Raúl left in limbo as stubborn Aragonés refuses to amend his mistake
When the smarmy and ever-rictus-wearing Steve McClaren was handed the sticky reins of the England bandwagon, his first statement of intent was to drop one David Beckham from not only the team, but also from the squad altogether.
Beckham’s high-profile was alleged to have isolated some members of the team, and his status as an “untouchable” under Sven Goran Eriksson believed to have upset both fellow players/challengers for his place, as well as England fans up and down the country. However, we all know how this story has ended; with a recall for Beckham and a serious amount of damage done to McClaren’s already-wavering credibility.
Faced with a similar situation, Spain manager Luis Aragones (he of the “let’s call Thierry Henry names” fame) has stuck to his guns, refusing to call upon record goalscorer González Blanco Raúl despite the Real Madrid captain’s recovery of form at the beginning of this season (one gets the idea that in actual fact, a comprehensive and irreversible decision was taken immediately after the Belfast debacle) and in spite of the injury to top striker David Villa.
A Raúl has been called upon, but a less famous (although by no means unqualified) one, Raúl Tamudo of Espanyol. Tamudo has 113 goals in 283 games for Espanyol, and 4 goals in just 9 games for Spain.
When Raúl was dropped, his lack of form for club and country was cited as the main factor in the decision, despite the good start to the season made by both Real Madrid and the player. Indeed, Luis Aragonés only scruple in dropping the player was said to have come due to his concern that such news might overshadow the preparations for upcoming Euro 2008 qualifiers, leaving it as clear as day that Raúl’s high-profile was as much an issue with Aragonés as was his alleged under-performing.
This issue becomes more intriguing when the recently revived rumours regarding team disruption are added to the mix. The (er-hem) reliable source of AS has claimed that despite Luis Aragonés assertions that the door is “never closed” to Raúl (has Aragonés been working with the same PR man is Steve McClaren?), Aragonés is in fact extremely reluctant to call upon the marksman because the coach perceives him as a nefarious influence in the dressing room, along with his fellow members of the “trio de Ginés Carvajal” (Raúl, Salgado and Cañizares), who are believed to have stayed up late at night during the World Cup, vociferously criticising Aragonés’ tactics and the performance of team-mates.
The debate has now reached the point which Aragonés sought so dearly to avoid, with training sessions being disrupted by fans screaming Raúl’s name and testimony flooding in from all quarters (from Laudrup, and here from Espanyol’s Luis García, who is, bizarrely, one of the men keeping out the Real captain), describing the Real Madrid captain as a model professional, a player who, like Beckham, is a millionaire, has won almost everything, is idolised by millions, and yet remains humble and trains hard.
All of which makes one wonder whether Aragonés isn’t making a huge mistake allowing what is clearly a personal grudge (in some parts of the press, they are calling the strained relations between coach and player a “divorce”!) to obscure his judgement about one of his players.
It is something indeed when a player such as Soldado, who is behind Raúl in the pecking order at Real Madrid, has played more games for the national selection in the last year than his own club captain.
For my money, Aragonés has got things wrong and is being led by stubbornness (the same obstinacy shown by McClaren when delaying Beckham’s return to the England fold - readers note that I was always against Beckham’s exclusion, a bias which I am quite willing to admit).
In such a crucial game as is Spain’s tie against Denmark, it seems to me illogical to turn to Tamudo, a man who, although having scored regularly for Espanyol for over ten years (last season was not his best), has very little experience (just 9 matches) of the demands of international football.
Especially when a player with the calibre and the respect of González Blanco Raúl is available for selection.
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[…] Deb wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWhen the smarmy and ever-rictus-wearing Steve McClaren was handed the sticky reins of the England bandwagon, his first statement of intent was to drop one David Beckham from not only the team, but also from the squad altogether. … […]
It seems strange to me Raúl is tied with allegations he be a ‘nefarious influence in the dressing room’… the echoes I had of him in the Italian (or international) press were always of someone regarded as a model professional. Surely one does not become captain of Real Madrid and the Spanish national team by accident (he was captain of La Furia Roja at some point right?). And I can only agree with the general consensus: Raúl has picked up his game enough recently, to deserve a call back to the national team.
That whole Thierry Henry incident aside, I was never impressed by Aragonés’s coaching capabilities. With the huge boatload of technical talent they possess, I expected the playing style of the Spanish national team at the last Euro and World Cup to be something more. One has to wonder how the Spanish coach earned his nickname of The Wise Man of Hortaleza.
In the end, one can compare this situation with that of David Trezeguet and Raymond Domenech. Much to the liking of Aragonés and Spain, it’s such a shame to see a team as talented as France being coached by an absolute idiot.
Spain did start the last World Cup in flying form, and even dominated France for the first half. But Aragonés has never impressed me much to be honest, especially in the man-managing department.
You think domenech-trezeguet is a silly affair? I’ll give one even sillier, look at domenech-robert pires. Domench, who’s quite into astrology and all that never picks pires because he naturally distrusts scorpios(and pires in one). Plus Pires derided his over-defensivce tactics. All of which led to pires being left out of france’s world cup team……………
Raul has been playing better of late, but let’s keep this all in perspective - he’s playing better compared to his atrocious form of the past 4 seasons. He is not, however, playing better compared to the Raul of 1997-2002, nor is he playing better than his competition vis a vis Spanish national team striker. He is still a shadow of his former self and it’s only multiple seasons of mediocrity which provide the illusion that he is actually playing “well” now. He most definitely isn’t.
What Raul has is enormous caché, because he a) was the best spanish player for a very long period of time, b) was a young promise that came good as an adult professional and c) plays for Real Madrid. Because of the first two points, the third continues to be true, because had he been any other player in any other circumstances he’d have been shipped out long ago. The third point, means his fans and those keen to rush to his defense are legion.
As to Aragonés, what he’s done can be judged on its own terms without having to use it as a justification or an explanation for Raul’s absence. But he’s been coaching since most of us (myself included) were born, and I’d wager most people outside Spain didn’t even know much about him until the Henry affair - which was little more than a jingoistic smear campaign orchestrated by the English press in the buildup to the Spain-England friendly a few years ago.
I often disagree with Aragones’s decisiones, and he really should have left (as he said he would) after Spain’s disappointing World Cup exit in 2006. But on this decision, he is spot on. Raul does not deserve to play for the national team, as he does not deserve to play for Real Madrid, and by doing so he hurts both sides.
As for Aragonés… I’ve been aware of him since I was about ten, when he was coming to the end of his spell at Valencia and was about to join Betis. But I am fully aware of his record; at managerial level, he has had a series of superb successes (probably for me the highlight is taking Mallorca to 3rd, or rejuvenizing the Barcelona squad after Venables’ dismissal). So please don’t insinuate that all English fans only know about the Henry incident; with the throwaway reference to it, I was attempting to be humorous, and failing obviously. And the general reaction to the comment does not detract from the wrongness of what was said (and yes I am fully aware of the fact that the word “negro” is used much more often here in Spain than in England, and that it is not uncommon to refer to someone as being a “mierda”, but the conjunction of the two is telling at least on an unconscious level).
Actually I was writing in response more to comments made than to the article itself, I do not think however that Raul’s form has been better than Tamudo’s, I do think Tamudo deserves his chance (and, I can add with hindsight, took it very well), and as per Soldado, he was called up when he was in a magnificent run of form last season, but since he’s not been used at all by Madrid this season he hasn’t returned, so that comparison isn’t very fair.