The World Game

Read Part One here

Much has transpired since last week’s reflections in this space regarding Real Madrid’s self- inflicted futility. People have come and gone, almost in direct response to having read last week’s article (how’s that for self delusion?). Before going there however, a look at the fatal resonance of last year’s decisions is required, since they bred the conditions for the past week’s decisions.

Club Captain Fernando Hierro spent 14 seasons in a Real Madrid jersey. During that time, he and the club lifted more silverware than a gaggle of pirates. But few could question, especially after seeing Nedved, Trezeguet & Co. run rings around the ageing Spaniard in last season’s Champions League, that his best days were consigned to history and that it was time for a graceful exit, on the heels of helping Madrid hoist their 29th Spanish championship.Yet the brain surgeons from the front office had different plans, choosing instead to abruptly terminate Hierro’s Real Madrid affiliation. Citing football concerns and a need to inject new blood into a stagnant defense, they thanked Hierro with a pink slip and a shrug of the shoulders.

Retrospect allows us to hypothesize that Hierro would have been an Atlas in comparison to the abject muppetry on display at the back this season for Real Madrid. His sell-by date has long since elapsed, but the young Real Madrid defenders – Francisco Pavon, Fernandez Borja, Alvaro Mejia – have drifted rudderless all season. Hierro was the missing stabilizer.

Many believe that Hierro’s departure was hastened by his stance against the front office for putting the cart before the horse. Real Madrid was fending off title challenges in the closing weeks of the season, whe n the purchase of David Beckham was announced with predictable fanfare. Hierro – which means "iron" in Spanish – reminded everyone that winning the championship should supercede any reaction to the purchase of a player.

Upon winning the championship, Hierro orchestrated a boycott of sorts, by not leading the team for a second customary victory lap around Estadio Bernabéu. The slight did not go unnoticed and Hierro soon found himself on the outside looking in.
By far the most perplexing personnel decisio n was the sale of Claude Makelele. It embodied the essence of the Brave New World being ushered in by Florentino Perez and Jorge Valdano, where glamour and marketing eclipse skill and industry. Enter Beckham, exit quiet midfield engine Makelele. (Disclaimer: this is not a dig at Beckham, who contributed significantly to Real Madrid’s season, as lackluster as that season turned out.)

Perez decided that merely selling the player was insufficient. He had to impart a few insults – his form of closure. He justified the sale by maligning all aspects of the French international (rumored to be a strong side, France is) player ("he can’t pass the ball more than 6 meters"). Few will confuse Makelele’s first season at Chelsea as an unqualified success. But regardless of his role with the Blues, his role with Real Madrid was central to two Champions League titles. And with a defense as porous as that of the Merengues, jettisoning the midfield stop-gap proved lethal and in fact helped ensure the team’s mediocrity and lack of steel.

An on-going source of dissatisfaction in the Real Madrid camp was the treatment of striker Fernando Morientes. Transfer speculation dogged him for years, until Madrid finally decided to loan him to Monaco this season (and he has Perez/Valdano to thank for his newly bestowed Champions League runners- up medal from yesterday’s final). With Madrid firing blanks for the final two months of the campaign, the irony of Morientes banging in goal after goal in both the French league and the Cha mpions League must have been overwhelming to the Madrid minions.

Earlier this week, Real Madrid announced the sacking of manager Carlos Queiroz; the marionette’s strings have been cut. Sacked? After an unprecedented five straight league defeats, he’s lucky not to have been pelted with San Miguel bottles. Thus goes the first act of contrition. Surely more are on the way.

Valdano also announced the signing of his compatriot, Argentine and former Roma defender Walter Samuel. Samuel is precisely the sort of player that shrewd minds like Del Bosque wanted to buy last year, but were overruled by the marketeers. However, in a shining example of addition by subtraction, defender Roberto Carlos, the best left back in the world, may soon be going the way of Makelele: to Chelsea. And that has to have Madrid fans tearing their hair from their scalps in frustration. Such a move would herald disaster for the club. Again.

FirstTouch is published weekly by David Witchard
©2004, David Witchard/FirstTouch Online

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