I haven’t posted anything for months but I have to say I’m outraged to see Real Madrid keep committing the same mistakes. This time its even worse, not only are we sacking coaches every year but we’ve sacked the coach that made Real Madrid a team again and ended our 4 year drought.

Maybe president Calderon is doing what he feels is best for the club. I consider it to be a disgrace to the club to treat people this way and I’m ashamed to be a Real Madrid fan.

Thank you Fabio Capello for La Liga title, making Real Madrid a team again and bringing back all the values that the players and club lost in the past 3 years. Good luck to you.

The Spanish La Liga is about to make the final showdown, but for Real Madrid it doesn’t end there. Talks have flourished about new signings, with the most famous being that of Kaka from Milan, and Robben from Chelsea. Word also has it that Saviola has signed a contract with Real Madrid, leaving the Camp Nou. Finally, it is yet to see whether Beckham will stay on loan for another year at the Bernabeu, while Arsenal’s Reyes staying is debatable. What are your thoughts? Any new signings coming up for Real Madrid?

Real came out energized scoring 3 goals in the first half. All time leading Champions League goalscorer Raul neted 2 (the second one barely combing an Helguera header) and Ruud struck the third one home after a superb Beckham free kick. Lucio got one back heading the ball into the net on a free kick.

Beckham was sensational in the first half, dominating the midfield and moving the ball extremely well and the rest of the team moved well. In the second half, Real reverted to their old selves and elected to sit on their 3-1 lead and defend. It wasn’t a great choice and after a few good chances and a couple great saves by Casillas, the second goal for Bayern came from Van Bommel from the front of the area in the closing minutes of the match.

Allowing 2 away goals is not a good thing. On the return leg Real must tie or win to go through. If Real scores 2 goals then Bayern would have to score 4 to go through, and if Bayern scores it 3 would be a tie in goals, causing overtime or penalties. A 1-0 or 2-1 in favor of Bayern would send Bayern through.

The Spanish press, especially Marca, is determined to get rid of Capello, aside from the constant shower of critism that has no end and is quite tiring to read, it runs rumors of his resignation, his wanting to resign for a payout to free him from his contract, the club being sick of him, etc. etc, none of which there is any proof. They continually run articles talking about Michel becoming the coach of Real Madrid and run polls of who should be the manager.

Aside from all that, they insert supposed ‘facts’ about Capello into their writing in an attempt to convince their audience of what a terrible job he’s doing. Well, hello, we’ve been through 6 coaches in 3 seasons and none of the rest did any better. Most of them received the same crticism, at the time they were coaching, and it was just as tiring to read then as it is now. Real is tied with Valencia on points and 4 behind Sevilla and Barcelona, so everyone is pretty much at the same level. Does the press spend night and day criticising Frank Rijkaard and the other coaches?

 We all know that buying great players doesn’t make a great team, much of it comes down to chemistry, and Real just hasn’t found the right combination yet. Marca says Capello has run 2 different projects in the same season and doesn’t have a clear idea of what to do with the team. I would say that’s accurate. If one thing doesn’t work, you try something else, you keep trying things until you find the solution. It would be silly not to.

So Marca, give me a break, please. Stop criticising all the time, try supporting for a change. Try letting Capello and Real Madrid be, to do their work, and please don’t continue to run rumors to destabalize a team on the same day of an important Champions League, it’s a bit sickening. You may be able to brainwash some but others, like myself, will just become fed up and read other newspapers.

News came through today via the official Real Madrid Website that Jonathan Woodgate was sold to Middlesbrough where he has been currently playing on loan from Madrid.

Yes, Real, in need of  a central defender as Canavarro is terribly out of form have sold one of the best defenders is England who was just called up for international duty.

Real brought Woodgate to Madrid injured, spent two years treating him and paying his salary and now that he is healthy and playing brilliantly, they sell him. Does that make any sense?

This comes after they sold Ronaldo (for a measily 7.5 million when they could have gotten double at the beginning of the season) in the middle of a serious goal drought (3 goals in 8 games). Can someone explain that to me?

Beckham who is earning as much or more than anyone is sitting in a glass cage watching the matches from the stands and Antonio Cassano, who may be more deserving of his isolation, is in the same situation. Cassano, regardless of his occasional behavior problems, is still an exceptional player and could help the team while he’s still here. Do we enjoy wasting money?

Gago and Hungain are good young players but why shell out millions when you’ve got the same class players in the youth team (Just look at Miguel Torres).

If anything is to be missed of the Florentino era, the saavy financial decisions would have to be it.

After signing disappointing Juventus duo Cannavaro and Emerson for 20 million Euros in July 2006, the club seemed to have stopped throwing money out the window. The Italian newspaper ‘La Repubblica’ disagrees. This morning they have published a story saying that Real Madrid have agreed to let Ronaldo go to Milan in exchange for 7,5 million Euros. Wow… the three times FIFA player of the year considered by many the best player in history is leaving the club for a fee so much smaller than the player’s real value. Well done Real Madrid, that’s what you should do if you want to lose thousands of fans. Disappointing results and the loss of Beckham wasn’t enough. We can only hope the article was untrue and Ronaldo is not leaving. A recent poll in the Spanish newspaper Marca revealed that the majority of Real Madrid fans (almost 70%) wanted Ronaldo to play more and thought Capello was doing a mistake by treating him in the way he does. Even some Real Madrid players think this is a mistake. Helguera has recently declared:

“I always ask respect for the players. Ronaldo, being fit, is one of the best in the world, if not the best. I do not believe that this is the right way to treat his situation. I also went through something similar. […] It is necessary to be true and respectful with the people who try to give everything, especially at a club of the greatness of Real Madrid. […]At the start of the season Capello did not trust me, but he realized his errors and now I am playing.”

Is The Phenomenon really leaving? We’ll know soon. If he really is, don’t be sad, actually he isn’t that good; he won few awards and honors during his career:

• FIFA World Player of the Year: 1996 (youngest winner), 1997, 2002
• World Soccer Player of the Year: 1996, 1997, 2002
• European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d’Or): 1997, 2002
• Onze d’Or: 1997, 2002
• UEFA Most Valuable Player - 1998
• European Golden Boot: 1997
• Copa América 1999: Top Scorer
• Spanish League Top Scorer: 1996-1997, 2003-2004
• Dutch League Top Scorer: 1994-1995
• BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality: 2002
• GoldenFoot Award: 2006
• FIFA World Cup
• All-Time World Cup Goalscorer - 15 Goals in 19 games in 3 World Cups
• 2006 Bronze Boot - Third highest scorer (tied) - 3 goals
• 2002 Golden Boot - Top scorer - 8 goals
• 2002 Silver Ball - Second best player
• 2002 Winner
• 1998 Golden Ball - Best player
• 1998 Silver Boot - Second highest scorer - 4 goals
• 1998 Runner-up
• 1994 Winner
• Brazilian Cup: Cruzeiro 1993
• Dutch Cup: PSV Eindhoven 1996
• Cup Winners’ Cup: FC Barcelona 1997
• Confederations Cup: 1997
• Copa América: 1997, 1999
• UEFA Cup: Internazionale 1998
• Intercontinental Cup: Real Madrid 2002
• European Super Cup: Real Madrid 2002
• La Liga - Primera División champions: Real Madrid 2002/2003
• Spanish Super Cup: FC Barcelona 1996, Real Madrid 2003

And do not forget that he was injured for long periods of time, one of them being 2 years in length.

For some odd reason, the worst things get for Real Madrid, the more I feel like talking about it. So I decided to ditch my blogger account and install Wordpress. You can check out the old blog here.

It’s pretty much chaos at this point. The last match was terrible. Ronnie didn’t get much playing time, Robinho was left in the stands (apparently a disciplinary action, although no one is really quite sure why), Guti was injured after just a few a minutes, Sergio Ramos played left back, Casillas is no longer invincible and Real Madrid fans and the Spanish press are in an uproar.

 It’s actually quite funny. I laugh because after 3 years of the same, well what else can you do? There’s something strange lingering in the locker rooms of the Bernabeu. It’s like a curse that causes all new signings, no matter how good they used to be, to completely drop out of form. They just keep falling, the latest example being Fabio Carnavarro. Fifa World Player and Golden Ball award winner and is now playing probably his worst football ever. Can you blame him? I don’t, he’s victim of the curse. Maybe it’s the galactico curso that Florentino set upon the club. 

I don’t believe in curses, but there is definitely something languishing in the air and there’s no clear solution in sight. If you understand Spanish and surf over to the AS blog, you’ll find over 500 posts from after Sunday’s match! Mostly whining, complaining, critisizing… the things we do by human nature. Lots of critism of Capello (none of his predecessors faired better…Quiroz, Camacho, Garcia Remon, Luxemburgo, Lopez Caro) and mostly critism of the older players, new and old ’sacred cows’ as they call them.

 Raul is getting bashed big time. Truth of the matter is, either play him in his natural forward roll or put him on the bench, but he doesn’t usually do much in the midfield. Salgado, Helguera, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Beckham, Emerson are all getting blamed as well. Everyone says, “Bring on the cantera!” (Youth team players). I somehow don’t feel the solution lies in axing another coach before he has time to figure things out or dumping all the ‘old’ players for youth team players.

But one thing is very clear. These players (most, not all) do not give their best effort. I don’t believe this crap that they are all millionares and don’t care about winning football matches, but I can see that they don’t put enough pressure on the other team when they lose posession. They don’t play with intensity, strong desire, the will to win every game as if it were their last.

I would also stop buying expensive players. Make a great team and create great players, don’t buy them just for them to drop out of form upon arrival and collect big paychecks. For many players it’s a blessing for them to leave Real so they can shine on other squads like Diogo is now at Zaragoza. (He is quite a boxer as well.) When will be the next time someone shines at Real?