Editorials

I was at London’s Heathrow airport when the news broke. I heard a fellow Madridista scream “What in the hell does he have to do?!?” I walked over to dude, had to find out what he was talking about. “Really, what in the hell does Fernando Morientes have to do to finally gets the credit he deserves?”, he continued. I didn’t know what he was talking about, then it rolled across the bottom of the 42-inch plasma screen outside the duty-free Sony store. Real Madrid sign Owen. £9m Yet another striker. Damn. I felt sick. Silence. Before I finally managed to compose myself and say; “This is worse than a Schwarzenegger joke, right?!“. Looks like Morientes’ Uefa Champions League Golden Boot for most goals scored in the competition and another Champions League final appearance weren’t enough, huh? But everyone from Raul to Del Bosque had your back. you know that, right? When journalists asked Raul right before the end of the season who he thought should be the MVP of European Football this season, without hesitation or pause, he said you. Adding: “For him to just elevate his talent and carry his team after being frozen out in the summer, and what people were saying about him, he’s responded tremendously”. Del Bosque quipped; “Morientes was the best player in the best competition (UCL) last season, and he deserves an awful lot of credit for that. There is no way Real Madrid should have loaned him out”. There is no more loyalty in this game, Fernando. It’s strictly business. Because deep down, everybody knows you were just as good as those two other established stars playing upfront for Real Madrid. Perez seemed to have forgotten that you averaging almost a goal every other game in the championship-winning team of 2000/01 opened a successful era for Real Madrid Football Club. He seemed to have forgotten that your goal in the 3-0 win against Valencia in the 2000 UEFA Champions League final secured Vincente Del Bosque’s team a place in History. The only thing harder than winning a European Cup is repeating that achievement within two years. Morientes was a huge part of that success, yet it seemed nothing he did would convince Perez that he was good enough to play for Real Madrid. Instead, the patron violently pursued his intense love for money and fame by bringing in- unecessarily- another galactico in brilliant but injury-plagued three-time World Football of the Year Ronaldo. Talk about a kick in the teeth. When Florentino Perez announced that Morientes would be loaned out to Monaco, it was the utter lack of disrespect that led to explosive volcanic eruptions. Lava and ash spurting in every direction. Euphemisms: Surplus to requirement. Substitute. Sad reality.

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El Presidente’s decision was greeted by jeers and anger from huge sections of Los Merengues’s fan base who were loyal to Morientes, appalled and angry that their hero was being shipped to the land of tax haven and casinos. We shared your pain. We knew. If FIFA had a lab where it created the modern forward, the prototype might very well be Moro. His blueprint would read something like this; Heart, grace, character, professionalism, loyalty and class. All the components that we should use to judge the modern footballer. Morientes, as they say, had the complete package. How else can you explain 78,000 souls chanting the name of a player who couldn’t get a game even if Raul missed 300 open goals and Ronaldo weighed about 300 pounds? How else can you explain thousands of others showing up early at the Las Rozas training complex, sometimes waiting up to two hours just to get a glimpse of their hero and hope for an autograph? You think they were waiting for Beckham? People just don’t know how much you were adored and appreciated by true Madridistas. So God knows what you must have been feeling when your Monaco side were pitted against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final stage last season. It must have been killing you inside, taking on the love of your life but at the same time trying to prove a point to the nemesis of your career. When Ronaldo collected that superbly-weighted diagonal pass from Zinedine Zidane to skip past the last man back and rifle a left-foot shot past Flavio Roma, the tie looked beyond reach. Yet you rallied your troops- Monaco didn’t just feed off your energy and hunger, they existed through it. Determined to satisfy your burning desire, you pulled back a stunning goal to silence the Bernabeu and give Deschamps’ men a ray of hope for the second leg. And then came the killer blow in the return match that proved to the World your true value. The header past Casillas in Southern France was as pure as Arctic ice, with a perfect blend of of motion and curl, there wasn’t a single solitary twitch in its smooth execution. It was almost as if it was a silky laser-guided missile that nestled into the net with nary a sound. And I saw that incredible celebration you put on. I saw the ring of ice fire in your eyes, Fernando. Years of frustration, hurt, anger, feeling of betrayal all let lose in one moment of pure fantasy. What did all this mean? Real Madrid were knocked out of the Champions League. £10m worth of revenue through marketing and television contracts washed down the drain thanks to the boy Perez said was not good enough to wear the shirt of Real Madrid. Payback just found its bitch.

Back in Madrid? Darkness. Cold darkness. Silence. Deafening silence, broken only by the echoing sounds of “We told you so, Perez!”. They were no longer singing your praises, they were being sang. Because when you doubt Fernando Morientes? He puts it in 5th gear and cuts through the lane. He’ll crash through everything, and if anybody stands in his way, they will get crushed. He loves being doubted. So everything that happened that summer was nothing but motivation, baby. And everything in life happens for a reason. It’s just that sometimes it is our duty to not go searching for it and find out.

Bottom line is, hold your head up. That’s all I really wanted to say. As a true Madridista looking in from the outside, I don’t think you really see how your life unfolds. How beautiful it honestly is, and how special it is about to become. After the unjustified loan to Monaco last season and how you came back from that; to not get pissed but take advantage of the situation to prove your point; to make Perez swallow his words, to have the kind of season you’ve just had, an MVP season; to do all that, and to still come up just short, to win the battle but not the European Cup, to prove your talent on the biggest stage of them all and still find yourself so far down the Real Madrid bench that you almost fell of it, all of this whilst you still knew you were good enough to be starting for the club of your heart…and you still came out fighting? Still determined? Still strong? Still you? You don’t need anything else to prove your worth. I recognize. Madridistas recognize. And some day in the near future (like this time next season) the World will recognize. Including Perez. Screw him. Because at the end of the day, you’ll always have somebody on hand to remind you of what you’ve accomplished, what you mean to us Madridistas and to the game of football in general, and what kind of human being you really are. And that someone, Fernando…is you. Don’t you ever forget that.

Thanks for the memories.

We will miss you.

by El Fenómeno.

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When Real Madrid, against practically all odds, defeated a then rampant Manchester United side at Old Trafford on a cold April night in 2000, one of the headlines next morning in one of the English boradsheets read : ' RAUL MADRID '. It was an exaggeration of sorts, since once could hardly overlook the heroics of Steve McManaman, Iker Casillas, and Fernando Redondo in that game. But it wasn't something anyone would argue. After all, Raul had scored two of the goals in the 3-2 victory, one of them a classic left-footer shot from the edge of the box that curled around his marker and nestled beyond the reach of Raimond van Der Gouw at the United goal. Going on from there, Real turned around a season that had mired in mediocrity for the first four months and went on to lift La Octava, the eighth European Cup in its history. Raul finished as the top-scorer in the competition. Next season, he scored highly in the competition again, but Real went out in the semis to bayern Munich. However, they won the league, with Raul finishing as the pichichi. At that point of time, many regarded him as arguably the best forward in the world. Here was a man who could do it all. He could score, he could create, he had the correct temperament coupled with loads of technique and the footballing brain of an Einstein. He was the complete package, and if ever there was a player whose destiny seemed written in big letters all over his game, it was Raul's : Break all existing goalscoring records for Real Madrid, Spain, and in European competition.

The next season, though, 2001/2002, we noticed a dip in the number of goals. Morientes finished as the club's top goalscorer, but Raul's value to the side was still apparent. He did not score as much, but his contribution to the team's buildups was there as ever. A goal in the Champions League final in Hampden Park capped off a solid, if not spectacular season. He was Real Madrid, and Real Madrid was still Raul Madrid. It was since the arrival of the Brazilian Ronaldo though, that things started to change. With the ball at his feet though, he was still playing some good football. Not wasting passes, not giving the ball away, and still scoring goals. But the smile on his face was visibly getting smaller, and the twinkle in his eyes was visibly fading. Ronaldo had come in and taken the place of Fernando Morientes, Raul's best pal. Being the loyal servant that he is however, Raul didn't let his personal likes and dislikes affect his performance when he put on the white shirt. His goal tally dropped to its lowest in five seasons, but it was understandable, since he was no longer the focal point of the team's attack.

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This season, for the first time in years, if anybody brought up the term Raul Madrid, it would really catch your ears. Something about it just won't sound right. You'd try to believe it, but you wouldn't. And the irony is, this is the season he was supposed to take over the mantle of the symbol of Madrid with a sense of finality to it, with Fernando Hierro's departure and his elevation to the captaincy. Apart from the fact that the goals have dried up, it has been his visible absence from games that has been most surprising to the Merengues this season. The tireless running, the fire in his eyes, the cheeky opportunism, all of the things that made Raul....well, Raul...has gone missing from his game. Some have blamed it on him getting less of the ball since the arrival of Ronaldo. Well, Ronaldo was here last season as well and Raul still managed to score at a rate of more than a goal every two games. And the fact that he gets less of the ball these days should not affect one of the hallmarks of his game, his off-the ball movement should it ? One recent incident from the game against Bayern Munich at the Bernabeu sticks in my mind. Madrid were leading 1-0, enough to go through, but still too close to call and we were approaching halfway point in the second half.Guti broke forward, found himself in the box, and his shot was parried away by Oliver Kahn towards the left of the box, where Guti again ran to retrieve it and played the ball across the box. The cross beat Kahn, and Raul, standing on the edge of the six-yard box, just seemed to let it go. In-fact, the moment Kahn had parried away Guti's first shot, Raul had given up on the play, and when Guti through his hard work played it back, Raul was not ready. He finally got off the mark, but by that time, the chance was gone. The old Raul would have been ready for that ball, and more importantly, not given up on that play till the ball went out of play. He would have been standing knees slightly bent, eyes staring with intensity, expecting Guti to show the determination he himself possesed. Resignation is a word you would never associate with the old Raul.

So what is wrong ? It is clear that the problem lies in his mind, rather than his feet. By all accounts, this has been a difficult season for the great man. He could not have been happy with the unceremonious exits of Vicente Del Bosque and Hierro, two people who have seen him develop ever since he was practically a kid. Morientes, after being benched last season, was off-loaded this season, and has never hidden his disgruntlement at the way he was treated. Almost all the guys Raul considered his 'gang', are gone. And to top it all off, he has been having problems with his marriage. It was every boy's dream to be in Raul's shoes a few years ago. Now, you can't quite be sure.

The worrying factor is whether it will get all too much for him. He is after all, not yet 27. Throughout his career, he has displayed a maturity beyond his years though. Is he burnt out ? Who knows ? The good thing is that he hasn't moaned yet publicly. That shows the man is still ready to fight to reclaim his spot. The steely character and determination he has displayed throughout his career should see him through this. Or at-least we can hope it will. Perhaps he needs a break of a week or two. Nobody has played as many games as him over the course of the last five seasons, and if he appeares a bit jaded, you cannot really blame him. But whataver the problem is, he knows all the Merengues all over the world will be backing him all the way to fulfill his destiny. Let us just hope the man himself has not lost the confidence to back himself.

So we're underway after what has been one of the most turbulent summers in our beloved club's history. One incident after another, many of them unsavory, left us in a state of virtual ' shock and awe ', to use the phrase of the year. Sensible fans will recognize that Real Madrid, despite how valuable the capture of David Beckham is portrayed as in the media, has entered this season weaker, and I daresay much weaker, than any other during Florentino Perez's tenure. At the very end of last season, the club lost two great servants in Fernando Hierro and Vicente Del Bosque. Whether their actions merited the treatment that was meted out to them is another discussion, but what cannot be denied is that, the failure to capture a defender over the summer makes Hierro's absence especially felt. And the circumstances under which they collectively left could not have helped the club's regal image one bit. Add to that the farcical handling of the Gabriel Milito 'non-transfer', as it became in the end. And to round off the summer, there was Makelelegate. All of the management's actions in their handling of each of these situations as they arose can be defended by anybody who cares to, but there are always two sides to a story, and unfortunately, the flip sides reflect very poorly on the powers that be inside the executive offices at the Bernabeu.

Perez's power trip is getting increasingly worrisome. That his relationship with many senior players at the club is strained cannot be denied. We are in a unique quandary. On the pitch, I do not see much chance of glory with the imbalance that runs through the team. And off-it, the tension between leading figures at the club can be felt like a splitting headache. Good news has become the exception, rather than the rule emanating from the club. Only one noteworthy performance in the first four games of the season has not helped matters. To be fair to Beckham, he has started in solid, if not spectacular fashion. But any football fan worth his salt will tell you that we look far from the favorites to win this year's Champions League, especially in light of how many of the other top teams in Europe have started. There are some things which are almost beyond doubt to me. No matter what people might think of him, we will miss Makelele like a broken heart misses her traitor over the course of this season. If Flavio was still on the books, I would have been more optimistic, because he had the traits, if not the confidence ( which could have developed with more responsibility ) to cover for the bullish Frenchman. Esteban Cambiasso is a highly promising player, who may well achieve greatness in his career, but he will not achieve greatness doing the job Makelele did for the club. El Cuchu, as the young Argentine is affectionately called, is more polished but less dirty, and what this club needs to add some balance to the midfield and cover for its impoverished defense is a dirty player. As far as the defense itself goes, it looks in one word, pitiful. I daresay it is the weakest defense amongst the top teams in Europe. In-fact, one should not require much courage to say it, because it is almost a truism that it seems Real Madrid have been trying very hard to establish for the last several years. This year, it looks worse than ever. Sandwiched between two full-backs going hell for leather is a guy whose natural position is in midfield, and youngster still trying to find his feet. They do not even complement each other in terms of their styles. Neither has any pace, neither is a stalwart at marking and neither can resist the temptation to lunge in on tackles. They are respectable in the air though, especially Ivan Helguera. But this season, as much as if note more so than previous seasons, opposition forwards will have field-days feeding on balls fed through to them on the ground by their playmakers. I shudder thinking of a player with a free rein like Pavel Nedved running amok in our half of the midfield, with no Makelele to stop him and delivering quality ball after quality ball to deadly strikers like David Trezeguet and Alessandro Del Piero. It has high possibilities of turning almost comical. Although not for us. And the cover for our two center-backs are hardly known outside the vicinities of our camp.

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On the bright side, this might be the season for some more players from the club's youth system to break through. In recent seasons, we have seen players like Portillo, Miñambres, Rubén, Bravo, Cambiasso, Pavon and Casillas make it into the first team for big games. Some, like Casillas have established themselves as stars of-course, and Portillo continues to impress everytime he pulls on the white shirt. Two new canteranos made it into the first squad this summer, Nuñez, who scored a goal in his very first game for Real Madrid to save us a point against Villarreal and Borja, who cold soon play at Makeleles position, which is big shoes to fill. This time, loud noises are being made about seven players from La Cantera who have been registered in the Champions League squad. Two names in particular, Jurado, apparently a clone of no less a player than Zinedine Zidane, and Trashorras, originally a product of Barcelona, are drawing a lot of attention. In recent years, most of our youngsters coming through who were given a big rap have been able to justify the hype surrounding them. Hopefully the new batch will deliver on their promise as well.

The departure of Fernando Morientes, inevitable as it was, was the loss of another great servant. Moro, at the time of his transfer from Zaragoza was the most hopeful talent Spain had, and over the last several seasons he spent here, he established himself as a predator of indubitable quality. I am sure all Madridistas wish him the best as he attempts to establish himself once again as a top-line striker who deserves to get as much playing time as possible.

In conclusion, I feel I echo the feelings of many Madridistas around the world when I say that I have been left very disappointed, almost disillusioned by the activities at our beloved club this summer. I hope for the best, of-course, but I feel it is imperative to add that despite all that Florentino Perez has done for Real Madrid, for which we all shall remain eternally grateful to him, it would be wonderful if someone could speak some compassion into him. On the surface, this is one of the most glorious periods in the club's history, but yet, many long-time servants of the club are not at their best states of mind, and that includes many fans as well. That alone is an ominous sign, the fact that people around the club are unhappy in spite of success on the field. The professionalism Perez has instilled at the club cannot be underestimated, but in the final analysis, we all love Real Madrid for matters of the heart. And it would be nice to know the club still has that same intangible heart we fell in love with as well.

I will make one thing clear from the start : I am tired of being proved wrong over and over again by Florentino Perez. Ever since he took over the presidency of our beloved club, we have been begging him to bring to the Bernabeu the one thing that has been missing ever since Fernando Hierro's legs started betraying his mind : A world class, consistent, central defender. For three seasons in a row, he defied us. First, he brought us Luis Figo, at the time perhaps the hottest footballer on the planet, fresh from his exploits in EURO 2000. Next season, he procured the services of the great Zinedine Zidane, one of the few active footballers in the world who is guaranteed a place in history's hall of fame. Last season, with the cries for a defender louder than ever, Perez went and bought Ronaldo, about whom much cannot be said that has not already been said. I never questioned the quality of these three players. All of them are proven top-notch performers, and there was never any doubt that they would play some sumptious football donning the royal white jersey. Many questioned Ronaldo's fitness levels and whether he was still the same player who set Spain on fire during his Barcelona days, but after a difficult start, he too has settled in very well and fired in important goals for Real, especially in the last few months.

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What bothered me was that these players were being bought with money that could have gone into buying the defender that we so badly needed. Badly needed ? All the signs say we need a defender. Even an armchair football fan can see that, let alone the experts. But we have ask ourselves, what more could Real have achieved with a defender that we have not achieved in the past three seasons under Perez ? In 2001, we won La Liga for the first time in 4 years, an eternity for a club like Real. In 2002, Zinedine Zidane sealed the ninth European Cup with a volley from heaven, and this season, we have regained the league crown losing only four games on the way. Do we expect a double of domestic and European glory every season ? As fans who bleed white, it is natural that we hope for it. But to expect it and act as if the apocalypse is nearing when it does not happen borders on irrationality. Basically, in this day and age, with the expansion of the Champions League to include many of the Toms, Dicks and Harrys of European football, it is very, very difficult for a team to achieve honours on both the domestic and European front. We should be satisfied, in-fact, happy if we can get our hands every season on any one of the two big ones, that is, La Liga and the Champions League. Juventus went close this season to becoming the first to win both, but ultimately failed. Bayern pulled it off in 2001, but the Bundesliga is almost a formality for the powerhouse club from Munich, as long as they are interested. Believe you me, it will take a very, very special team from Italy, England or Spain to win their domestic league title and follow it up with the Champions League, although once UEFA complete revising the format for their premier competition, it can become more achievable. In short, what I am saying is even though we may point out all sorts of logic to criticize Florentino Perez and his transfer policy over the years, we have to take our hat off to him and admit that he has been vindicated every year.

And now, with only three defenders on our books ( an unproven youngster, a legend on the last of his last legs and a non-specialist whose best position is in the midfield ) , it seems Perez is going to ignore our cries once again and bought the man who has become the face of modern day, commercial football: David Beckham. And to be honest, he was a much easier buy than the previous three. Manchester United were willing to sell, and Beckham did not have to worry about vilification from his previous club like Figo had to with Barcelona and Ronaldo had to with Inter, and when those two things are in place, who would turn down an opportunity to play for Real Madrid ? It was almost predictable. The question is, is a superstar again being bought at the expense of a defender ? If Perez gets us Beckham AND a defender, I have no problems with the transfer at all, the reasons for which I shall explain later. But if Beckham is the only new player to wear white next season, you cannot help but feel frustrated. I do not even have the strength to protest anymore, because we do so every season and then the team goes on and lifts a major trophy and shuts us up. Next season though, the signs are very, very serious. Hierro is an absolute goner. He has lost everything and it hurts to talk about a legend like this, but his wife could probably do better to redeem the family name. Pavon is not yet ready to start regularly for a club with so much expectation, and Helguera can never fill the role of a center half in an in-line defence with great distinction. You know the situation is scary when you begin wishing at-least Ivan Campo was on the bench, and some situations like that did come about when one of the defenders got injured, but he is up north in England. Now, we do not know yet if Perez set his sights on Beckham at the expense of a defender, or if he has targeted Beckham along with a defender. Since we do not know that yet, I will just focus on whether Beckham can be successful in Madrid, and how the club can fit him in.

For years, many have said Beckham is destined to play in the middle to realize his potential, as opposed to out on the wing where Alex Ferguson plays him. He has played in a central role for England on some occasions, and most of the time has looked good. The England captain's magical right foot conjures up images of him as a classy, elegant footballer, which he is, but many people sometimes overlook the fact that he is also a tough, gritty customer, not afraid to get stuck in hard. His work rate also is excellent. If he is to play in the middle of the Bernabeu, these qualities in him are absolutely vital. Ideally, Real should play two defensive midfielders, but recently we have seen Guti playing alongside the indispensable Makelele there. Guti has played as a defensive midfielder before, but he is less a hard man and more a defensive playmaker, which is the complete opposite of Makelele. Beckham playing in Guti's position would distribute the ball better, create more chances for the strikers and even more importantly, I think he would do a better defensive job than Guti. It would require some sacrifice on his part, since he would like to move forward as much as possible, but if the coach can convince him to play in a deeper position, I have no doubt our midfield will be more compact than it is when Guti plays alongside Makelele. Mind you, I am not saying that Beckham is a better player than Guti. That would be stating the obvious. Ruud van Nistelrooy is a better player than Guti, but he would not be able to do half the job Guti can in his position. David Beckham is a better player than Guti, and would also do a better job replacing Guti in his position. The only negative point I see is how long Beckham takes to get used to the short, quick five-yard passing system that our team plays so well, and which Guti does very well. If Luis Figo leaves of-course, as some have suggested, Beckham will take his place on the right wing. On this point, it is harder to compare. Figo is the classical, complete winger, a master at dribbling to the goal line and cutting the ball back, leaving a full back for dead and getting a quick cross in, or dropping the shoulder and cutting inside. Beckham is different. You will not see him beat too many defenders with his pace or dribbling past them, but somehow, he always makes some space to cross, and with his accuracy can probably hit Raul's wedding ring if he wanted to.

The downside to all this of-course is that in some ways, we are selling the soul of the club. No matter how much of an improvement Beckham would be over Guti, it is undeniable that the biggest reason Perez purchased Beckham has more to do with money than football. As a team, the only thing we need to be the best is a defender. As a brand however, to be the biggest, we need Beckham. This pursuit of being the most popular club in the world, rather than being the best team in the world, goes directly against all the romance associated with being a fan of the club. But if the team keeps winning the big trophies, while at the same time becoming more and more popular, we cannot really complain, except perhaps at the treatment of long time servants like Guti, who will probably find himself leaving Madrid this summer when Beckham arrives and if Figo also stays. Football is like that these days though. There is no place for emotion and romance. The competition is cut-throat, and the balance sheet is as important a document as the scorebook. If it makes us feel any better, we can all be naïve and comfort ourselves with Perez's high-handed statements about how a club like Real Madrid deserves the best players in the world to be playing for it, and David Beckham is one of the best. But for fans who eat, sleep, drink and breathe the royal name, being naïve is easier said than done.
Shayan Khan

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