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Cash kings approach their throne | Throughout the summer of 2009, football fans learned about new unveilings in two parts of the world. The greatest unveilings of them all were happening down in Southwestern Europe where La Liga giants Real Madrid broke the bank for some of the biggest names in the sport.
The likes of Xabi Alonso, Raul Albiol, Karim Benzema, and former FIFA World Player of the Year Kaka were not sufficient additions to Real’s collection. Hence, the Madristas went to the Northwest of England to snap up Manchester United superstar and then reigning FIFA Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo.
As we all know, the amount spent on Ronaldo created a world record for the acquisition of a single player in the history of football. But let’s get back to talking about Manchester, because that is the other location where player after player was being unveiled. And no, we’re not talking about Manchester United.
Instead, we are talking about their city rivals – Manchester City – who have had enough of staying in the shadows of England’s most celebrated outfit. As they prepared for the 2009-10 Premier League season by welcoming a host of household names at the Eastlands, the Sky Blues announced their intentions to somehow overhaul United to become the leading team in Manchester.
Unfortunately, all they could take away from United was Carlos Tevez. The same can be said about Real Madrid as they could only take away Cristiano Ronaldo from the Old Trafford outfit, which continued to thrive. Considering Manchester City’s inconsistent showing in the league throughout the season as well as Real Madrid’s embarrassing elimination in both the Copa Del Rey and the UEFA Champions League, both the teams are far from where they should be following huge investments. In hindsight, critics have enough of a reason to make the duo of cash kings the subject of many a banter in the coming days.
But here’s my rebuttal: give them some time. Believe it or not, the investment will pay off in both cases – and we are already seeing glimpses of brilliance. Those who believe that cash alone can’t cut it are jumping to naive conclusions. If you think about it long and hard, the amount of cash that has been splashed this time around in such a drastic economic downturn is not just a result of poor financial management.
Instead, the reason why the spending of this magnitude has taken place is because finally, Real Madrid are ready to pose a serious challenge to the dominance of their treble-winning rivals in Barcelona. Also, it is finally Manchester City’s time to at least make their presence felt in the Northwest.
Following their overhyped spending period, Manchester City flirted with the Premier League title for quite some time. As soon as they saw that the club was heading in the wrong direction under Mark Hughes, they replaced him with Roberto Mancini. While Mancini hasn’t succeeded in sparking the plug on a persistent challenge for the Premier League title, he has nevertheless made City a legitimate contender for Champions League qualification. That shows that the upper management at the club is well in control of the team’s affairs, and to be fair to them, when they took Carlitos away from United, they made it a point to ensure that he became one of the league’s most entertaining players during his stint at the City of Manchester Stadium.
The upper management at Real Madrid has been a victim of political disagreements in recent years, which means that it is a lot more difficult for those in control to lead the club solely from a football perspective. Every time a presidential election is around the corner, all it comes down to is the players that a certain candidate can sign.
Once the elected president succeeds in putting together his desired roster, the team’s playing style usually gives out a feeling that a bunch of big names are playing together just for the sake of it. This year, when the Galacticos era was brought back, the detractors held on to the notion that nothing significant would be different at the club.
The fact that Los Blancos are already out of both the domestic cup and the Champions League has once again brought about apprehensions that this will be yet another trophyless season at the Santiago Bernabeu. But it is important to remember that Real Madrid are still very much alive in the race for the La Liga title as they share the summit of the table with Barca.
All they need is to snatch the title away from the Catalans, and since it’s highly improbable that Barca will retain the Champions League title, Real could still go on to become the top team in Spain as soon as this summer. Not too shabby, right?
In a nutshell, I acknowledge neither Manchester City nor Real Madrid have claimed a return on their gargantuan investments just yet. However, my point is that those who accuse them of failure so early in the day are not realizing that such large sums of money don’t often return home overnight.
No doubt, it will take time for both teams to fully achieve their objectives, but at the end of the day, considering how much talent is present within their ranks, the arrival of glory is only a matter of time.
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The below views are those of our readers and do not reflect the opinions of Premiership Talk or its employees.Latest Headlines
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Good article. However, look at the list of new RMadrid signings and ask yourself which ones have been successful. I see one: Ronaldo. Has Kaka or Alonso been noticeably better than Sneijder? And how's Karim Benzema working out? The team's leading scorer is the same as last year's: Higuain.
You're right that Madrid could easily find themselves the #1 team in Spain by winning La Liga if Barca crash out of CL. Personally I don't think the combination of those two things will happen, but we'll see.
oh, thankyou, finally an article that is lenient to my viewpoints. one too many people have been nervously waiting for a reason to bash madrids spending ways, this reason turned up at long last in the form of madrids midweek elimination from the ucl last week. due to this many voices have come up dubbing madrids spending to be a waste of money and a failure, but like you i refuse to heed these voices, because like you i am of the opinion that its way too s00n to judge the success of this mega-expensive project. i believe that it will only be a matter of time before perez silences his detractors.