Institutional Crisis

Posted by Timo Grandovec,Slovenia



Once, there was a Real Madrid. Royal Madrid. Under the leadership of Santiago Bernabeu Yeste and the likes such as Mendoza, Real Madrid became the most successful club of the XX Century. This Club, this Madrid was the best, a Club worth all of the respect, valued by all universal worlds. We had the generation of Di Stefano, then the Ye-Yes, in the 80s were dominating La Quinta del Buitre. Those were the times, when the this original Madrid had identity, values and consecutive successes. The players in Madrid were players with soul, they were aware of the identity of the Club and it true meaning. Those golden times lasted till La Nonata, till the 9th European Cup.

Then, Florentino Perez brought Madrid under the dark clouds. Figo, Zidane were great, then suddenly number of unnecessary signings started to flow. Beckham, Owen,… and on the other side great players had to leave such as Hierro, McMannaman, Solari, Morientes, players who played for the golden generation under Del Bosque, who sadly had to leave too. Del Bosque, the personification of madridismo is a tragic figure of the mess that is surrounding my Madrid. Everytime I wonder, why did he have to leave? He could be the Madrid’s Ferguson, even more!
Of course, Madrid went through the times of Galacticos, which were disastrous. The years of drought went on from 2003 till 2007. And the coaches were also changing faster like I change my underwear. From gulls like Queiroz, Luxemburgo, to the homeguys like Ramon, Caro, and Camacho. Boneheads or not, none of them were given a chance. Either you dominate like a lion, or you go. That was the policy. No trust, no long-term project, no nothing. Just buying stars and changing coaches. This Madrid was a shame to Madrid from the XX Century. What happened with Santiago Bernabeu? The place who was a place to support your team, became a social meeting point, where you can eat peanuts. Too much armanis dolcesgabannas, to little sweatshirts. The true shame for men were Liverpool fans who totally overcame the madridistas at Santiago Bernabeu in 1/8 CL finals. Shame…
When Calderon came to power it all got even worse. Clownderon and Peja. Stupid clowns, I can’t be calm when I think about them. They were the men, who sold the last piece of reputation. No plan, no long-term project, neglecting the home-grown powers… Still only Capello and nobody else gave us the trophy. Glory to him. He confronted the clowns and even managed to win something. Still Real Madrid was driving to the institutional crisis tirelessly, where the old man in Junta and establishment are defending their own piece of garden. That is the institutional crisis that we are finding ourselves now, only without Clownderon. A bunch of old, elitist, senile men are the cause for such a big crisis that Madrid has managed.
Now I see that Perez would take almost all the votes of madridistas in summer elections. Stupidity, shame. The man who started all this shit, who started a policy without a plan and long-term project, will again rule in Grada Blanca. I am greatly disappointed. I am confused, how all the madridistas are blind that it is not the world stars like Ronaldo and Kaka who bring you successes, but good policy, projects and most of all… Madridismo (!). Signing stars are the symptom of headless planning…
Yeah.. this is today’s Madrid. Madrid of forgotten glory and forgotten spirit. And most of all, Madrid has became Crazy Circus Madrid.


hala madrid

Renovating a Coliseum

Posted by: Ashay K, India
When a certain Andrea Dossena struck a final nail in the coffin of Real Madrid in the form of Liverpool’s 4th goal and his first goal for Liverpool (and 6th overall), everyone knew that things are very wrong at Real Madrid and a major restructuring needs to be done, so that we can have some semblance in Europe.

But having a semblance is not enough, we are Real Madrid. We need to reclaim our right, and what would be better than lifting La Decima at the Bernabeu in front of 85,000 rapturous Madridistas and over a million worldwide. Sounds Impossible? Maybe. But our kit makers have always stressed “Impossible is Nothing”, and we have to believe it is possible. It is possible, provided we make the right changes at the right time. The Coliseum (read Santiago Bernabeu) is in a state of neglect and we need to renovate it.

A new Caesar

Where the club needs to start is at the top level and then work its way down the bottom. And all this needs to be accomplished in 2-3 months of pre-season. When the season resumes, we need to have things and a game plan in place, else we can be sure of traversing the same road of indignity once more.

Since the last 7 years we’ve had Caesars the likes of Commodus who are responsible for the downfall of our empire and advisors like Rasputin, responsible for advising an empire into extinction. What we need now are not politicians but real socios; someone who bleeds Merengue through and through. Someone who understands Real Madrid and feels for Real Madrid with the least possible political leanings. A good thing is that our election dates have been pre-poned to May, which gives us ample time to select a real leader, one who can carry the brunt of turning things around for our club. The leaders contesting for elections should have all their plans of renovation in place which they exhibit to the socios as part of their election campaign. The socios should then take a realistic call on the possible candidates, choosing only that person who has the club’s best interests at heart with a solid and realistic plan to back it up.

Marca polls indicate that Florentino Perez has 91% chances of succeeding at the election campaign and I feel this is where socios take a big chance without understanding the risks involved. Even other presidential candidates are now wary of running in for the campaign. After all, why fight a battle, which is already lost? We don’t even know of Perez’s plans for renovation. He has never approached the media directly and most of the newsbytes making the rounds is pure speculation. Yet, fuelled by this speculation, most of us are ready to believe the “make-believe”.

Marca has always been labeled as a Madrid bIased daily. But for all the bias, Marca has been instrumental in spoiling many things at the club and the interim club management should take pro-active steps to curb the Madrid based daily’s outlandish claims which hurt the image of the club and condition the perception of its readers and presidential contenders ahead of the election campaign.


Exodus of Mercenaries

Football, over the years, has undergone a significant change and is now as much of a business as it is sport and entertainment. With all the big bucks pouring into the game from various avenues, the new breed of players tends to be mercenaries, ready to go to battle for the highest bidder. In this age and time, it’s necessary to recognize the mercenaries from real players. We do not need mercenaries playing for us. Real Madrid has always been about passion, grit and determination and mercenaries have none.

We have players pocketing 5 million salaries and content to sit out on bench. We have players who joined Real Madrid because of the brand, but have done little to do justice to their inclusions. At a club like Real Madrid, you get 1-2 chances to cut it, and if you’re good enough you take those. If you’re not, you don’t. We have old horses, which simply don’t have it in them to play at the highest level anymore. Then again, we have players, who have become the crowds’ enemies and get constantly booed out. If this was not enough and if latest reports are to be believed, we have a rift of sorts in our dressing room, which doesn’t bode well with the rest of the team in the best of times. And the time is as worst as it can get.

An immediate solution would be that every presidential candidate has his own realistic shortlist of players they want out, players they want to stay and players they want to get in, all subject to the coach’s final word on the matter. A useful premise for the last goal would be to look inwards first (at home talent) and then extrapolate outside, if the requisite talent cannot be sought. The other important question that candidates need to ask themselves before making their respective shortlist is, “Do we have players of world class quality, capable of turning a match?” If not (and the answer currently is a resounding NO), then we should identify the existing players who have potential to be world class, dismiss the rest who don’t and have a realistic wish list of players fitting the bill.

Painting the Coliseum White

Finally we move down to the granular level, where the problem is the most critical and glaringly apparent. The problem with Real Madrid is that years of lack of consistency, lack of planning, abundance of mismanagement, and neglect of the Castilla have made the club lose its sense of identity and thereby fall from grace down into Pot 2 of UCL with Villareal overtaking us in UEFA Rankings. The cause of all these problems is quite simple if you ask me. I feel that the reason that Real Madrid is where it is today, because we have lost the white from Madrid. The white is present only as a jersey color. There is no madridismo left today. Gone are the days when individuals like the great Santiago Bernabeu poured their own sweat and blood and money into the club. Instead we have individuals like Calderon who use money earned from the sweat and blood of others for their personal gains.

We, at Real Madrid, need to start looking inwards if we are to right our flaws. Every single person in our club establishment should be a self confessed Madridista. We should promote our Castilla over everything else, because players bred in the Castilla are better players at Real Madrid than foreigners of the same caliber. We need to have madridistas at helms of different enabling functions like our talent scouting team, the medics’ team and the club administration. We need to have stability when it comes to coaches. As a club, Real Madrid has seen more coaches in the last 7 years than some clubs have done since their inception. We need to stop this “win something or get out” mentality. It is not possible for anyone to win every single time, how much ever we try and aspire to win. We need to get our identity back and a footballing philosophy to call our own. We need to get rid of the fanatical, radical, racist Ultra Sur from the Santiago Bernabeu. They are nothing but a bunch of fascist fanatics and we, along with football in general, can certainly do without them.

Lastly, we as Madridistas need to be patient and realistic. There’s no harm in dreaming of winning, but we have to be realistic in recognizing our shortcomings and keeping our expectations realistic. We cannot allow ourselves to boo our own players in our own home ground. We cannot allow away fans to raise more clamour than us in our own stadium. Things like these undermine a team’s morale. It is the right of a fan to expect good football every single time from the team that they support, but what we should understand that it is the right of a player to expect his home crowd to cheer for the team even when all hope seems lost.

Hope

The only trivial human emotion which is sustaining a million fans clamouring for improvement.

Juande Ramos???....

Posted by Paulo Martin,Spain



As all managers Juande Ramos has his pros and cons, here are a few of each to try and help you make up your mind if he is the right man for the job or if Real Madrid should yet again search for a new manager.

PROS:

Unbeaten
Juande has managed to make Real Madrid the only team in primera who hasn't lost a game 2009.

Reduced
He took over at the club when it was 9 points away from Barça. After losing in the Camp Nou Real Madrid was 12 points away, since then the team has managed to claw its way within 4 points of Barça and is now only 6 points away.

Winning Run
Real Madrid has managed to close the gap between Barça thanks to a phenomenal run of 10 straight wins.

Defensive Capacity
One of Juande`s great achievement's was making the team defensively strong again. Real Madrid has only let in 12 goals since Juande arrived between Liga and Champions League games.

CONS:

Unattractive Play
One of the things that Juande receives most criticism for is that the team fails to play to the football the fans want.

Big Game Failure
Since his arrival Juande has managed the club against 4 big teams; against Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and the two matches against Liverpool in the Champions League.
All of which the team has failed to win.

Substitutions & Tactical Errors
He has given the team certain consistency but some of his substitution's are questionable such as limiting Van Der Vaart's playing time and playing with 2 defensive minded players midfielders. Also that he made some questionable tactical changes such as playing with Lass as a right back against Atletico.

Eliminated From Europe
The main reason why Juande was bought in was for his experience in Europe. The club had high expectations for the Champions League yet the team was unable to beat Liverpool over two legs.

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.

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 .

PERFECT 10

Posted by Rai Krol,India

Third best consecutive win`s run in the history of Real Madrid.

 

With its win on Saturday Real Madrid equaled the run of 10 consecutively wins that Barcelona had this same season and that was broken, precisely, ironically with a loss to Espanyol.

But, also, the White`s are also forcing to re-right the history books. In 1960-1961 season, with the legendary Miguel Munoz as manager, Real Madrid effectuated a run of 15 consecutive wins. A record that to this day is history in the liga and remains unbeaten.

The season after that, Real Madrid again reached an incredible figure of 11 consecutive wins, also with Miguel Munoz as the manager.

So, Saturday, in the derby, Juande Ramos has the great opportunity of matching the historical 11 consecutive wins record from 1961. The truth be told Juande Ramos is reaching certain league statistics that nobody had imagined. He lost his first game against Barcelona, when he had only been working with the team for 5 days and since then he hasn't lost a single point.

The consequences of all this is the substantial reduction of points between Real Madrid and Barcelona. From 12 to 4 and counting ...