The Departed

Posted by: Ashay K, India.

There was a time when the famous white shirts used to inspire fear in the hearts of the opposite team. Ironically, white symbolized Peace back then, but the whites at the Santiago Bernabeu symbolized anything but. White still symbolizes Peace, we’re at Peace as well; which is all very good had it not been for the fact that we’ve been eliminated early on in the Copa Del Rey (again!) and have been eliminated in the round of 16 in UCL (again!) for the 5th consecutive time conceding 5 goals over 2 legs in what amounts to as our worst exit from the UCL for some years.

Was this expected? I yet have to meet a single madridista who answered “no” with complete vehemence to this question. We all expected this to happen, because we all knew of the problems brewing just under the surface. We kept telling ourselves “If it aint broke, don’t fix it”. What we conveniently tried to ignore that we were indeed broken all this while. La Pelicula, without wings; and we expected it to fly. The loss to Liverpool, as labeled by the press “was on the worst shock defeats for Real Madrid”.

Worst? Yes. Shock? No.

We always took all the negative newsbytes with a pinch of salt, laughing some of them off with arrogance. And by God, we did have the right to be arrogant. We were the Royal Madrid. An epitome of grandeur and that which symbolized the best there ever is. We ignored the trouble and mismanagement brewing up. We chose not to do anything about the twisted agendas of people managing the club for the past 5 years. We chose to ignore our youth and lose our footballing philosophy. Until that 4-0 loss against Liverpool. It was the jolt that Real Madrid needed, has needed since a long time. A blessing in disguise? Who knows. But one thing is for certain. We have woken up. We have realized that we are collectively responsible for the loss of our identity as a club. We’ve seen it ourselves and seen that coliseum called Santiago Bernabeu has degenerated. We’ve fallen down from that hallowed pedestal that we’ve always considered a birthright. Words from a song come to mind...

“My black backpack's stuffed with broken dreams,

20 bucks should get me through the week.

Never said a word of discontentment;

Fought it a thousand times but now

I'm coming home”

…How fittingly appropriate in the meaning they convey.