Due to the recent developments in the transfer market and his undeniable role in creating the Galácticos (or the lack-thereof this summer) our president deserves a thread.
Well, Delete it if it's so shit. We really do have some self-entitled posters here. God forbid if you want to do something new. Let's talk about Perez in Ancelotti's thread then and not where it is relevant.
IMO, he f'ed this window up. Spent on who we didn't need in James, sold who we needed to keep in Alonso & to a certain extent DiMaria. And Khedira is still here.
"The man who spent our Falcao transfer money on chemically engineering the Ebola Virus" - Florentino Perez
Shit thread title. "ATM of Real Madrid" makes it seem as if he is bankrolling Real Madrid, which is not the case. Also this should be 'The Club Management Thread', and not Florentino alone.
I think we need this thread, Perez is a big player. After we signed Kroos and James, websites were saying we were the victors of this transfer window. But there were some episodes in which we went from victors to losers. Selling and replacing. 3 years in a row, Perez has sold "fan favorite" players. Higuain was sold, which meant that Benzema will be guaranteed the spot, but fans weren't mad because Morata was being introduced and it was expected that he will get more playing time, and we all know how that turned out. Then Ozil left the next summer, but he was "replaced" by Bale, and it turned out OK so fans didn't bother much about that. But now that he has sold Di Maria, Xabi Alonso and Diego Lopez, i can't help but think that he has lost the support of some fans, me included. He kept Benzema, one of the most criticized players of our team, and gave him a raise, while selling Di Maria who had a much better season and was instrumental in winning the CL, although he sold him for a good price, the fact that that money was used to cover for the purchase of James has pissed off a lot of people, just check our forum. While James is a great player, he is an extra piece of puzzle which Carlo can't use without drastically changing the formation and the way we play. The purchase of Chicharito, our last signing, pissed of more people than it made happy, because fans wanted a real challenger, a world class challenger, to compete with Benzema. But Perez signed him, Man UTDs 4th (or was it 5th?) striker, a well known bench player who's gonna get Morata Minutes™, while Benzema is guaranteed a spot. If Benzema was consistent, that wouldn't be a problem, but we all know he's one of the most inconsistent players in the world right now. To rub more salt in the wound, other teams signed great strikers like Diego Costa, Falcao, Mandzukic, Lewandowski etc. In the end, if Chicharito, James, Kroos and Navas work out, Perez will be regarded as a Genius, which i don't doubt he is, but if it goes wrong, he's gone.
I think there might be a bit of misguided sense of entitlement here. The last 4+ seasons Uncle Flo has a pretty astonishing track record of getting players he (or his coach) wanted to sign. Now this summer he misses out on one player who wasn't even as pressing a need as a midfielder to add some balance and we're bashing him for lying about our finances, using the Club for his own personal gain, or being "back to his old ways" etc. The law of averages was bound to catch up with him at some point, looks like this summer might have been that point. There are some things he can't control like players wanting to leave or breaking our wage structure to extend them. Personally I would rather have a President who is not going to get bent over and is willing to walk away when agents/Clubs get out of pocket with their demands. Throwing money around just because we have it sitting in the bank is not a good longterm business strategy and Flo Peezy knows that better than anyone as he is a big part of why we splash to cash and even with the emergence of the Oil Clubs remain the dream destination for footballers everywhere (and before you say it's always been like that one only needs to look back a handful of years to see that wasn't always the case). I always favor patience and this summer is no different but as is certain posters tendencies in this forum the exaggerations and gnashing of teeth is a bit over the top.
The fact is, this team is potentially worse than the CL winning squad from 4 months ago. Time will prove someone wrong, and i think that someone is Florentino. Florentino did get bent over when he gave Benzema a raise, while refusing to give one to Di Maria. He got bent over with the Bale, Modric sales. He got bent over when he bought Illarra.
Why is it worse? Because we lost Di Maria? Alonso was on a fast paced down hill slope, was old and really made no difference overall. Kroos and James will make up for the loss of Di Maria, as for Alonso we bought his replacement a year ago. Time for him to step up.
No it's not a fact until it is proven on the pitch that this team is worse and over the course of more than just two games. As much as a letdown this summer has been as with every summer's dealings we can't judge them either way two games into the season. Benzema's raise was cheaper than letting him walk away and his increase when you keep in mind his old contract, new tax laws, etc. we weren't bent over. As far as Bale we all now Uncle Flo's motto of the most expensive signings being the cheapest and so far with Bale he is generating income as expected from what I've read. As for Modric his price was high but he was signed as a request of the manager and we've managed to survive and intgrate him into the team somehow. We paid Petey's buyout, not sure how that is getting bent over you just transfer funds to the RFEF to trigger the clause. And Flo did that like a BAWSE after deciding Sociedad weren't worth negotiating with anymore.
2 league titles in 10 years. He isn't doing well. Was wrong when let Mou do whatever he wanted and is wrong now he uses Carlo as his puppet.
We clamour for European domination especially after our most bitter rivals had one in recent time , and it does not take rocket science to understand you cannot do so with constant chopping and changing . It was a miracle that we won the UCL in the very first year of CA's tenure , such things rarely happen . and when the template and personnel had already been found which effectively destroyed all the teams till the finals , it is sheer madness to let go of key players . It is unlikely we will able to repeat last year's double , UCL is always a tricky thing - so I was basically looking forward to make winning the league the no 1 priority , and I have doubts we will able to pull off the league with such an unbalanced and thin squad . In a league where 3 points separate the winners from 3rd place , time taken to find balance and starting XI might prove costly come the end of the season.
I've never been Floro's biggest fan/probably never will be unless we go on a prodigous run of trophies over the next few years (this is a results-based business after all and the man bookended a pretty significant drought in our history), but I think it's way too early to talk about this transfer window in any affirmative language. I think we've done just fine and given ourselves a chance to bring in any needed reinforcements come winter (I'm also beyond thrilled that we've sort of left the door open for one of our cantera's most prodigous talents in years to come back and reassert himself).
With Florentino to the end. He's the architect of Real Madrid. I have faith in him. He made this club what it is, one transfer window can't change that. You wouldn't have seen him making a move like Chicharito ten years ago, he would have been like 'thats not a big name'. Now he consults with his coach, he brings what the team needs. He sold Di Maria for a record price, and brought the two best players from the WC as well. I think he knows better than most fans who got their panties in a twist for not getting Falcao.
I know he definitely didn't want Falcao, or any other player that would mean having two starting #9s. Chicharito signing looks like it was done in coordination between president and coach.