Comments on: What is happening to Real Madrid?

By: Madridfan

Madridfan — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:39:32 +0000

I fear that the brand has grown to be so profitable worldwide that winning football has become a secondary priority in Madrid. Landing players like Beckham or C. Ronaldo results in a kind of guaranteed success that has nothing to do with results on the pitch. As a Madrid fan, I do hope I’m wrong.

I do however think that Tevez or Ribery are can’t-miss.

By: naidu

naidu — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:34:00 +0000

good article and neutral, madrid should try to get m.essien, d.santon, and fast central defenders… plus young winger and forget bout ronaldo…

By: Ruud van Nistelrooy

Ruud van Nistelrooy — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:41:18 +0000

The problem is that in football you can only truly rebuild a club from the bottom up, but the people at the top of Real Madrid have this mentality that is preventing progress.

By: realrock

realrock — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:10:30 +0000

we are suffering the aftereffects of having the worst administrative team ever at the helm. calderon and mijatovic along with the other idiots like portugal. perez returning would be good not only because he might have learnt his lessons but also because the team he is promising to bring onboard.

apart from the squad overhaul, we need a complete overhaul of the boardroom too. a new sporting director(monchi,hopefully) and jorge valdano as the administrator are just the starting points. hierro and zidane are tipped for returning too.

if barca win the cl, i think a cycle of la liga dominance might begin. madrid are definitely undergoing a massive rebuilding effort this summer. the new teams will be interesting to see, at the very least.

By: BD Condell

BD Condell — Thu, 07 May 2009 07:39:23 +0000

The problem is politics & structure at the club. As long as this ridiculous, revolving Presidency is in place you’ll get nothing but pompous asses making silly promises in order to get voted in. This keeps the whole galacticos concept going as, invariably, Real are linked with all the big names because of this.

The presedential revolving door is only oudone by the manager revolving door which, quite frankly, is counter-productive. There is no continuity. If you don’t win the League/CL every season you’re out. Why any top manager would touch the job is beyond me.

The fall-out from this structure is that the club are more and more tarnishing their image and at times look like a laughing stock e.g. Calderon and the Ronaldo saga.

I can’t believe that genuine Real fans are happy with all of this. A once great club has been showing little class of late.

By: Ruud van Nistelrooy

Ruud van Nistelrooy — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:34:32 +0000

And hey, why not get more French and Dutch youngsters and develop their skill?

By: Ruud van Nistelrooy

Ruud van Nistelrooy — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:33:11 +0000

Real Madrid just needs a better scouting and youth program. The ones right now are practically inexistent. That is why they keep buying other teams’ players and haven’t had any good youth products since Casillas. Build a stronger youth academy to match those under clubs like Atletico Madrid, Barca, Valencia, Sevilla, and Bilbao to name a few. Then send out better scouts to Brazil and Argentina to find more players like Marcelo, Higuain, Gago, or even a Robinho or two that we can profit off. Then raid Eastern Europe for young players like the big Premier League clubs are doing. This sounds racist, but if you focus on scouting in these two areas, you won’t need to spend the resources required to scout places like Africa and Asia. It’s so simple, but with the current Real Madrid mentality it will not happen.

By: Fateh Singh

Fateh Singh — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:24:06 +0000

Heinze has been playing terribly.They need to find good defenders.I think someone like Zapata of Udinese or Heiko Westerman or Albiol would be ideal,a speedy patner to the physically dominant pepe.
I like Marcelo,i just feel (an opinion that the Real Madrid guy on the offside.com has since expressed) that maybe they would be better off playing him higher up the pitch,his pace and tricks would be better of there.
Buy another winger…then play a normal 4-4-2.
KEEP SJNIEDER! The guy is an awesome player,he’s just had a bad season.Play him in the centre,and between him and Guti in the centre they should be good enough to provide the spark in midfield with Lassana DIarra protecting the back four.
I think with Robben,Marcelo and enough width will be provided,and with RVN,Raul,Higuain, and Huntelaar,they have a forward line which most coaches would love to have

By: dave stopher

dave stopher — Wed, 06 May 2009 10:17:58 +0000

I think Real Madrid are not going to get Ronaldo playing like that.

By: ish

ish — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:20:10 +0000

to fix madrid get 2 excellent centrebacks and 1 leftback.
Lets say carvalho, albiol and garay back from racing. The leftback can be young preferably left-footed centre back with a slight amount of pace some1 like marcano from racing.
Next get a dedicated right winger who can also play on the left, honestly c.ronaldo would be perfect but ribery would also work. After that the midfield should be m.diarra as a true DM, l.diarra as a more attacking DM/CM and sneijder as the central attacking CM. Use robben and higuain as your main strikers and thats an amazing team. To fund it get rid of drenthe, cannavaro, metzelder, VDV, guti, huntelaar, RDV.
Gago, de la red, torres, raul, pepe would be the main subs. Since many players can play in a variety of positions alot of different formations can be put out.