Lost Blancos

Posted by Shibarjun Ghosh,India

Yet again we have are a laughing stock of European football. Humiliated, mutilated, battered ,torn apart and the worst of all… laughed at. A day of ignominy, shame and infamy for the great institution that this club once used to be. Our prestige has been hurt, our pride has been dented  and yet again we have been reduced to a laughing stock . Outplayed, outdone outmaneuvered and  outshone by an outstanding Liverpool side who had the Kops making themselves count unlike the Madrid faithfuls in the Bernabeu who were present in almost twice their no but their decibels really did not help to suggest their numerical superiority…..may be it could spring from an inherent mentality that their club is obligated to win. Wake up time may be.

 Yet again our official website may post an article stating the 4-0 thumping by Liverpool as just another “minor setback” and may draw some incredulous positives out of it…..may be like…we didn’t have the worst result on the match day….Sporting Lisbon were thumped 12-1 (on agg) by Bayren Munich…we were much better ..just a 5-0.

 Its time to sit up and shrug off  any feeling of superiority that we may still have due to our past laurels if we don’t want our future generations to use the word “Real Madrid” as a phrase describing something that  used to be great. Six years in a row…twice to English(Liverpool and Arsenal) and once each to French (Monaco),Italian(Roma) and German(Bayren) opposition…we have let ourselves to be toyed with in the prestigious Champions league. Five seasons have passed and we are still where we were five seasons back…ie still trying to push through the round of 16s.

 We have lost the prestige we once used to command in Europe and  clubs are seeing us as easy pushovers…certainly not exactly the vision that  the Santiago Bernabeus and the Alfredo Di Stefanos had envisioned for the club. Our expensive foreign imports are failing to perform at the big stage and former cantera discards Benitez and Arbeloa are staring back into our eyes with a wry smile on their lips and a gleam in their eyes and a victory in their bag .. making us realize what we have let go off. Something that Eto’o, Morientes,Pedro Munitis and a host of other players have done over the years.

 Now what???....sack a coach whom we have given a six month contract and who have given us ten la liga wins on the trot??? Or may be sack the Sporting Director who made a mockery of the club and its prestige in the summer transfer market .. something which led to a lot of complications previously in the season???? Or sell some of our promising youngsters to get our hands on some hyped and expensive foreign imports ..only for them to come back and haunt us yet again????...or may be pull back our socks and do enough soul searching so that when in 2010 in the last week of May the Champions League finals is played at the Bernabeu…80,000 madrisimos get to see their home team lift the trophy for the tenth time .