I joined the boards amongst the transfer commotion and I for one thought that are dealings would have really helped us improve on a valiant end to the season before. The signings we made were big and encouraging. Encouraging in a sense that we were for once signing young players showing we were building for the future. With the signings we made and the positive end to the season before I for one thought we had a realistic chance. I always thought that the champions league would have been a hurdle but I didn't give up on domestic glory......how wrong was I. A season that started so positively with the aquisitions turned into a season of turmoil. Despite us finnishing second this year has been by far the worst of the 3 trophyless seasons largely due to the embarrasing political situation within the club. La Liga It'a always been my favourite competition. I believe that a team cannot be considered the best team in Europe until they have won their league and thus proved consistency. Ego and inconsitency where to be the biggest problems of our season. Even from the outset(Cadiz) we looked shaky. We used possibly the worst system to accomadate our players. I along with a lot of other Madrid fans got caught up in the Robinho euphoria after the Cadiz game and thought we were going to stroll. In the games versus Celta and Espanyol we once again failed due to our frustrating belief that "their minnows, we'll brush them aside." This problem didn't just affect us in these 2 games but in games such as Mallorca, Racing, Betis, Getafe and twice against Real Sociedad. Real Madrid forget that you actually have to turn up to win a football match. In many of the above games Real Madrid were actually outplayed or rather outclassed. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that we have more talent than all of those teams but sadly they knew what football was about, unity. Strangely enough we were always second best to the title rivals. The 4 point difference between ourselves and Barca the year before didn't exactlly represent the difference in quality of the 2 teams. When them humiliated us at the Bernabeu then we just knew that this year we wouldn;t have the same luck. Watching that game was one of the most degrading times as a Real Madrid fan. The players who had played in El Classico before seemed to forget it's significance and those who were new to the scene didn't exactly seem interested. When you see how passionless your team is in the biggest game of the season then you know something is wrong. The bottom line is that Real Madrid never stood up to Barca or even Valencia. We let both teams walk all over us at the Bernabeu and although there were shades of improvment at their grounds there was still a lack of passion and belief. How can any team challenging for the title have hope after loosing at home to their closest rivals? When the seeds of the elect champs were sewn then we just gave up all interest. Any self respecting human being should have pride nevermind one who gets paid 60,000+ a week and plays for Real Madrid. The heading above the trophy cabinets in the Bernabeu is "A long and distinguished history", well 90% of the players seemed contempt to make a laughing stock of that heading. Any of the posters on this board could have assembled a team showing more passion and guts for the shirt they were wearing. Forgive me for not remembering the player(although i'm sure someone will fill in) but there is a story where this player picked up the shirt and noticed there was no crest on it. Di Stefano said to him "you must earn it first". Tell me how many of these current players deserve to wear the Real Madrid shirt, a select few. Champions League The most prestigous trophy in club football. Real Madrid have won it 9 times towering over any challengers. I read so often on these board "9 times, oww Barca have 8 more to get" or "milan still have 3". Well these records won't last forever. Is the club in that bad of a state that we must be reminiscent of all our past achievements in the competition, 5 of which came before most of us were born. Of course it's great to boast this but what good is it if you can't improve on it. Look at great teams like Nottingham Forest and Ajax. Who remembers them now? Are we going to follow in their footsteps.. I didn't have high hopes for us in this years competition. Nevertheless with the abundance of talent in our squad there is always a chance and surely all these players know what it means to represent your team on this front?? Wrong. The story is all to similar to the league campagn. Putting Rosonborg and Olympiakos aside, I would still have expected us to beat Lyon and Asenal. So what was the problem? Oh yes, it's that rather large ego problem again where we think we are better than everyone else. Before the Arsenal game we were playing our best bit of football. There were glimpses of a team playing together then when it came to our only chance of collecting silverware we come out and play like something you would expect to see in the segunda. Arsenal were coming of the back of terrible form and yet we allowed them to play, give them chances and we were punished by them. A valiant effort in London but the tie was lost in Madrid. So where does this leave us now? Once the new President is seated, followed by a sporting director and a manager we need to start from scratch. Barca did it a few years ago and look where they are now. There needs to be a massive clearout of these primadonas and we need players who want to play for Real Madrid. This summer will be intriguing.
Well I including many other's had high hopes at the beginning of the Season. With acquisitons such as Baptista, Robinho, Ramos, Garcia, and players like Gravesen and Ronaldo finishing on a high the previous season, we were all mislead. This team was heavily imbalanced, players were playing out of position, there were talks of a brazilian clique, half ass performances, and there was a coach who had no idea what the ******** he was doing. Past achievements only help shape a clubs history, not the current teams success. I agree that there needs to be a massive clearout, and I hope stability will be restored after this summer's fiasco.
To me the last three years have gone something like this: Lack of direction ---> Lack of cohesion ---> Lack of flow ----> Lack of results ----> Lack of confidence The latter I've seen from all of the veterans: Salgado, RC, Helguera, Raul, Ronaldo and even ZZ and Figo (when at RM). Tactical adjustments or a few new signings cannot correct this. When FP resigned I thought that the team would get a chance to start back at the begining, but ... Lets hope whoever comes in in July has what it takes.
Look, this is obviously a Barca cicle, the same way that 1999-2003 was a Madrid cicle. Obviously the season has not been good, but it would only have been disastrous if we had failed to clasify for the CL and merely bad if we had had to play CL qualifiers. Any silverware would have been good, but since it didn't happen we can leave it at mediocre. I do see hope for the future. It will be a bit compromised by the elections, but hey, if you are a socio, this is the price you have to pay to keep Madrid the unique organization it is. Anyway, we have a bunch of good younger players (Robinho, Baptista, Ramos, Cicinho), a bunch of players that can either fetch good prices or free up a lot of salary space (Zidane, Helguera, Salgado, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, Cassano), and, for the first time in a decade, a professional reserves team. We're not going to start playing like geniuses right away, but honestly, we are doing our desert pilgrimage and we still objectively have the second best roster in Spain, and we can only go up from here. Oh, and I don't think we can or should do a massive clearout. Zidane is already gone, and maybe Helguera can follow, but Beckham, Cassano, Salgado, RC, Ronaldo or Raul still have their uses and can be valuable still in the market, so we don't need to send the message that we are getting rid of them whatever happens. Other players like Gravesen, Pablo Garcia, Pavon, Mejia, Raul Bravo and so on may or may not leave but they play a limited role in the present scheme of things.
I for one have high hopes for next season, given we get a new President who understands what Madrid is all about: Football However, I am optimistic about next season; Granted we don't sell any of these players, Robinho, Cassano, Baptista, Ramos are all part of a new youthful core which should link strongly and become staple in our new attacking force (even Ramos ), with old hands Raul, Ronaldo and (even) Beckham; Hopefully we make some strong aquisitions (spl) in the market for a CB, a DM, and a LB (where our players there are leaving or have failed to convince). Hala Madrid.
I am not very optimistic for next season. I believe that 2004 was the best season out of the last three, although we only finished 4-th. We just collapsed in the last months, but until that time we were playing fantastic football. We were showing heart and determination. I remember a few games where we were down in goals and sometimes playing with 10 players and still coming back. We all (or at least I) attributed this to a lack of roster. Not enough quality players in reserves, not enough rotations, and no good CB. In the summer we get 2 classy CB. We got Owen and called Morientes back. And we got Camacho (sp) we thought was the best choice. I for one was very optimistic. I was wrong. In 2004-2005 we started ************ in the first half. Then Luxa came and it looked like we came back on track. We played some very good games and we thrashed Barca. My hopes got back. At the end it was not a very bad end of the season considering the terrible start. But the summer purchases didn't convince me in fact. yes, we got three (4 inlcuding Cichino) very young and promising talents, but in positions we didn't need. On the other side we let Samuel Cambiaso, Solari and Figo go. I never like the acquisition of Garcia. I hated him from that incident on joaquin in the CDR final. And I was never sold on Ramos as a CB. Yet I was having hopes, especially believing that Woody was back, and with Gravesen and Garcia as DM it would work. God, I was very wrong. I am not optimistic for next season, but I hope i am wrong as I was in the last three summers. Sorry for my lengthy post. I usually do not write long posts. I just felt i wanted to express my depression over the state of RM at the moment.