Real Madrid: This Little Piggy Went to Market

Before I begin, I have to be honest in saying that the first club that I was ever a fan of was Real Madrid. It was nice to have Ronaldo and Figo and Beckham on the team, but it was Zidane that I watched. Something about the way he played could not be replicate by any other footballer on Earth, a sign that he was unique in the same ways that made Pele and Maradona legends.

I make this confession because I am about to go after the club that he once played for and now advises.

Real Madrid is currently the second richest club in the world behind Manchester United. That’s a strange thing to imagine, not because of the variegated successes of both clubs, but because of the image that either Real Madrid or Manchester United evoke.

It’s not hard to imagine Real with immense wealth. The Bernabeu and it’s training grounds have been likened less to professional sports facilities and more to a movie studio. Understandable since their players often spend more time in front of a camera than in front of a football.

Manchester United has slightly different image. Yes, it’s not hard to imagine them with money. Sir Alex Ferguson likes to spend a big chunk of money on big players. But it’s never been imagined as an exorbitant club. Maybe it’s Ferguson’s focus on discipline among his players, maybe it’s the immense work ethic, but the team that plays their ball within the hallowed walls of the theater of dreams lives up to their description, as a team.

That little distinction between Madrid and Man U, an ideal of teamwork and players fitting into a coach prescribed framework as opposed to other other way around, is exactly why I lost faith in Real Madrid a long time ago.

They hired coach Fabio Capello in 2006 and he would go on to the win La Liga and the Supercopa, and what did he get? Fired. Ok. He didn’t fit into the idea of what a Real Madrid coach should do, which is create a team that plays beautiful football. Instead he actually built a team, a working team out of what could before best be described as a cosmos of talent without a gravitational center.

Then in 2007 Bernd Schuster was hired. He won the same trophies as Capello. He was fired in the middle of the next season. In his tenure as Madrid coach, he only lost 6 games, and set the record of points in winning La Liga. But he just wasn’t RIGHT for Madrid.

That’s about the point where you realize that no one will ever be right for Madrid. Madrid, unfortunately, is no longer a club of respect and history, it’s a club of money with no idea how to manage the talent it buys. The managerial staff is almost on a revolving door with one always about to leave on the other side. This isn’t how teams are built, this is how jerseys are sold.

Never in my life have I seen a club as shortsighted as Real Madrid. The amount of money they spend is beyond astronomical. But I wouldn’t be against that normally. Spending is capitalist. Spending, more times than not, is a good thing to promote growth and success. What I am opposed to is wasting money. So what is it called when you spend untold millions on a player, only for them to become worse on your team and have their talents dwindle until they’re sold off for next to nothing? That’s called waste.

Madrid’s Dutch contingent is in danger of being completely sold, even though they may be the best dutch players of their generation. Suddenly upon a move to Madrid, classy midfielders like Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, and Rafael van der Vaart are no longer skilled enough? Huntelaar, who may have the best ration of goals to games in the footballing world, can’t score enough? I don’t buy it. I just call it another example of Real Madrid wasting talent.

There are rumors floating around that bring into question Madrid’s training methods. Apparently they barely have any. Oh sure they’ll keep players fit, but when it the last time you heard a player being bought by Madrid and leaving a better player? The only place in the club where talent grows is in their fabled cantera, which is most likely one of the best youth programs on Earth. But, as described recently be an article on this website, Madrid don’t draw from their own immense reserves of talent. They farm them off to other clubs and lose out on some of the best talent produced in Spain. The numbers they have would even make Barcelona’s famous youth system blush. But they just sell off these amazing Spanish talents before they can ever really grow. That’s called waste.

So in closing, I wish not to criticize or damn Real Madrid for their massive spending sprees. Buying Kaka is a very smart move in the vein of Zidane. Classy, elegant, experiencing, and with enough flair to light up a fairly dull Madrid midfield. But I fear for the talents of Albiol, Benzema, and even Ronaldo. Real Madrid’s first team is not a place to nurture talents but to boost egos, and these three would do well to watch after their own skills unless they fade away into shadowy forms of Pavon, Ronaldo (R9), and Luis Figo.

Unless Madrid make drastic changes to the way they think, they will continue to do injustice to a club with one of the greatest histories in football.

This post was submitted by Saleh Karaman.