Politics, Money and Football in one sentence???

Just when it looked like Calderon and gang knew how they were running the White house, things have changed. Controversy after another and the President was forced to resign his post. Second in command Vicente Boluda has taken charge till summer which will mean that there will be elections then. Former President and Galactico creator Florontino Perez is who the press is already talking about with the possibility of Zidane coming in to a Sporting Director's role. Now as much as this seems to be a movie story line, this is what the press has put together from separate incidents that happened over the last year. In my opinion this is the primary negative in a Board controlled PLC like Real Madrid. There is bound to be a lot of politics and people go to any extend to achieve their goals. While promising to sign some of the world's best players may seem to be the only main strategy of Presidential candidates, the whole election process is not sans controversy. Mail in votes and now non members approving the Madrid budget?

When the mess in running the club was on, the players were back and was ready to face bottom place Osasuna at the Bernabeu on Sunday. As i have written earlier, it is conviction of what he is doing that sets Juande Ramos apart. He is not doing a whole lot different. Of course he has a lot of players back from injury but even then his man management skills have to be given special mention. Osasuna as they showed last week against Barca is no walk over and they showed exactly that when they went ahead first. Madrid rallied back and won the game 3-1, a scoreline which is more glorified as it was a struggle in totality. A few things that i have noticed that Juande Ramos has done to his formation is that, for one he plays both Gago and Lass together in midfield. I know Guti was injured but i guess he is back to full fitness. In a way Gago and Lass seem to be performing well together. Instead of a Diarra and Guti combination, the two midfielders in a central role seem to be giving Madrid more stability. The only problem yesterday was that Lass was not the best compared to the standard he set in his previous two matches. While he was holding the ball well, he was being too slow in counter attack and was running out of ideas in distribution. Second off Juande Ramos has made it clear with the formation that Robben is to play a role similar to Messi. Robben is a player who is going to dribble and wind his way around defenders and take a shot at goal. He is not a left winger who is going to put in telling crosses into the penalty box. Since Ramos has taken charge Robben is playing on the right side of midfield and is scoring a lot of goals. Ramos also has his best backline now at his disposal and that has contributed to the clean sheets that Madrid are able to maintain.
The match was not without a new set of controversy. This time it was with the refereeing and i think people who complain have a point. Now i have seen this guy referee a lot of Madrid games which is a little weird, and former Madrid player at Osasuna Juanfran would have some complaints. First there was this tackle from Gago inside the penalty box from the side, which looked a little 50-50. First look at normal speed i called penalty here, but then when you look at the replay and think that Gago missed the ball and Juanfran with his original tackle and the ball would not have been recovered by Juanfran and the protests on the dive was enough for the Referee to be convinced to dish out the yellow card to the bewildered youngster. Towards the end of the game, one-one with Pepe, Juanfran was brought down, again a first look "penalty" i shouted and the referee did blow, but the assistant referee suggested that it was a dive and Juanfran was give the marching orders.


There is still a 12 point difference between leaders Barca and Real Madrid, and if anyone is hopeful that Barca will slip up they should have seen their demolition of Deportivo on Saturday. Now Madrid are doing the right thing which is to do their part and that is to keep winning.

When we speak of politics that is ruining clubs like Madrid it is Money and a hell lot of Money thats in the news. Man City reportedly bid a world record of over 110M for Brazilian superstar Kaka and press in Italy and England were convinced that Milan could not resist the lure. Sure Milan could do really well with the money to re-build an aging team. But if Dubai money and a trillion of that thinks that a Kaka or a Robinho can change anything, then he should look at the Premiership table. Granted Man City have a decent young talent pool including the like of Micah Richards and have bought Shawn Wright Phillips back, but to think that the former World Player of the year would leave one of the best clubs in the world to a wannabe club with a lot of Money is just preposterous. Oh really? As Robinho.


I have read that Kaka is from a good background back in Brazil and that is why the decision came today from the Brazilian superstar that he never even for 30 seconds thought about leaving Milan and that he would have been disappointed if Milan had accepted the offer. Now i believe there was a whole lot of pressure on Milan not to accept the bid from the public. No offense to Man City but i don't think Kaka would want to join them for the big money when he has declined offers from Real Madrid.

I can imagine the outburst by a lot of fans and the public alike that when the whole world goes through a financial crisis, spending over 275M in transfer fees and player wage is how should i put it? CRIMINAL! Kaka maybe the golden boy of football, but i thought that was only an expression, did folks in Dubai take that for real?

Glass man on target for rejuvenated Madrid

Juande Ramos took the reins of Madrid with a week to go for El Classico. Though he tasted victory in the first match in charge against Zenit, the heartbreaking El Classico loss was no consolation. But the way i look at it there were a lot of positives out of the the match. This definitely translated the following week when they played Valencia. Wesley Sneijder's superb strike made sure that Real went into the Christmas break on a high. The two weeks break would also see Madrid get some replacements to their shrinking roster. Huntelaar would be the one to get the goals for Madrid and it would be Lassana Diarra signed from Portsmouth who will be the cover for the injured name sake.

Controversy has already kicked off with regards to the Madrid Sporting division headed by Mijatovic making a mistake in dishing out almost 40M on two players who have both played in UEFA cup competitions with their respective clubs. UEFA Champions league clause would mean that only one of the two can play for Madrid post January in the Champions League. After yesterday's match against Villareal i know for sure that Ramos would be a fool not to pick Lass. It is not that Huntelaar made a bad start yesterday, but i think Madrid don't have an issue in scoring goals with Raul, Higuain and Saviola and it is the defensive midfielder position that does not have cover other than the young Gago.

With Higuain out for a week with tonsillitis, it was sure that new signing Huntelaar who is fully recovered from the ankle injury would get to step on the Bernabeu in front of his new fans. He played well for the time he was on the pitch. The Dutchman used his size well and held the ball up well, and could have capped off his debut with a goal when he controlled the ball well but his shot was superbly saved by Diego Lopez. Juande Ramos had his first line defense back, with Heinze finally off the injury list, Pepe and Cannavaro in the center and Ramos at RB. As is the case with the match against Valencia Robben was to start on the right wing and Sneijder on the left side. The difference in the center was that Juande Ramos did not put the entire responsibility on either Gago or Lass. Instead he lined up both of them side by side and had Raul and Huntelaar up front. This move actually worked well for the Madrid midfield as Gago and Lass were just breaking up each and every move.


The first half saw some superb slick passing from Madrid and it was clear who everyone was looking for to pass to and yes it was one of the games that Robben was unstoppable. He was creating too much of trouble for the Villareal defense. Sneijder was also getting into some good positions but was not able to get a good shot off. I was really impressed with the way Gago and Lass played together, and if Madrid forwards could take their chances it would have been an almost perfect match. Seeing Lass play, i am not sure he can exist on his own as the defensive midfielder, because he looks almost a prototype of Gago. He is extremely quick, not that great in the air, but has a good range of passing and ball recovery is also good. It will be interesting to see if Juande Ramos will indeed give him the sole responsibility in that role and add Guti or another play maker to the midfield.

Juande Ramos has a specific plan in place and i think Madrid would buy a winger this January, and i am pretty positive that it will be a left sided midfielder. There is a conscious move to play Robben on the right and he seems to be enjoying the responsibility. The only problem in playing a left footed player on the right is that, his attacking moves become predictable and he has to cut inside in order to get a shot away or a cross. It was evident for the Villareal that Robben would have to cut inside and bring the ball on to his preferred left foot before he attempts anything. With Madrid seemingly struggling to convert or create any final chances it was Robben's predictability that finally paid off. He dribbled past the wing back and then cut inside past one center back and past another sliding in defender and finally placed a stunning shot past Diego Lopez who did not stand a chance. As the flying Dutchman later said it was his best goal in the Madrid shirt.


It was a nerve end to the match for Madrid and Juande Ramos as Villareal came at them with everything they have. It was some good defending from Madrid and the brilliance of Casillas that saved the night. Royston Drenthe made a substitute appearance and again showed positive signs of how far he has come as a player. Cannavaro was superb against Valencia and he was good in the first half of the match, but his marking was suspect in the second period. Pepe on his return was extra ordinary till the end when he made a comical clearance. Sergio Ramos showed signs of what he was becoming famous for. He never looked foolish and ably supported Robben in attack on the right wing. Heinze for a change was solid did not make any mistakes with his usual stupid hustles. Nihat and Rossi were completely kept in check by Pepe and Cannavaro, and Gago and Lass kept Cazorla under control. A few more weeks in Lass and Huntelaar are bound to gain more match fitness and with Higuain expected back next week, Juande Ramos has more players to try out.

There is definitely discipline and organization that has come in to the Madrid play, but they surely need to get some one take up the goal scoring responsibility. Higuain seems to be the most likely candidate having already scores 11 goals in the league. Barca maintained their 12 point lead on Madrid after their hard fought match against Mallorca and Valencia won against Atletico, this mean that Madrid's victory put them one point below Valencia on third, but for all practicality there is no catching up to Barca. With almost two months to go for the Liverpool game, i think this should be the ideal season for the players and the coach to focus on getting past the first knock out stage jinx.