Cristiano Ronaldo
This is the word on everyone’s lips at the moment, whether they hate or adore the guy. The Portuguese superstar is on the verge of completing a potential “dream move” to Real Madrid for a record-breaking £86,000,000. Everyone knows the Spanish giants could afford the fee; that was never in question. The problem was Manchester United’s reluctance to sell arguably the best footballer in the world, with obvious justification. However, in recent days, Ronaldo has again stated his desire is to move to his “dream club” of Real Madrid. In his defence, it’d have to be a dream club for him to move there now because they’ve not won a European trophy in God knows how many years! It’s not good enough for a club of this size and their annihlation by an out-of-form Liverpool in the Champions League this season was presumably the nail in the coffin lid.
As a Manchester United fan, I do find it a bit of a bitter pill to swallow and confess myself disappointed at losing such a world-class player. However, unlike most of my fellow idiot fans, I will not boo him should he return to the club. This guy has performed miracles for Manchester United over the past few seasons and finished both league top scorer and Manchester United top scorer numerous times! It’s frankly been an honour to see him play and I will remember him fondly with hopes he will return one day to play for the club where he’d won everything. I wish him luck with his career in Spain – he’ll need it, as I explain below – and hope Manchester United react swiftly by bringing in more than Antonio Valencia to accomodate for such a monumental loss.
However, this signing won’t drag Real Madrid out of their current situation. Their problem is that they’re too impatient, too demanding of their staff at all times. The pressure with big clubs is always intense but Real Madrid are the worst side in the world for adding pressure. I recall when they didn’t renew the contract of Vicente Del Bosque despite him leading them to two Champions League titles and two domestic league titles amongst other trophies over just four years in charge. In fact, he led them to the last 4 of every Champions League competiton whilst he was in charge. However, that wasn’t enough for Real Madrid and they’ve suffered ever since they removed him as manager. Now they’re in a situation where there’s little cohesion between the players, confidence is low, the trophy cabinet is empty and money is dominating again. Real Madrid need to take a step back and let new manager Manuel Pellegrini show his quality as he showed with Villarreal i.e. let him do his job without interfering. Give him time to build the squad and make them a force again or else no matter who they buy, they’ll never be a force again, it really is that simple. Another reason Real Madrid struggle is because they don’t give their youth players a chance. Players like Granero, De La Red, Soldado and Negredo have proven themselves good enough to play for other Primera Liga clubs and some even for Spain, but Real Madrid don’t give them chance. Look at Juan Mata for Valencia – another player who came through the Real Madrid academy and now is a key part of Valencia’s squad. Ask yourself this; would Barcelona let a talent like that slip through their fingers? No. The only player they’ve ever lost that has gone on to do better than when at Barcelona was goalkeeper Pepe Reina, now at Liverpool. Before anyone says Cesc Fabregas – he was poached from Barcelona, they didn’t sell him. So my point is again, Real Madrid lack in patience and it harms them. Their last academy produce was Iker Casillas and that was what – 8 or 9 years ago? That just isn’t good enough whatsoever. We’ll have to wait and see just what Manuel Pellegrini does at Real Madrid but one thing is for certain – more eyes will be on him next season than anyone else.
Returning to Manchester United – who do they sign? Antonio Valencia is good, but he’s not great. Do they attempt to lure Frank Ribery to Old Trafford, despite Bayern Munich stressing that they will not sell him? The Germans have made a monumental effort themselves already this summer to bolster their squad to challenge for the Champions League this season; they’d be fools to lose their best player. The time is right to approach Karim Benzema, but is he ready for life at the top? Do Manchester United spend some of that money on keeping Carlos Tevez? I think they should but some Manchester United fans disagree. Should Manchester United go big and sign Sergio Aguero to breath some more life into what is already a young and exciting squad? Manchester United don’t need a lot of players, in my opinion, but a couple are required. I’d actually like to see Manchester United re-sign the lethal Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who is rumoured to be available at a cut-price deal due to Primera Liga’s cap on squads (no more than 25 players) or alternatively to sign robust full-back Sergio Ramos. Either way, I hope Sir Alex Ferguson has something up his sleeve else I do fear the season ahead somewhat. Ronaldo wasn’t Manchester United, but nobody could win a game better than him when things were going wrong. Let’s face it, though – there aren’t many occasions Sir Alex Ferguson isn’t prepared for.
On a final note – I wonder if Michele Platini will stick his neck out to comment on Real Madrid’s frankly ludicrous spending or if he’ll reserve his meager comments for English clubs in debt this summer?!
Incidentally, there’s no games today of any substantial quality for betting on today so we’ll have to wait for weekend – sorry guys!