Real Madrid C.F. 2008/09

I always supported Madrid because all the cuntish ajax jews were at Barca! And perhaps a bit of Franco. But a Madrid team with Midget, Fatty and Rabbit is sadly not my cup of tea.

Yef wrote:I always supported Madrid because all the cuntish ajax jews were at Barca! And perhaps a bit of Franco. But a Madrid team with Midget, Fatty and Rabbit is sadly not my cup of tea.

We still have Royston though!

COMUNICADO OFICIAL

El Real Madrid y el RCD Mallorca llegan a un acuerdo para el traspaso de Juanmi Callejón

Realmadrid.com

El Real Madrid C.F ha llegado a un acuerdo con el RCD Mallorca para el traspaso del jugador del Castilla Juanmi Callejón al club balear. Como es habitual en estos casos, el Real Madrid se guarda una opción de derecho de tanteo sobre el jugador y un porcentaje de ganancias sobre una futura venta. El Real Madrid quiere agradecer al jugador los servicios prestados durante estos años y le desea lo mejor en su nueva aventura como profesional.

One of Real Madrid’s biggest and fiercest detractors, Javier Clemente has taken another opportunity to blasts the club and in typical Clemente fashion, he did not hold back, even laying into the Madrid-based press.

Javier Clemente’s relationship with Los Merengues have always been tempestuous and it is about to get a whole lot worse. The 58 year old Basque has never been shy of verbally attacking the Spanish champions and the club, particularly the fans, have never hesitated to return the favour.

And in light of Madrid’s recent questionable conduct in the transfer market, a new door has opened for the former Athletic Bilbao striker to take another swipe at Los Blancos through El Mundo Deportivo.

“Real Madrid are untouchable? Ofcourse they are touchable,” Clemente spat. “When? When they do things badly, when they are ill-mannered, when they do not treat people right or when they don’t do well on the pitch,” he added.

His remarks are certain to rile up the Bernabéu faithful again, who already have a strong distaste for the current Real Murcia trainer.

Down the years, the Barakaldo-born coach has had to cop a barrage of vicious insults everytime he visited the blancos cauldron and there was even an incident where he was threatened by a Madrid fan at knife-point when he attended an homage for the late Juanito.

But the 58 year old realizes that this repulsive behaviour comes only from a small section of the followers, although he did not refrain from having a dig at the Madrid-based press.

“The journalists who follow Real Madrid blindly only do so because they want the president to give them a badge, but they should know that the Real Madrid badge only costs seven pesetas,” he sniped.

Clemente finally explained that the relationship between the capital giants and himself started going south when he was the coach of La Selección. His decision to choose a young and emerging Luis Enrique as an established first team player and leave local Madrid hero Míchel as a substitute has never gone down well and the bad blood has spiralled out of control ever since.

Schuster convoca a Baptista para Frankfurt

Julio Baptista sigue siendo jugador del Real Madrid y Schuster sigue contando con él como uno más de la plantilla, al margen de las negociaciones con el Roma italiano, que no alcanza un acuerdo definitivo con el jugador.

El técnico del Real Madrid convocó a todos sus jugadores disponibles para viajar a Alemania, entre los que se encuentra Baptista, para disputar el último encuentro amistoso antes del partido de ida de la Supercopa de España en Mestalla ante el Valencia.

Salvo Fabio Cannavaro que sigue recuperándose de su tobillo y el lesionado Wesley Sneijder, más Marcelo, Royston Drenthe y Fernando Gago en los Juegos Olímpicos, Schuster ha citado a toda su plantilla con Rafael Van der Vaart como principal atracción junto al regreso de los internacionales.

En Fráncfort disputarán sus primeros minutos los madridistas finalistas de la Eurocopa, Iker Casillas, Christoph Metzelder y Sergio Ramos, más Rubén De la Red que ya jugó el final del partido ante el Arsenal.

Los jugadores convocados están citados a las 16.15 horas en la ciudad deportiva de Valdebebas, desde donde se dirigirán en el autobús del equipo al aeropuerto de Barajas para volar desde las 17.00 horas a Fráncfort.

http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/schuster-convoca-baptista-frankfurt/dasftb/20080811dasdasftb_12/Tes

He is supposed to be going to Roma!!!!

I'd laugh if he picked up an injury, and as a result his transfer falls through.

The situation with Baptista is quite strange. Supposedly he's had one foot out of Madrid for the past 2 weeks yet Schuster keeps starting him in most friendlies we play.

TM wrote:I'd laugh if he picked up an injury, and as a result his transfer falls through.

I wouldn't.

Torrente wrote:The situation with Baptista is quite strange. Supposedly he's had one foot out of Madrid for the past 2 weeks yet Schuster keeps starting him in most friendlies we play.

He's sending a message to El Gomina.

Jaime wrote:Schuster convoca a Baptista para Frankfurt

Julio Baptista sigue siendo jugador del Real Madrid y Schuster sigue contando con él como uno más de la plantilla, al margen de las negociaciones con el Roma italiano, que no alcanza un acuerdo definitivo con el jugador.

El técnico del Real Madrid convocó a todos sus jugadores disponibles para viajar a Alemania, entre los que se encuentra Baptista, para disputar el último encuentro amistoso antes del partido de ida de la Supercopa de España en Mestalla ante el Valencia.

Salvo Fabio Cannavaro que sigue recuperándose de su tobillo y el lesionado Wesley Sneijder, más Marcelo, Royston Drenthe y Fernando Gago en los Juegos Olímpicos, Schuster ha citado a toda su plantilla con Rafael Van der Vaart como principal atracción junto al regreso de los internacionales.

En Fráncfort disputarán sus primeros minutos los madridistas finalistas de la Eurocopa, Iker Casillas, Christoph Metzelder y Sergio Ramos, más Rubén De la Red que ya jugó el final del partido ante el Arsenal.

Los jugadores convocados están citados a las 16.15 horas en la ciudad deportiva de Valdebebas, desde donde se dirigirán en el autobús del equipo al aeropuerto de Barajas para volar desde las 17.00 horas a Fráncfort.

http://www.as.com/futbol/articulo/schuster-convoca-baptista-frankfurt/dasftb/20080811dasdasftb_12/Tes

He is supposed to be going to Roma!!!!

There is a god!

Torrente wrote:The situation with Baptista is quite strange. Supposedly he's had one foot out of Madrid for the past 2 weeks yet Schuster keeps starting him in most friendlies we play.

With VDV we certainly don't need him in midfield...I wonder if Schuster doesn't want to let him go until we sign another forward?

Jaime wrote:

Torrente wrote:The situation with Baptista is quite strange. Supposedly he's had one foot out of Madrid for the past 2 weeks yet Schuster keeps starting him in most friendlies we play.

With VDV we certainly don't need him in midfield...I wonder if Schuster doesn't want to let him go until we sign another forward?

Exactly, but Baptista is pointless, no need fo him in the squad with or without another striker, also his first touch is just disgusting, my first touch is better.........seriously

So the club has moved on from collecting Brazilians, we had five 2 years ago now its 5 dutch players. Baptista will be gone soon(i hope) it will leave only Marcelo and Robinho(though if Marca and AS have thier way he will be gone soon as well, they have been on a campaign to rid of him and demonise him in favour of the C.Ronaldo pipe dream). On the Robinho subject i saw one article in AS where they had done a poll to see if fans wanted him to stay or not, the vast majority wanted him to stay and this guy actually done an article giving reasons why he should leave trying to change the fans minds.

Jaime wrote:

Torrente wrote:The situation with Baptista is quite strange. Supposedly he's had one foot out of Madrid for the past 2 weeks yet Schuster keeps starting him in most friendlies we play.

With VDV we certainly don't need him in midfield...I wonder if Schuster doesn't want to let him go until we sign another forward?

He's simply putting him in the shopping window

Jaime wrote:

Torrente wrote:The situation with Baptista is quite strange. Supposedly he's had one foot out of Madrid for the past 2 weeks yet Schuster keeps starting him in most friendlies we play.

With VDV we certainly don't need him in midfield...I wonder if Schuster doesn't want to let him go until we sign another forward?

1) Baptista is still a Madrid player (no official notice to say otherwise) and cost nothing if he plays in friendly or not.
2) Baptista is less likely to get unjured than others, especially the likes of the crystal toss-pot Robben, thus giving some mitues to Baptista will reduce the risk of injury to others in a meaningless friendly.
3) The deal with Roma is still far from over and the club want somehow up the value.
4) Schuster may play Baptista in forward role, which may have been sugested by Mijatovic who does not have any lucrative deal want to sign another player this year.

Jaime wrote:

Yef wrote:If that rabbit comes as well Im gonna buy a Barca shirt!

No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why not? That's probably what Schuster wants.

Cristiano_Robinho wrote:

Jaime wrote:

Torrente wrote:The situation with Baptista is quite strange. Supposedly he's had one foot out of Madrid for the past 2 weeks yet Schuster keeps starting him in most friendlies we play.

With VDV we certainly don't need him in midfield...I wonder if Schuster doesn't want to let him go until we sign another forward?

Exactly, but Baptista is pointless, no need fo him in the squad with or without another striker, also his first touch is just disgusting, my first touch is better.........seriously

So the club has moved on from collecting Brazilians, we had five 2 years ago now its 5 dutch players. Baptista will be gone soon(i hope) it will leave only Marcelo and Robinho(though if Marca and AS have thier way he will be gone soon as well, they have been on a campaign to rid of him and demonise him in favour of the C.Ronaldo pipe dream). On the Robinho subject i saw one article in AS where they had done a poll to see if fans wanted him to stay or not, the vast majority wanted him to stay and this guy actually done an article giving reasons why he should leave trying to change the fans minds.

"Robinho should go because he was signed by Perez", is what Calderon is thinking...

Schuster no lo pide, pero se lo traerán

Pedro P. San Martín | 11/08/2008

Por un millón de euros más, Garay vestiría de blanco en cuestión de horas. ¿Ejecutará el Madrid la cláusula? Pues realmente no hay unidad de criterio en el Bernabéu. Mijatovic no lo ve urgente, Schuster no se pronuncia y Calderón sí estaría encantado con reforzar la plantilla con Garay. Naturalmente, el presidente prefiere 'amarrar'. Es una cuestión de "cuanto más poderosos seamos, más cerca tendremos los éxitos". Calderón entiende que la temporada es larga y lo mismo allá por febrero el Madrid se ve en Champions huérfano de centrales.

Si se evalúa, el panorama resulta confuso: no es fácil saber cuándo Cannavaro volverá a los campos a tope y cuántas tarjetas rojas va a coleccionar... Metzelder juega con dolores permanentes... Pepe es hipocondriaco con sus lesiones... Javi García es medio... Ramos es lateral... Siempre quedará Heinze. ¿Pero es suficiente? Garay suena a música celestial para esta defensa tan castigada y, por lo demás, ya está pagado. No habría otra razón para esperar más que una cortesía con el Racing. Tras el chasco de Cristiano, Garay es 'ahora' un fichaje fresco. A Schuster le incitarán a que acepte traerlo. Ya lo verán.

***************************

Agree, the defence worries me so hopefully Garay will be joining up.

CONVOCATORIA

Porteros: Casillas, Dudek y Codina
Defensas: Salgado, Heinze, Torres, Pepe, Ramos y Metzelder
Centrocampistas: Diarra, Guti, Baptista, Robinho, Robben, Van der Vaart, Javi García y De la Red
Delanteros: Raúl, Van Nistelrooy, Saviola y Higuaín

No convocados: Cannavaro y Sneijder (lesionados), Gago, Drenthe, y Marcelo (JJ.OO.)

So we have 26 players currently (27 if you count Garay). So there are still two that can't be inscribed with the LFP for league competition.

I cant believe we havent bought Dudek back! That would have been such a typical Feyenoord transfer.

Fey...?

Whats with the sig?

Whats wrong with it? You dont like it?

Fey wrote:I cant believe we havent bought Dudek back! That would have been such a typical Feyenoord transfer.

You are more than welcome to have him!

Fey wrote:I cant believe we havent bought Dudek back! That would have been such a typical Feyenoord transfer.

Apparently he's too young for you lot

Ferguson would sell Ronaldo to Barça for half the price that Madrid were willing to offer

http://www.marca.com/edicion/marca/futbol/1a_division/real_madrid/es/desarrollo/1154925.html

kas wrote:Ferguson would sell Ronaldo to Barça for half the price that Madrid were willing to offer

http://www.marca.com/edicion/marca/futbol/1a_division/real_madrid/es/desarrollo/1154925.html

Good, you can have him!

elbecko wrote:

kas wrote:Ferguson would sell Ronaldo to Barça for half the price that Madrid were willing to offer

http://www.marca.com/edicion/marca/futbol/1a_division/real_madrid/es/desarrollo/1154925.html

Good, you can have him!

No thanks...good thing he only wants to go to Madrid

Van Der Vaart - A Better Signing Than Ronaldo?

Real Madrid completed their first true signing of the summer yesterday by landing not Cristiano Ronaldo, but rather Rafael van der Vaart.

Indeed, Ronaldo-mania has taken something of a back seat in recent days, with even the ever-excitable Madrid president Ramón Calderón proclaiming that the Dutchman might well be the only new arrival before the end of August.

In other words, prepare for a Ronaldo-less season at Madrid, contrary to the hype and counter to the blancos' hopes. But one can't help but wonder if, in a way, they might have got themselves a better deal in landing Rafa.

Better Or Best?

First of all, though, there needs to be a mention of who is actually 'better'. It's always tough to compare players whose positions and roles don't precisely match up, but nonetheless we can attempt to do so.

Let's start by looking at what they have in common: both are, in simple terms, attacking midfielders; both get on the scoresheet with something approaching regularity; both have taken on leadership roles (after a fashion) for their respective club sides; both are young; and both are prominent on the international scene. In these ways they can be rightly compared.

In short, if you weigh up these factors then Ronaldo is superior. His goalscoring record would be phenonemal for an out-and-out striker; that he managed such a 40+ despite playing wide last season was only just short of miraculous. Van der Vaart's 20-odd Bundesliga goals in the past three seasons, while respectable, pale in comparison. Even in terms of set-pieces - a Rafa specialty - Ronaldo is perhaps even superior.

In terms of dictating play, Ronaldo may also have the edge. From his wide position he can either play the killer pass or, even more often, cut inside and use his blistering pace to fox full-backs and central defenders. Van der Vaart, too, can breach the back line, but he is not quite so adept in doing so; his through ball ability and ability to hit with both feet (yes, although it is his left that is famous, he is ambidextrous) are impressive, but insofar as they are compared to Ronaldo's he falls inches short, although his tendency to play more centrally means that he's no stranger to seeing plenty of the ball.

Ronaldo has been criticised for his form with Portugal, and all but the most die-hard fan would have to admit that his detractors are onto something. Try as he might, he can't quite replicate the world-class aura he has with United in the red-and-green of his country, whereas Rafa has arguably had some of his finest ever performances for the Oranje. However, for the sake of this debate this is quite irrelevant: Ronaldo is signing for a club, not a country, and at the absolute pinnacle of the club game he has proved his worth time after time. Van der Vaart, playing at second-tier clubs for his whole career, has yet to do so.

In other words, it would take a brave person to argue that Madrid have landed a better player on paper, for Ronaldo is not only better, but probably the world's best. Nonetheless there are compelling reasons as to why they Madrid, despite failing to land him, have made a better signing for their squad and for their pocketbook.

Positive Attributes

For one thing, he brings to Madrid the kind of range of passing that they need to feed forwards in Raúl and Van Nistelrooy. As I said on Monday, with Wesley Sneijder out medium-term it is important that someone else come in to deliver the killer pass, especially if Guti is injured, and in van der Vaart they have a cheap yet continental-class player just itching to do so.

Second, the ex-Ajax man, who sat in the stands with a furious expression on his face when stricken by injury at Ajax, has said that the occasional spell on the bench doesn't bother him. In a side so laden with midfield expertise this is no small matter, and even if his statement was to play up to the cameras and the fans, well, he's said it now and he can't take it back!

In all seriousness, though, Bernd Schuster is going to have a nearly impossible task in keeping his squad happy this season, and if Ronaldo arrived at the club he would (through absolutely no fault of his own or even Ronaldo's) have a player whose talent and cost necessitate a place in every single line-up for which he is available. Van der Vaart, having cost so much less, does not put this sort of pressure on his boss.

A Man Has His Price (Tag)

That brings us the deeply obvious, and perhaps most important factor: his price tag. At €9m VDV is something of a steal: that he was itching to leave Hamburg and he'd apparently set his heart on Spain meant that Madrid had an edge in negotiations, but even so a starting fee of this amount is some fine business for the Spanish side. Often only players at the end of their careers leave for such sums - Deco, approaching retirement, cost more to Chelsea - but despite being relatively young Rafael left Hamburg for quite little.

Compare and contrast this to the amounts being thrown in the media for Ronaldo. €90m? For the world's best player such a price may be considered "fair", insofar as such astronomical sums hold any meaning whatsoever, but is it prudent to spend it at all? One wonders if a single man can make such a difference that a price tag of this magnitude is appropriate. Fans of Luis Figo would argue that it is, but those with an eye on Madrid's financial future, not to mention the wealth of other players available for a third of the price of Ronaldo, may state otherwise.

And finally, it may now mean that Robinho remains at the Bernabéu. Regular readers of this column know of my admiration for the Brazilian, even aside from his off-the-field indiscretions, and I've also said in the past that for Madrid to punt an aspiring great in favour of a 'Galactico' would be short-sighted and self-defeating. Robinho could perhaps one day match Ronaldo - maybe he will, maybe he won't, but if he's sold now Madrid will never know if the wannabe best player in the world could outmatch the current best player in the world.

In short, there is no doubting that Cristiano Ronaldo would walk into any team on the planet, and almost certainly improve it. Definitely he would be an asset to Real Madrid. But whether or not his price tag and his influence outweigh such benefits are open to debate when another fine player is available is just a tenth of the price. I've said my piece: I now leave it, dear reader, to you.

VDV is not better then CR7!! Wait till he get injured, he is an AVERAGE player!

Even Diego would have been a better choice! VDV cant play with midget together and like the writer says, he has played for second-tier clubs all his life, which is true. And has yet to show it.