tonight's game against Racing was a significant match for the club in many respects: -first of all madrid were appauling, shocking, pathetic, yep i said it, they were in the first half anyway -secondly the game really showed how low morale is in the team and the fact that the crowd was so low didint help at all -with low morale u obviously get a lack of team unity and that was most evident tonight -pacho pavon was pathetic, dismal and robinho deserved to get subbed, if more could then they would have been -for me this game highlighted an end of a galacyico era, even with the current injuries, ill explain soon; LOPEZ CARO: -isnt the best coach out there and that is obvious but he could be good for madrid long term no matter how long he stays as he has previous connections with many of the great young talents in the youth and reserve team, thus lopez caro may well be fond of them and want to blood them so to speak -we have seen this with soldado last match and particularly tonight with the inclusion of soldado and balboa -i thought balboa particularly offered something different tonight on the right and he did provide something different for the team which was needed, he was pacy and sent in crosses and posed a threat to the defenders, he looked promising and although its much too early too tell i think he could be something for madrid in the future, i could see him being a regular in the 2nd half for the rest of this season, he provides a spark and he will develop no doubt, that can only be a good thing - with soldado he created some chances for him to score tonight with some good positioning and of course he had a goal disallowed, he is a striker alrite, he's shown glimpes of natural class for madrid 1st team b4 and of course he is the leading scorer for the castilla in the 2nd division, he's one for the future, what is needed is patience, what do u expect from a young raw kid in the big leagues, if soldado is class in the making all u need to do is continually put him on as a substitute and thus he will develop, if he begins to score he will be a top striker in the making, if not, he may not cut, BUT ONLY PLENTY OF TIME WILL TELL, remember a youth product not only saves u money but also its more likely that player is going to play for the shirt -both balboa and saldado showed glimpses of something tonight and lopez caro showed his intentions of giving youngsters ago, as i expect and expected with lopez caro -im also a fan of ruben de la red and expect he will be a regular sub soon too -lopez caro should use his tenor to promote the youth of madrid to perez and co, madrid have a world class youth program remember!!! CONCLUSION: -tonight's game was significant as ive clarified and i personally believe that madrid will not be title contenders in anything this year and deep down im sure many madrid fans feel the same -real madrid should take the rest of the season to blood the classy youngsters via the bench regularly and thus provide the foundations for a youth platform for the creation of an era of madrid youth players e.g. man united 1992 -lets hope lopez caro isnt intimidated into playing all the stars first and foremost, what is the point if there not performing? -i also believe that if this is indeed an end of an era like it DOES appear, then zidane, roberto carlos, pavon, raul bravo, salgado, and perhaps raul and helguera should either depart or play a much more limited role, act as mentors for soldado, balboa, de la red and co... -this PERIOD could be and should be a significant time for the re-building of madrid, all great teams go thru a re-building phase e.g. manu, even chelsea will go thru such a phase in 3-6 years - madrid must be smart about how to regain success P.S. even though my profile does not specify, iam a maritimo, liverpool and real madrid fan, probably real madrid more so P.P.S. all madrid fans must stand by the team in this difficult time, it isnt that bad
I completely agree with you on the rebuilding phase. Its just that Madrid fans are unwilling to put up with the 3-6 years that this will take. The Manchester United class of 92 is a perfect example, Fergie blooded those guys in after loan spells and they were the best midfield in europe for a while when ManU was straight destroying teams in England. I've been saying this for a while, we may as well clean house with galacticos and out in the youth. We may lose with the youth for awhile, but that will set us a future foundation. If we leave in galacticos and keep on losing, thats it! We don't get anything out of it!
They'll never do a man united 92. If they're lucky they'll produce one or 2 good players. They produced Raul before the Galacticos (in this culture) era and now in the Galacticos era they havent produced anyone good. Why?! Because they're not concentrating on youth. With all the money from marketing and sponsorship they just buy good players with that money.
Anyone that follows American baseball knows that the Yankees and Madrid are equal. The New York Yankees have bought every player they have for exorbitant rates, yet their youth system is complete shite, because they don't get time at the Yankees. They are just dealt to other clubs while New York spends millions each off season to buy a new player at the position. Guess what? The Yankees aint won shite in the last 5 years! The parallel is shocking.
I don't think anything is gonna happen by the second half of the season. Why? Because that piece of sh!t Florentino will probably come out and say some bullsh!t like, this team doesn't need any new players, they just need to believe in themselves. Pfft fu<k off, as long as these sh!tty galacticos are still marketable and bringing in money, they'll stay on the field, If Beckham were 40 years old and still rbinging in a crapload of money, you can bet Florentino will keep him on the field.
Well the club did want to sign him through another 4 year deal if the earlier rumors were correct. That means he'd be 36 when that contract expires. He's not gonna be a good player anymore by then...
i think ur just about right on that mate, perez must go for madrid to progress ON THE PITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!
He reminds me of the late mob god father of the Gambinos, Peter Castalano (sp?) Instead of being loyal to the family he would concentrate more on being the business man. When he's 2nd in charge died of brain cancer he didnt show up to the wake which was dis respectful so they killed him. Maybe wasting all the money has made the fans dis respectful to Perez which will make him resign. I wonder with all the money Real's making if he is keeping a majority?
Beautiful, maybe Perez can teach Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom to kick a ball and quickly sign them to a ten year deal with Real.
I don't think Lopez Caro can stay for the long term since he does have everything against him. Real needs a coach that cleans up the team. There are too many wrongs to undo, too many key players that honestly, we should be thinking of replacing asap. There cannot be any other conclussion after today's game: we are simply not good enough with what we've got. Osasuna I let it go, since I do think that they are contenders and capable, but Racing, even missing 4 starters beating us so easily...then we see how our players are really trying hard to make it, and they just can't. New formulas have to be found, new players. Caro is smart to start bringing in cantera, but that takes time, and Florentino I am sure will bring some more sizeable signings in January. However, until the "bad apples" are not let go Caro will still have to deal with them (or any other coach). We are doing so bad that it is clear that very few are really up to the task of making a championship team. I think that Carlos, Ronaldo, Beckham, Guti have to be let go. They are all fine players, don't get me wrong, but it is clear that we are not going to get anywhere with them and they are becoming a negative influence, some of them for quite a while. Zidane will retire soon, Helguera has to start thinking of the bench (if there is a replacement), Diogo, Garcia are proving to be more or less fine, but not enough. Just like Robihno and Baptista who this far have greatly dissappointed, even though in these two I have faith that this may change before the end of the season (which I don't in the Uruguayans. Diogo is no better than anybody from the B team, as I thought when he was bought, and Garcia even though I do like him for his character is not enough to drive a team like this, just like he wasn't when AC Milan had him. He can more than find his place in lesser teams as he did at Osasuna). Gravesen has to be brought back into the team next (I think that Caro is still making his mind about who will take the midfield and Gravesen is next on his list). The rest, more or less we know: Ramos stays as he is the only one who is growing into this team, getting better (this is a fact, everybody else is playing under their supposed level and getting worst, Ramos is the one who is not). Salgado has done better, can find better. Pavon...., Casillas of course stays (didn't like what happened to him in the 1st goal today against Racing, he is making more mistakes this year...even him is not improving in this team), and the youth, well, in lack of something else they must all be tried one by one this season if necessary. Soldado is showing quite a bit, and Balboa's (recently in the C, not the B team) technique level says quite a bit about what we can find there. Caro will be very happy to find out about those. The problem comes back to what we knew from the beginning: the players. We have no stars anymore and somebody has to let them go and undertake a major renovation of the team, and by that I am talking about 75% of it.
exactly. a major renovation of youth plus talent, people like Kaka need to come. then a coach who can be given the chance to stay here and work his system out. our hyperdrive marketing is killing our football, we're sacrificing coaches on the altar of marketing.
true. and the ironic thing is that those 'fans' to whom we are marketing in the far east and usa are notoriously fickle and will switch allegience to barca/chelsea etc before the season is out, which makes the whole marketing strategy completely futile real are just a fecking joke at the mo.
I agree, and please if you are an Asian football fan do not take offense to this. However, I believe that the majority of the people in Asia we market to are not Madrid fans but Beckham fans. I remember reading a commentary the day of Beck's transfer, and the writer said "Asia switched from red (man u ) to white (madrid)." And they are correct. Please don't take this as racist, as I know we have true fans in Asia pre-summer 2003. However, this is the main problem PEREZ IS CATERING TO THESE "BECKHAM/GALACTICO" FANS AND NOT THE SOCIOS PAYING FOR THE SEATS. In Asia our shirts are flying off the shelves while our OWN HOME FANS make the Bernabeu sound like the NOU CAMP, and in some ways rightfully so. Perez has lost his focus, he is not acting for the true fans, the people like us who spend hours talking to each other and hoping for the best. Instead, he says ""Who can we bring in to sell more FVCKIN shirts?" I know there's an economic balance that must be kept, but the footballing side of the balance has been treated like shite!!!! *I need a glass of water after this rant.
yeah the bottom line is there are too many first team players and particularly golacticos at madrid for who are over-the-hill and their talent is sliding, iberian makes a good point about rarely it is only sergio ramos who is improving and this is because he is the youth of madrid, more young players are needed though as the bottom line is that youth=success in the long run
You might want to check out the goalie, Casillas. Some people think he is pretty good. Eto'o has his moments too.
lockjaw i meant in terms of producing youth players for the MADRID first team, not for other teams to take coz we always sign bigger, established players, manu atleast kept their young stars together u see
actually believe it or not perez does care bout the youth system, did u knw soldado was taken from valencia ? .. and every now n then i hear in the news bout madrid followin some youngster sometimes as small as 7yrs old we get them but we dont give them a chance like i always thought Juanfran was a fantastic player he played a few games as an understudy to figo but guess wat luxa loaned him out to espanyol dunno how he's doin there thou .. ne chance we can get him back we need wingers ??
This is true, more focus has to go the the youth teams and developments. in the long run it will pay off.
You know why Pavon has had a long run, and it has nothing to do with quality...but let's not take any more skeletons out of the closet, doesn't help these days.
No. I entirely disagree. The problem is not 'over-aging galacticos' nor ignoring the youth team. The problem is putting incompatible pretty-boy players on the pitch alongside a coach with a sparkling resume, a handsome smile and who gesticulates to ones aesthetic satisfaction - then expecting them to magically become an all conquering football team. Ronaldo, Zidane, Beckham, Carlos, Figo? They're all around thirty, that means they're on their deathbeds, folks! - lets get rid of them all, get some new young star players and groom this young talent up. Then what? I'll tell you what: RM will buy some more pretty-looking galacticos-to-be, stuff them into the team full of youth players and they will all fail due to vast conglomerated inexperience and incompatibility and we'll repeat this process all over again. Only this time, there won't be any lingering relics from a past age to lay blame upon. Oh, sure they might play alright after a while. After three or four years of playing together maybe. Assuming they're not emotionally destroyed; rendered nervous wrecks by an impatient and over expectant Bernabeu. Don't be ridiculous. Figo is gone, freeing up the right for a more energetic looking Becks and earlier in the season Zidane, Salgado and Ronaldo were all out of the team while our new young talent - Baptista, Robinho, Diogo - took over and for a short while we had almost the team half you people had been asking for. Did it work? No. It wasn't Luxemburgo's invisible magic squares to blame either. I think we can safely say that recent games (malaga excepted) have yet to show any great improvement as a result of abandoning him. Meanwhile, we've alienated half a dozen coaches, traumatized a bunch of our younger players and finished running a threadbare squad into the ground. To top it all off are the plights of players we rejected. Adriano (ironically one of our targets) is singing Figo's praises at inter, while Mr. Too Ugly For Madrid floats high in the sky, basking in the effevescent adulation of millions around the world, alongside Eto'o in our arch enemy's Nou camp. Oh, but hey! We just became the richest club in the world!
What REALLY gets me, is that for the last two and a half years, we've had 3-4 of the top ten players in their position, on the planet - including not one, but BOTH of the only two players ever to have won three FIFA WPYs' and scored two goals on the winning side, in a world cup final, some of the most globally envied and admired talent on the planet... Talent that every other club on the planet DREAMS of having... ...And we've mired them in a team that is unbalanced, incompatible, overworked and under unrelenting pressure to perform and shattered their and OUR footballing aspirations with almost naieve and even foolish footballing management. Its depressing how often in the past couple of years we've seen these players plodding about looking like tired and disinterested caricatures of their former selves, when they're at the highest skill levels of their careers. Fans of other clubs around the world are lucky to have one or two talented players in otherwise unremarkable teams. They marvel at the occasional sparks of brilliance they are treated to.. While we're here still beating the dead horse, haranguing our players for not performing week in week out, then deciding they're not working hard enough and making them work double time to fix it, running them into the ground and then saying "Hmmm looks like they're over the hill now, better chuck em out and get some new ones!" @!$T#@%!%
thats what this galactico attitude does to you though. It makes you feel that once you're at Madrid, you are the s h i t. That you have nothing left to prove. That you can coast on your reputation and you'll be fine. Well guess what. Teams like Racing, like Osasuna are out to prove themselves and they have more drive than our superstar collection. They are trying to stay in the top division, they are having more hunger than any of our stars, and its sad. I wonder if any of these f u ck ers know what the white shirt means, what the Real Madrid mindset is. Because they sure as f u c k dont act like it.