we managed to win the league. Hierro and Del Bosque were then sacked and that brought the demise of Real Madrid as a European super power. What Florentino failed to do at that point was get a real good replacement for the hole left by the two. He tried for Ayala and failed so he got players like Walter Samuel and Jonathan Woodgate who failed miserably.  He tried out several managers and all of them were poor. The whole fiasco ended with the eventual resignation of Florentino Perez.

This time around he has brought in similar players. Kaka, probably the only person who can be compared with Zidane, then Ronaldo, definitely as good if not better than the great Luis Figo himself and a huge Ronaldo fan in Karim Benzema. We have the real Raul and a potential Roberto Carlos in Marcelo. Well, Marcelo is not bad. The change this time comes in with the signing of young Albiol and the presence of Pepe and Eze G (who was signed last season). This squad is definitely stronger overall than the one we had back then. And the rebuilding is still not over yet. Florentino has planned two more signings for us which means four more players will be sold.

The two upcoming signings will be the most crucial ones but and might just involve our players as a part of the trade. The two major rumors have been Negredo plus cash for Xabi Alonso and Robben and Van der Vaart/Sneijder plus cash for Franck Ribery. Personally, I oppose both the moves. I like Alvaro Negredo a lot and I can see him getting us the goals we need in the league. Also I don’t think we need Xabi Alonso. Arjen Robben though injury prone is just an amazing player. Rafael van der Vaart is just settling down and Wesley Sneijder is just out of form. So I really hope the two players aren’t Ribery and Alonso though Ribery looks sort of inevitable. Florentino wants him, he wants us, well it just has to happen. There are other rumors about the arrivals of Alvaro Arbeloa, Maicon and Ashley Cole as well. Both are cunts. So I’d be against them even if they do join Real. We’ll just have to wait and see.

With Javier Saviola and Jordi Codina already leaving the club the others who are likely to leave are Royston Drenthe (mostly to Fiorentina on loan), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Tottenham, Besiktas, Lyon are all after him), Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Milan have him as their backup target), Christoph Metzelder (to Besiktas) and Gabriel Heinze (they said Liverpool but there is nothing concrete on that). Ruben De la Red being ruled out for yet another season might just see lesser number of midfielders being sold.

If Drenthe, Heinze and Metzelder leave as rumored then we will definitely have to strengthen our defense. Ivan Marcano from Racing was a good option, but Villareal have scooped him. We definitely need a reknown left back because I too see Marcelo as a potential left winger and not as a defender though he was brought into the club as one. Miguel Torres is a special player. His crosses for Raul’s goal against Sevilla and Van der Vaart’s goal against Villareal proves that he has a fairly good left foot. He has played on the left even under Capello two seasons back and it all depends on Manu Pellegrini as to whether he would continue to play the Lahm like right-footed left-back role. Center of defense will be a problem in case Metzelder leaves. We’ll be left with two proper center backs till Pepe comes back. And in case someone carries an injury crisis will strike. Gary is good but immediately into the starting line up would be too much of an ask from the young Uruguayan. St.Iker is there. But for the King’s Cup games and other lame ass games we might need a decent keeper. I’ve heard quite a lot about Antonio Adan. So I hope they bring him up through the ranks. Right back won’t be much of a problem. Jack of all trades Lass and Sergio Ramos are there to take care of the position. My only hope is that Sergio Ramos attacks lesser now that we’ve added that much needed flamboyance in attack. To sum it up we still need reinforcements, more so in defence rather than up front. I just hope the ‘two more signings’ Florentino hinted about is fills the holes in our team rather than overloading the already filled ones.

Now coming to the question that I posed initially as to whether it is fair to expect Real to emulate what Barca achieved  last season this coming season I would say it is a big NO. No because the team has been shaken right from its foundation. It has been given a new lease of life by getting in players galactic by nature. To expect it to perform  tremendously well as though it is an automaton that takes an input has five world class players and gives three trophies as output is simply ridiculous. But expectations will be there. I’ve just listed a few here…

• First a better Champions League story which means going farther than a first knock-out round exit or being throttled in the last 16.
• Next a little more care given to the Copa Del Rey in which we have been one of the poorest sides in Spain. Now that there are better players, players from last season can be given Copa Del Rey duty along with some bright youngsters and I’m they’ll fare well.
• Top two in the league has now become mandatory especially because of the lack of talent present in Spain at the moment except for a maximum of 5 or maybe 6 clubs.
• The icing on the cake would be a double on Barcelona (in which we clobber them 7-0 in one leg and 8-0 in the other) and a massive win at The Riazor (18 years due).
• One of strikers shoul get the Pichichi which I deem would be tough only because we have too many of them and the goals we get will split.
• And finally depending on our defense the Zamora Trophy for St.Iker. Am I expecting too much?

I’m not expecting the team to fulfill all six either. The last three are just something the fans would love to relish whereas the first three are the ones which we really have to look at achieving.

So basically to answer the question asked in the title of this post, I’d say that it is natural to expect such a dream team (on paper at least) to perform but we must understand that though supreme by talent they possess they too are humans and they will definitely take a little to acclimatize to their new home esp when three out of four are players coming in from other leagues. So patience, something that we Madridistas generally lack, is what is required. Florentino has done all that he can to pump in new blood to a team that was suffering severely and left in the dust by the previous office but we cannot expect the recovery to be magical. We will succeed if not now very very soon. Its destiny.

Para Siempre Blanco!

Hala Madrid!!