The Grass isn’t always greener.. eh Ronnie?
The biggest party in club football is being held in the Santiago Bernabeu on May 22nd . The catch is Real Madrid aren’t invited! It became evident at the final whistle in Madrid last night that the only thing 250 million pounds gets you these days is another season of mediocrity. The new brand of so called “Galactico’s” arrived in the summer and the football world said “uh oh”. However throwing together some of the games biggest names and saying go play doesn’t work!
Maybe it does in Fifa but in reality all those big names and big ego’s will only lead to disaster. So it was quite pleasing to see a team like Lyon dispose of Real with quite some ease over two legs. They don’t have the arrogance or the high profile names but they are organized and play as a team which Madrid haven’t done for quite some time. Real are all too fond of talking about their fantastic history but it belongs really to another century. Since winning the tournament in 2002 when Zidane took our breath away with arguably the best goal the competition has ever seen their record in the competition is pretty pathetic.
Pjanic’s goal late in the game last night means that “Mighty” Real Madrid have failed to qualify for the Champions League quarter finals for the sixth straight season! So imagine the reaction of the world’s most expensive player when he stormed down the tunnel like a child throwing a tantrum to hear the club he thought had gone as far as they could go when he was there had shipped four without reply against AC Milan which made it seven in two games. And to see his old mate Wayne Rooney taking over the goal scoring responsibility since Ronaldo’s departure with relative ease.
One can only imagine that it left Cristiano feeling just a little jealous. He has openly admitted he misses playing for the reds and hasn’t ruled out a return in the future, but now maybe that door is firmly closed. United have done what they always have and adapted and got on with it when a player like Ronaldo has left and they don’t seem to be missing him one bit. Madrid will not be in next week’s quarter final draw and the “all knowing” Guillem Balaque has indicated that Pellegrini’s time as manager should come to an end. But what good will that do? And who in their right mind would want the Madrid job? A huge name in the game no doubt. A club with a fantastic history of course! A club being run by a nutter!? Definitely!
Who would want to work for Florentino Perez, the man who an hour after Real won La Liga in 2003 sacked Vicente Del Bosque? A man who will now go out in the summer and spend another shameful amount of money to build a new team. That’s the Madrid way always has been and in truth any success they achieve this way would be hollow. To some up I hope Ronnie caught the highlights of the United game last night and realises like so many ex reds have that anywhere you go after United is a step down. Madrid won’t be in the final on May 22nd , United might very well be!!
