'Los Galacticos' Policy

It was an irresponsible policy. Great players are always welcome in any team, but the first objective should be assemble a strong and balanced squad. Anyway, it doesn't matter anymore, since the club has abandoned that policy. The signings of Pablo García and Diogo will reinforce the midfield and the defense

 

i know we all call galacticos irresponsible now, but come on , you guys loved it when it originally went on. that being said, 2 trophyless seasons have proved that having all this talent is no that great and teams win titles not single players. so i think its over, and hopefully we sign more reinforcing players and bring up some youth..(JUANFRAN...)

 

Not me. I mean, I loved it when the club signed Zidane and Ronaldo, but when they let Makelele and Hierro go and didn't sign any replacements, I knew it was going to be a desaster.

 

I m not in for this Galactico ****************. I m not against the club buying good star players but I m against them being dubbed as galacticos.Why do u want to differentiate some of urs players with the rest when u pretty well know that a club can only win a title of with a complete team effort.Individual brilliance can win u matches but team effort wins u tournaments.
I feel we should stop calling players galacticos,however good they r.Its really sad that Pablo Garcia, a new signing has to tell that he is not a galactico and doesnt think like one.He wouldnt have needed to make any statement like this had there been no galactico crap.

 

I have no idea why the galacticos bs is still being discussed. Gravesen, Garcia, Diogo, and possibly Ramos. Woodgate and Samuel could also be included in that list.

 

Florentino Perez is not just the president of Real Madrid. He's a businessman. A very smart one who knows that soccer is more than a sport, soccer is also business and merchandising. Bringing the best players of the world means making the club even more famous than it already is, if such a thing is possible when it comes to such a renowned team like Real Madrid. Perez is a very intelligent man. Of course you need players like Gravessen, or Pablo Garcia to do the hard work while the superstars paly their game.
Don't worry, two years without titles is not too bad. The titles will come very soon. Just bring Robinho and Lampard and we'll beat everybody in creation.

 

Couple of things:

1. Like some of you, I hate the term "galacticos" - as far as I know, this was invented by the press, not by the club (or Florentino). Let's not blame the club for differentiating players into classes.

2. We can not point at this policy of signing a star player every year as one that chooses to ignore 'role' players. Florentino's policy was intended to sign one star player every year and to give more opportunities to the cantera. He is the one that said the club should be made up of "Zidanes y Pavones" - remember that? The fact is that our cantera hasn't produced players that are ready to make a jump to the first team. I think the last player that came up that should've been given more of a chance was Mejia. Florentino now sees that he must sign these role players because they are no coming from the cantera. I honestly do not think that his intention was to ignore these types of needs; he was probably a bit naive regarding the talent we had in the pipeline.

3. Yes, these types of players are expensive, but they pay for themselves. Whether we choose to admit or not, the Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, Beckham, and Owen moves (the supposed galacticos) have been good business moves.

The answer to the galactico question will vary depending on how the team ends the season. After Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo we won league, champions league, and league repsectively - I'm sure that at the time many of today's critics were singing a different tune.

I think Real Madrid should continue to go after the top players in the world, albeit responsibly. As often happens in life, the answer is somewhere in the middle and not at either extreme. So bring on the Robinhos and the Gerrards but don't ignore the Sergio Ramos either.

Hala Madrid

 

As usual, I think Alma Merengue summed it up pretty well.

I might add that the so called 'los galacticos policy' isn't responsible for our problems, its got nothing to do with lots of expensive players not fitting together in a team.. its an array of problems, as mentioned above, not signing 'role' players because of a misguided belief in the youth system and lack of consistancy with coaches, etc..

A great team is one whos' influence keeps going over the course of a few seasons.. that requires a coach and a core squad of players that maintain the character and style of the team.

Finally, even if you would agree that a player like Beckham wasn't the best footballing decision.. signing Beckham and well known players guaruntees much income for the future.. securing the financial state of the club and paving the way for footballing rebuilding and success, too many clubs have one or the other to a degree..

Perez has turned around the financial fortunes of the club in a spectacular fashion and now I hope that this season marks the beginning of a dominant era on the pitch as well..

 

From my point of view, RM was in economic and sporting shambles when Perez took over. Sure, they'd just won the CL, but the starting lineup featured Ivan Campo, Karanka, McManaman and Anelka.

Perez turned it around completely, in both areas. A big part of this was signing some of the best players in the world, not just for their skills and contribution to the team, but to put Madrid back at the top spot again, in terms of fan numbers and media exposure.

The problem is it got out of hand. Perez should've stopped at Beckham and concentrated on other areas of the team.

Figo, IMO, was a major coup, because we got one of the world's top 3 at the time AND Barcelona lost him at the same time. Took them 4 years to recover, this is probably the transfer that has had the most impact that I can recall.

Beckham, who is often bashed in this forum had two very important reasons behind his signing. First of all, we (economically) profit hugely from having him in a white shirt. If you want to compete with Abramovich, this is the only way to go. Second of all, and most people don't know this, Beckham's transfer had been agreed between ManU and Barcelona before RM got involved and convinced the player to come to Madrid. From that point of view, Beckham increased our resources and kept resources away from Barcelona, so it was a good move too.

 

does the galactico policy not benefit the youth system not hinder it?
zidane and pavones, surely it benefits 'pavones' rather than if these sort of players were bought instead

 

It was originally intended to benefit the cantera, but it looks like we just don't have kids that are talented enough to step into the first team - not an easy task to begin with. Thus, the club is now targeting 'middle class' players (press term, not mine). A year or two ago including Borja in a deal to land Pablo Garcia was pretty much unthinkable.


Hala Madrid

 

You and I are just going to keep on disagreeing

It was in economic shambles, absolutely, and from the 80s. Sporting shambles?, my god, they had just won 2 CLs, even the basketball team was the best in Europe, c'mon, give this people some credit. Ivan Campo was a good defender, he made a great pair with Hierro, Helguera, anyone. Better than certainly Pavon, Samuel (this year), or Woodgate. Karanka was very solid, not gifted, but reliable, and could play on the LB or CB. The defense those days, next to Hierro, Helguera, Alkorta, beat defensive records even in CL competition. McManaman was a very good player, always gave us everything even coming off the bench, and scored few goals, but if you remember he had a habbit of scoring in crucial games, many that put us in the patch of championships. McManaman was also a great professional, always quiet, always there. Anelka? well, he eliminated Bayern by himself home and away, and we won a CL because of it in games that we should have lost. He has a bad professional, always very controversial, but you know in those days I think Ronaldo would have fit the same bill, and Ronaldo has not given us a CL. The rest of the team? they were the best in Europe, a team that played well together. Hierro, Redondo, Makelele, Helguera, Raul, Morientes at their best, Seedorf, Mijatovich... Real was in "Sporting Shambles"?. It was the most successful Real Madrid since DiStefano. It is true however that without getting out of debt it wouldn't have gotten far or have the future it has now, but apples are apples.

Florentino turned it around economically. and he has done a hell of a job to make Real prevail in the future, to keep the club always at the top. However, in the sporting area Real won only 1 CL and that's it, with a team still based on the prior one that one 2 CLs, improved with Figo and Zidane. However, even the basketball team went to hell, and we have the worst crisis of results I can remember for the past two years while at the same time having on paper the best team ever. Florentino took it too far getting rid of the successful player base (Hierro, Makelele, Redondo, Morientes...)failing to replace it, making many unhappy (Raul's lost chronologically at the same time) and adding way too many galacticos for our own good, like Ronaldo, Beckham (galactico in economics), and keeping an aging team. This is it, we have nothing to show for the last two years and it is time to do something about it (it even was time last year).

He shouldn't even have brought him. It created a big problem that ended up with unhappy players and people fired. Or he should have brought him and make the team strong where it was needed as well(defense, DM, AM).

It won him the election. It was the best thing he has done so far, next to signing Zidane.

Yeah, but we lost more on the sporting side. Let's hope that he has brought in financially can be put to good use. Samuel wasn't, or Woodgate.
We all like Florentino, I like him more than any president before for his vision and capacity. I know that Real will be back again one way or the other, but the man has made gross mistakes, and he is not paying me a salary for me to praise him at all times either. He better fix this thing soon.

 

I like having top players, but I don't think it should be mandatory to sign one of them each year, nor I think we should have more than 3 or 4 true stars. The rest should be from the youth teams or elsewhere, always triyng to balance the team.

 

I thought that for a team to be succesful these were the keys, more or less:

#1. Have a strong base of in house players.
#2. Have national players of quality, so you can add to the base group of players that you have consistency to the team (people that feel the colors, that give that something extra, you know, the non-mercernary types).
#3. Bring in foreign players that ADD something to our team and to our national soccer, people that have something that we don't have to better our soccer. Real stars that will put you over the top.

This is how it used to be before. When Real brought in Di Stefano, Puskas, all the way through Hugo Sanchez, the number of foreigners was limited to 3 at the most (even less before), so teams were run this way and this foreign players were the best the club could afford, real stars. It made the club have to take care of their youth, which in our case made possible things like La Quinta (Butrageño, Michel, Sanchis....), who supported by great national signings like Gordillo, Buyo, Maceda etc... and foreign like Hugo made a team that in truth played much, much better soccer than our current one. Then just about unlimited foreigners were allowed, and we started bringing in just about anything that was cheaper or simply slightly better than what we had at home, but nothing special.
I think that the first formula is still valid, with the 3 steps mentioned to be followed. Florentino saw it this way also when he came up with the Pavones thing. However, he missed on step #2. He did #1, #3, and skipped #2 altogether. Florentino got greedy, tried a fake coach (Queiroz), to have step#1 in place, and to satisfy his ego with #3 he skipped #2 overdoing #3. I hope I made the point.
From #1 we have Raul, Casillas, Guti. That's it. The rest of the cantera have not been that great.
In #2 Florentino should have gone after people like Xabi Alonso (who was almost in the bag last year), maybe some national defenders like Juanito, Pablo (who turned out great at Atletico), for the money spent on Samuel and Woodgate we could have had 5 or 6 nationals in the team, people to cover up in our needed spots.
#3, well, why so many strikers, why not have kept Morientes?, play Guti more?. Ronaldo was more than enough if the rest had been covered well. Is anybody going to tell me that we couldn't find better than Beckham in Spain alone?. Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, it shouldn't have gotten past this point.

Yes, now you can say that for step #2 you can hire normal foreigners as well. Sure, but people have to get along, get to know each other, play together....and give an extra effort which you are most likely to find in somebody that plays in front of his own people. It's always been like this. I still remember two seasons ago in the worst season ending ever, how certain galacticos played to get cards and get suspended so they wouldn't have to play at the Bernabeu the following Sunday losing game after game....this season they improved at the end out of personal shame, nothing else. Are we going to get better in those situations with Diogo and Garcia, let's say?. It should have been Ramos and Xabi Alonso (this one from last year) if you ask me. Summer is still long, and Florentino has to make quite a few more signings, let's see what happens, but for what I see right now he is skipping #1, doing #2 with foreigners, and trying to fix a #3 that has aged out.
This is what I think the "galacticos" policy ended out to be: entertaining but missing the point.

 

who can criticise what perez has done, seriously.
he has transformed real madrid into the bigest club in the world not just on the pitch. he cleared the debts, created massive profits, at the expense of what? 2 years without trophies?
think about it, no we are buying players like diogo and garcia and graveson, does this not show perez plan?
-in the beginning buy big, clear the debts at the expense of trophies
-then once the club is rolling in the £ purchase the team players once more, produce goods on the pitch aswel as being the richest club going

 

Oh, so you buy Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham NOT to win trophies?...think about it a second, I don't think those were his intentions..

...but, so he buys the best names in the world instead of team players to make money, and five coaches, 2 directors in the process, so after he has the money he fixes the mess he created as you say, on purpose?. Of course, how couldn't I not see it.

Florentino is making a club that will be financially sound for the future, no doubt. However, competition seems to be increasing...Chelsea with Abramovich, MU with Glazer, and we were not richer than AC Milan and Berlusconi to begin with. There is not much time left for games.

 

I dont mind the "los galacticos" policy as long as its used for the right purpose, for example i dont mind the samuel signing as we needed a defender and there was nothing wrong with going to buy the worlds best (or we thought),however i dont like it when its used to buy unneccesary
"media publicity" players like owen and beckham. what i would love to see is to see them send big bucks on real galatcos like figo zidane ronaldo however spanish galacticos first.

I would love it to see madrid buy spanish galacticos first, like vicente, xavi , joaquin and torres,theses are already some of the best players in the world if not the best. instead of buying english players like owen and beckham because of their media appeal. buying spanish megastars would give the club more prestige and home support.pavon was a good start but they need to make more of an effort like the big italian clubs do, they buy foreign players but they make their home grown superstars first priority, and are willing to spend big bucks for them. I dont see why madrid keeps going for internatinal ( most of the time english ) superstars.

c'mon rembember when they were linked with rooney , i mean torres is 5000 times better and they keep institing on rooney, or even recently with gerard and lampard, i think the xavis (alonso and hernadez) are way better than them, maybe they dont score as many goals as them but they have way better ball control. just because the spanish players dont have a mass apeal in asia and the u.s, is no reason to bypass them

 

a very informative thread

 

I know we've been over this before, but... I think Real made a mistake in poaching Beckham from Barca. Had they gone for Ronaldinho instead of trying to make Laporta's life difficult, they would have been a different team...

 

We did go for Ronaldinho, but the deal was that he had to stay one more year on loan in PSG since all the non-EU spots were covered, and he (understandably) refused. Sounds familiar?

 

Well, I'm guessing you're referring to the Robinho debaucle, but it's a little different. #1 Robinho desperately wants to come to Real, but it's the club/his agents that are the trouble, not the non-EU situation. That, and Real have been trying for months to get him to strengthen the squad.

With Beckham, Real wanted to snatch a high-profile player from under the nose of their biggest rivals; it was all about style over substance.

Still, your point is well taken.

 

I don't think the issue with Robinho is his agents. It sounds like the issue is strictly with the club.

Regarding Beckham, I don't Real Madrid signed Beckham to spite Barcelona. Fact is, Real Madrid and Beckham had pretty much agreed to terms before Barcelona got into the picture. Barcelona did reach a deal with Manchester United, but that was more about Laporta looking for votes as the Beckham move to Madrid was pretty much done. Trust me on this one, the decision to sign Beckham - or attempt to sign Beckham - was made a long time before Barcelona were in the picture.

¡Hala Madrid!