Bleacher Report - Articles by Gonzalo

Derby Doldrums As Real Madrid Fail To Beat Atlético

Gonzalo — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 16:27:46 -0400

You have to go back to 1999 for the last time Atlético beat neighbours Real Madrid, and, on the evidence of last night's performance, they may well have to wait another 10 years to do so again.

Not that Atlético did not deserve to win; they did. But if they're going to waste that many opportunities to score, then it will be a long time before they can slay their particular bête noire.

Real can count themselves lucky that they were not three goals down at the break.

Pepe's suspension for an accumulation of bookings meant Juande Ramos had to rearrange his back four. The last time Pepe was missing, Real Madrid lost a league game at Barcelona, and it looks like Juande made a couple of tactical mistakes.

His first, playing Lass as right back and putting Sergio Ramos alongside Cannavaro in the centre of defence unbalanced the side and showed why Lass's presence as a defensive midfielder is crucial to Real Madrid's success.

Everyone knows Salgado is not my favourite defender, but when Juande rectified in the second half and brought him on, the difference was palpable.

Surely he should have picked either Salgado or Torres at right back, or even Metzelder in the centre and Sergio Ramos in his usual spot?

The other tactical error was leaving Higuaín out of the side.

Though the young Argentine has not scored for a few games, he does lead the side in assists in the league, and soon after coming on for Guti he provided Huntelaar with his equalising chance, though he was admittedly offside.

Atlético fans will not just rue the many missed chances by Agüero, Forlán and the rest, they can also point to a poor performance from the referee who not only missed Real's offside goal, but also disallowed a perfectly good Atlético goal and wanted nothing to do with a penalty on Agüero.

Real, on the other hand, will pack their bags for Tuesday's game at Liverpool knowing that Pepe should be the rock at the centre of defence and hoping that their creative players can find that spark they so sorely needed on Saturday.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Imperfect 10: Real Madrid's Latest Win Puts Pressure on Barcelona

Gonzalo — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:29:49 -0500

Real Madrid recorded their 10th consecutive league victory on an away trip to Espanyol.

This result, combined with Barcelona's inability to hold onto a two-goal lead at Atlético Madrid the following evening, puts Real four points behind the leaders. It's hard to believe that this difference was 12 points a mere three weeks ago.

Yet, while much credit has to be given to Juande for turning the team around defensively (three goals conceded in the last 11 matches), there is still much work to do to make Real Madrid the well-oiled machine in attack that the individual quality of its players would suggest.

The first half saw both sides "abuse" the midfield to the exclusion of both areas. Sneijder, who hasn't had the best of seasons, did not really perform well as playmaker, wasting innumerable passes to his colleagues up front, with Huntelaar looking especially isolated.

Fortunately for the visitors, Lassana Diarra swept up most of Espanyol's attacks, turning in another impressive display.

What "Lass" could not mop up, Pepe and Cannavaro did, with Casillas making the odd miraculous save that no longer gets headlines. (He was much criticised early in the season for a few uncharacteristic mistakes.)

Juande changed tack in the second half, bringing Guti in for the ineffectual Sneijder and Marcelo in for Higuaín to try to give the squad some balance and some width. Raúl tracked back to help out in midfield and the changes injected a little more urgency to Real's play.

Nevertheless, it was a whole 67 minutes before the deadlock was finally broken, as Guti was brought down outside the Espanyol area.

The veteran Real Madrid midfielder, who recently announced he will leave the club in 2011 at the latest, slotted a perfect free kick into the top left hand corner of Espanyol's goal.

Five minutes later, Raúl effectively finished off the game as he timed his run perfectly to latch onto a half-mishit Marcelo cross and put the ball beyond goalkeeper Kameni.

As in midweek, the team that made the fewest number of errors won the game. Unlike then, this time that team was Real Madrid.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid Find Liverpool in a Different League

Gonzalo — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:54:15 -0500

Yossi Benayoun's header brought Real Madrid's run of nine consecutive victories to a crashing halt as Liverpool took the lead at the Bernabéu in their last 16 Champions League encounter with Real Madrid.

The result was testament to Rafa Benítez's technical and tactical abilities, especially in cup ties. While Real Madrid started more brightly and played more fluidly, they crashed time and time again into Liverpool's carefully crafted defence.

A couple of early chances and a goal disallowed for offside were all Real had to show for in the first half, as the visitors slowly took control and even had the better of the period, with Casillas keeping out shots from Torres and Benanyoun, as well as a spectacular long-range effort from Xabi Alonso.

Juande Ramos brought Guti on for Marcelo after the break in an attempt to inject some fluidity into Real's attack, and perhaps hoping the Real Madrid veteran could find that killer pass that would unlock the Liverpool defence. It was all to no avail.

The side that had coolly slotted six goals past a hapless Betis in one half on the weekend, found Liverpool and the Champions League an altogether tougher proposition. Only long range shots from Robben and Higuaín troubled Pepe Reina, and not much at that.

With the game finely poised at 0-0, Heinze unnecessarily brought down Dirk Kuyt on the edge of the area. Fabio Aurelio curled in the resulting free kick and an unmarked Benayoun headed the ball past Casillas.

Expect two weeks of talk of "epic comebacks" from the press and the fact that everything is not lost. It's not an insurmountable task, but it will take several flashes of genius for Real Madrid to triumph at Anfield and move into the quarterfinals.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Juande Vs. Rafa: A Tale Of Two Personalities

Gonzalo — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:05:01 -0500

An article in El País contrasts the character and personality of the two coaches in tonight's Champions League clash between Real Madrid and Liverpool.

Four players who played under both men give their opinions, and it makes for fascinating reading, especially if, as has been rumoured on occasion, Rafa Benítez makes the move at some time back to Spain to coach Real Madrid, where he spent over a decade as a player and then coach of the youth teams.

José Miguel González, Josemi, spent six months recovering from a knee injury in his only season at Liverpool in 2004-05. Rafa Benítez never asked how he was. However, Juande Ramos, who coached him at Málaga, used to talk to him constantly.

"Juande is a better person", says Josemi, now at Mallorca. "Rafa does his own thing. He worries about the game, studies the opponent's moves... but he doesn't do much on a day to day basis with his players. With Juande, those on the subs bench are happier, because he looks after them and constantly makes comparisons to put pressure on the starting 11."

"Rafa used an expression we found painful: 'A substitute with a substitute is more of a substitute'," says Palop, who played under Benítez at Valencia before ending up at Sevilla under Ramos.

"Benítez is a great coach, but on a personal level I felt I didn't exist; I was only there to train. Never a word to see how I felt. He would surround himself with the most important players and completely ignore the rest." Palop adds that this contrasted with Juande, who "bonded with the players and was ready to give a chance to everyone without making a distinction."

The Liverpool captain, Steven Gerrard, shares this view in his autobiography: "Benítez is not cold towards me, just detached. Rafa doesn't think he needs close bonds with players, even the captain. But respect flows naturally between me and Rafa: he's the manager, I'm a player. Everything Rafa says and does is designed to strengthen Liverpool. Twenty minutes after I lifted the FA Cup, Rafa was downstairs talking to the press and telling them Liverpool could have won it without me. "I don’t think we would have lost if we didn't have Stevie," he said, "because we have played a lot of games without him." I'd scored two good goals and banged in a penalty, which was not a bad afternoon's work, but I understood Rafa. The gaffer was not belittling my contribution, as some people thought, he was just saying that the team is everything, that his number eight is simply a cog in the Liverpool machine. Fair enough."

"Juande gives you a lot more freedom, both inside and outside the pitch", adds Mallorca midfielder Martí, who played with Benítez in his stint at Tenerife and then with Juande at Sevilla. "They're both natural winners, incredibly intelligent and able to adapt to their squad and their opponents. Juande always wants to score a second after the first, whereas Benítez is more calculating."

Palop says that Benítez "does not miss a thing. He gives you a lot of information, sometimes too much. One day he told us everything about the Basle keeper. Juande tells you what you need to know and no more. But Benítez always had an ace up his sleeve with his lineups. Juande is more predictable".

César, the Valencia goalkeeper, is grateful to Benítez for giving him his Primera División debut at Valladolid. Juande on the other hand brought him to Tottenham Hotspur for his Premiership debut. "They're both extremely hardworking," he says "I met Rafa when we were both very young. He was ahead of his time, both with his analyses and in his use of the computer."

"Juande is a great guy. Over two legs he's very dangerous, as he showed at Tottenham, winning the Carling Cup, and at Sevilla, with back-to-back UEFA cups. Real Madrid will be making a big mistake if they let him go," concludes César.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid Beat Deportivo in Workmanlike Fashion

Gonzalo — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:19:55 -0500

The Bernabéu "faithful" were treated to another night of tedium as Real Madrid edged Deportivo la Coruña by a single goal. What was remarkable was that they could not get worked up about the mediocre fare on offer when the average seat price is around €100.

On the other hand, they decided to greet the substitution of Raúl for Drenthe with audible booing for the young Dutch player. Drenthe later said that the reception made him "depressed" and it showed in his level of confidence on the pitch, where one of his attempts at running past Deportivo players ended with him slipping and falling.

Drenthe, as well as Marcelo, have recently been singled out for this sort of treatment by the piperos at the Bernabéu, so named for the copious amounts of sunflower seeds (pipas) they consume during home matches.

If this sort of behaviour is aimed at sending a message to the management to invest more in the youth teams, then it is poorly directed. The last thing these youngsters need (wherever it is they come from) is to bear the brunt of questionable strategic decisions by the club.

Towards the end of the reasonably entertaining first half, Raúl barely deflected a cross from Lass with the side of his head, but this was enough to fool the Deportivo goalkeeper. As the Madrid press are so fond of reminding us, this was the captain's 306th goal for the club, putting him just one behind the total scored by the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano.

The second half, however, must have convinced Barcelona that there really is no way they can lose the league now, even with another 18 games yet to play. How can Real Madrid be clear in second place in the league standings yet play so poorly on their own turf?

Juande Ramos decided to make the game safe and wait for the counter. With Gago and Lass making almost superhuman efforts in their defensive midfield tasks, the back four absorbing most pf the pressure, and Casillas stopping anything else that got through, it became clear how dependent Real Madrid is on Arjen Robben.

Any attack with any venom in it came from him. No wonder rumours still abound about Juande Ramos pleading for a winger before the end of the January transfer window. Real are still playing the price for the appallingly bad way that transfers were managed last summer.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Vicente Boluda: I Don't Want to Be Real Madrid President After the Next Election

Gonzalo — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:55:07 -0500

New Real Madrid president Vicente Boluda was interviewed on radio on Monday night to explain what he intends to do at the club until new elections are called.

How are you handling all these interviews?
Not very well. I don't really like being in the media spotlight, getting recognised.

How did you become a director?
I've had a season ticket and sat next to [Real Madrid director] Pedro Trapote for many years. He called me one day and asked me if I knew Calderón and that's how it all started. I'm glad to have been a member of his team.

On Thursday when you left Calderón's house, he had no intention of resigning. Did you go to the Bernabéu on Friday thinking you would become president?
No, never. We were in his house the previous day and he was adamant he would remain.

Did you or any of the other directors force him to resign?
Nobody forced him to do anything. Some directors think one way and others think another. Calderón made the right choice in thinking of his health and what's best for the club. The directors were nearly unanimous in deciding that we would respect whatever decision Ramón took. I think his resignation was courageous, not cowardly and he has put his personal prestige on the line.

On Saturday morning, as the new president, what did you say to Juande Ramos? Did you know him from before?
I went to Valdebebas [the Real Madrid training ground] and said a few words to him. I am friendly with him. I said I had confidence in him and that I liked the way he worked. To the players I said not to worry, that we had confidence in them and that we needed them to fight on the pitch.

Were you one of those who recommended Juande for Real Madrid?
They asked me and I said I liked him and thought he was perfect for this club.

You have said that you will leave the club with clean accounts. Can we interpret that as a dig at Calderón?
The accounts are clean right now. All I have to fix is to bring all parties together so that there is peace at the club, for the next four or five months and that we fix outstanding items like the postal vote.

You will reconvene the AGM. Are you sure that Calderón knew nothing of what was happening at the last one?
We have to reconvene the meeting because of what happened. I can assure you that nobody knew anything, not even Ramón.

You are now the Real Madrid president and the next day you gave an interview to the paper that has been most responsible for the persecution [Marca]. Do you think Calderón may feel betrayed by that?
I have to bring a measure of peace, otherwise what am I here for? I have to talk with everyone. That's what I've always done and I will continue to do so. Calderón was not angry, perhaps a little hurt.

You said that Florentino was a good president. Have you spoken to him recently?
Not for some time. My relationship with him is good and we have spoken many times, but not recently.

If he invited you to form part of his candidacy, would you accept?
Not at this moment. I have said that I won't be part of any candidate's team.

Have any of the other candidates called you?
No. I know what is being published, but other than Villalonga, nobody has stated their intention to stand.

Are you sure you won't stand? What if the team wins the Champions League, would you change your mind then?
I won't stand. That is clear. If they win the Champions League, it will be to the players' credit.

Would you like to stay in football in the future?
I'd love to. Maybe in the future I will get involved, but only as a non-executive director, never as president.

Why is Real Madrid in this situation?
It all starts with the club's statutes, we have to make them relevant to the 21st century. It cannot be that the last four or five presidents have left the club in awful circumstances. We are a laughing-stock and we have to change the rules, starting with the postal vote.

How are you proposing to make these changes?
Voting has to be transparent and not able to be manipulated. We already said that we wanted the postal vote to work in the same as Spanish general elections, but it was not approved. We will have to fix this.

What will you decide about the manager's future? Will he stay on next year?
I think Juande is a great manager and that he will stay at Real Madrid next year, because there is a clause in his contract that gives him an extension if he wins a title.

That's not going to happen the way Barcelona is playing...
We will see; there's a long way to go and there's also the Champions League.

You have said you prefer Robben to Messi. Would you not swap them?
Robben is more fun to watch, and I wouldn't swap him for Messi. He is a more electrifying player.

You will have to plan the next pre-season...
That's already arranged. It will be at the same location as the last few years. We are not going to change, because I don't think it's necessary.

What about signings for next season. Do you not think that starting to look at these in July will be too late?
[Ironically] Don't worry, all the presidential candidates will come with seven or 10 players signed up...

Wouldn't it be better if the elections were in May instead of July?
We have to close the accounts for the year and get them audited; that's how you bring normality to the club and the way it's always been done. We will look at the possible dates, but the election will have to take place after the accounts have been closed.

What things do you want to fix at the AGM?
I would like there to be a new discussion point to amend the postal voting rules.

Will Real Madrid appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport about Lass and Huntelaar?
Yes, because every socio would demand that we do everything in our power to defend Real Madrid's interests.

Will there be repercussions over the signing of these two players?
First, we'll have to determine who's to blame. There is a commission to analyse everything that's happened. They were two players we were very interested in and it was also easier to sign them at this time. The fact that only one of them can play in the Champions League is not as important as the fact that they have signed five-year contracts.

Will Mijatovic keep his job?
Pedja knows a lot about football. At this point we don't need to either buy or sell any players. He is a former player of Real Madrid and he can be helpful. Whether he stays or not also depends on him.

What will his job be until the election?
Leave everything in order for those who will come afterwards and to help ensure there is peace until then.

Will you be involved in trying to sign Cristiano Ronaldo? I assume you will reply that that is up to the sporting director...
Exactly. Real Madrid is working on a number of things that will have to be concluded.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid-Osasuna: Referee's Mistakes Help Real Madrid

Gonzalo — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:52:14 -0500

It's part and parcel of being a football fan—referees are either useless or conspiring for your side to lose.

Well, I don't hold much stock in conspiracy theories, especially since the only way three people can keep a secret is if two of them are dead.

Osasuna supporters may well feel aggrieved at the way referee Alfonso Pérez Burrull dismissed their most influential player Juanfran with two yellow cards. Both came "for diving in the area" when TV images clearly showed that a penalty should have been given in both instances.

To add insult to injury, the referee told Juanfran as he gave him his marching orders that if he was "going to dive, at least do it properly".

Real Madrid's first game under the new presidency of Vicente Boluda ended in a 3-1 win for the home side, the fourth in a row. However, it looks like the players have not been unaffected by all the goings-on at the club. With an unsuccessful penalty appeal under their belt, Osasuna still managed to go ahead after 19 minutes through Nekounam and managed to keep Real Madrid at bay for most of the first half.

After the break, Juande brought on Van der Vaart for Cannavaro and Huntelaar for Sneijder. This meant that Sergio Ramos had to move to the centre to cover Cannavaro's position and Lass filled in as right-back, changing the formation from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3.

Unorthodox substitutions perhaps, but it seemed to give impetus to Real Madrid who took a mere four minutes to equalise when Ramos (with a little assistance from Osasuna goalkeeper Roberto) thundered the ball in from outside the area.

Had it not been for the referee, Roberto might have found himself the infamous protagonist of the game, as his suspect positioning made Real's task somewhat easier. Robben somehow managed to thread a pass (or was it a mis-hit shot?) through the Osasuna defence to Higuaín who put away his 12th of the season.

Osasuna, though last in the league standings, was not about to give up. Their manager, Camacho, a former Real Madrid defender and manager (though not for very long!) is known as a tough cookie and instills that attitude into each squad he manages. But even they could not fight against the referee's whims and their unfortunate 'keeper. In the dying seconds, Roberto completely missed a seemingly docile shot from Robben for the definitive 3-1 scoreline.

The referee's actions have gained him a great deal of notoriety in the Monday editions of the Spanish press and he has been withdrawn by the Referee's Committee for the Copa del Rey quarter-final between Espanyol and Barcelona on Tuesday.

Less attention has been given to Pérez Burrull's report of fascist gestures from a small contingent of Real Madrid fans. If the new Real Madrid president wanted to make a good impression, he could start by clamping down on these undesirables.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Going, Going...Gone: Ramón Calderón Quits as Real Madrid President

Gonzalo — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:51:44 -0500

On Wednesday he said that to resign would be "cowardly." On Friday, he resigned.

On Wednesday he had the full support of his Board of Directors. On Friday, they deserted him.

On Wednesday, he swore on his "honour" that he had nothing to do with the shady goings-on at last month's AGM. By Friday, those who took the fall were pointing the finger of blame in his direction.

Vicente Boluda, vice-president of Real Madrid, will take over as interim president until new elections take place in the summer, after the current season ends.

Ramón Calderón has had a turbulent few days, ending with his resignation as Real Madrid president. But he has been sowing the seeds of his own destruction from the moment he was elected:

July 2006: Wins the presidential elections, promising to bring Kaká, Cesc, and Robben to the club. Out of these three, he only managed to sign the Dutchman, over a year after the promise was made.

October 2006: One of the failed candidates for the presidency, Juan Miguel Villar Mir, takes the club to court to have the postal vote (annulled at Calderón's insistence) reinstated.

December 2006: Calderón's first AGM ends with a rejection of his proposals to reform the postal vote, amid calls by angry socios for new elections to legitimise the presidency.

January 2007: In probably the worst of his many foot-in-mouth moments, Calderón is recorded by a journalist as he makes a number of unflattering remarks about his players. He later has to apologise to the entire squad.

February 2007: After a number of court appearances, a judge rules that the Real Madrid electoral process, especially those statues regulating the postal vote, are invalid, and therefore the election result must stand. However, the process has, to date, not been reformed.

June 2007: Despite winning Real Madrid's first title for four years, Fabio Capello is sacked as Real Madrid coach. Two weeks later, Bernd Schuster is installed as his replacement, in what Calderón terms "a search for excellence." Well, we know how that ended.

September 2007: Another AGM, another failure to institute any meaningful reform.

March 2008: Calderón is accused by journalist José Antonio Abellán of manipulating the selection of socios compromisarios: Real Madrid members empowered to vote at AGMs on behalf of the whole membership. He had previously accused him of "selling" season tickets in exchange for votes at the presidential election. Neither allegation has yet been challenged in court.

May 2008: Calderón fails, once again, to reform the club statutes (which are, remember, legally invalid) in an Extraordinary General Meeting.

August 2008: After chasing him all summer, Real Madrid fail to sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United. Worse, the club sells Robinho to Manchester City and does not find any suitable replacement in time for the start of the season.

October 2008: Calderón is accused of using the club's credit cards to fund his own lifestyle. There is little substantive proof, but the allegations about the president's tax affairs are quite damaging.

December 2008: Real Madrid sign two players in the winter transfer market, Lass and Huntelaar, only to find that UEFA rules mean only one of them can be registered to play in the knock-out stages of the Champions League. The youth director resigns and accuses the president of "lack of knowledge or interest in the youth teams." At the AGM, Calderón manages to have the accounts and budget approved, albeit with a slim majority, amid many calls for his resignation. He then fires the coach, Schuster, and replaces him with Juande Ramos.

January 2009: Marca publishes allegations of vote-fixing at the December AGM, finally resulting in Calderón's resignation as president. Allegations about fraudulent commissions in the signing of players like Van Nistelrooy and Cannavaro.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid President Hangs On To His Job... Just

Gonzalo — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:38:35 -0500

Ramón Calderón has managed to survive the 24 hours following the initial allegations of vote fixing at last month's AGM by Marca.

Late last night he gave a radio interview in which he denied any knowledge or collusion with any voting irregularities. He also indicated that he was "tired" of the constant attacks and might not seek re-election to a second term.

In what is now starting to look like an orchestrated campaign, Marca today published the names and photographs of ten people at the AGM who were either socios with no voting rights, or not Real Madrid socios at all.

In a cruel twist, one of them turned out to be a socio of local rival Atlético de Madrid!

Where yesterday it was the director in charge of the membership, Luis Bárcena, who read a brief statement announcing an investigation, today the president himself called a press conference and faced questions for over an hour, accompanied by his entire Board of Directors.

In a performance worthy of Richard Nixon during Watergate, Calderón fired the aforementioned Bárcena as ultimately responsible for the organisation of the AGM. More interestingly, he also fired another club employee who admitted responsibility, one Mariano Rodríguez Barutell, also known as Nanín.

Nanín was part of Calderón's election campaign and has been linked with serious irregularities during that campaign (though nothing has been proved) and was instrumental in getting the postal vote annulled by a judge.

Most observers agree that had the postal vote stood (though it was probably corrupted), Calderón would not have won the election.

Ramón Calderón once again rejected calls for his resignation or for new elections, saying they were not necessary and that an investigative commission would be set up to determine what happened during the AGM. He also said that he would look for the AGM to be repeated, but that this was legally not a decision that the Board of Directors could take.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid President in New Vote-Fixing Allegations

Gonzalo — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:47:36 -0500

Ramón Calderón must have spluttered over his morning café solo as he read the allegations in Marca regarding his "theft" of the club's AGM last month.

The paper claims that Calderón "infiltrated" significant numbers of people into the Assembly meeting who had no right to vote to ensure that last year's accounts and next year's budget were approved. The motions were passed (the accounts fairly narrowly, with 55% of the vote) thus ensuring the president's continuity at the helm.

This turns up the heat on Calderón by yet another notch. Marca is by far the most mainstream and, in principle, friendly publication to Real Madrid, and for them to put this on their front page is basically a declaration of war on the president.

In response, the club's director responsible for the membership, Luis Bárcena, made a brief statement to the press:

Before I begin, I wish to make it clear that both the President and his Board of Directors delegated the organisation of the Assembly in this general directorship, so any responsibility regarding the outcome of the Assembly is solely mine.

The first thing I'd like to say is that my first decision was to control access to the Assembly by making Members present their ID cards at the entrance of IFEMA's Palacio de Congresos. I did this in order to add transparency to the Assembly. It was an historic decision, given that nothing of the sort had ever been done.

The second and final thing I'd like to say is in regard to those people who supposedly infiltrated themselves in the Assembly with the purpose of destabilising it. We have decided to investigate on the matter and we have asked the Club's Commission for Social Discipline to confirm these facts and, in the case of finding any Club Members implicated, to immediately expel them from the Club.

Given Real Madrid's archaic voting system at AGMs, all the votes were counted by shows of hands, rather than by using ballot boxes. This means that anyone who was already in the room could vote and there is no paper trail of who cast which votes. There were calls during the assembly to change the system, but the petition was denied.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid Makes It Three Wins in a Row

Gonzalo — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:21:16 -0500

It's back to some semblance of order at Real Madrid: the best run of consecutive wins since September, the first away win since October, the best run of consecutive clean sheets since April. This is what Juande Ramos has achieved since he arrived almost exactly one month ago.

Following a widely anticipated loss at Barcelona which was nevertheless tempered by improved, if somewhat over-aggressive, defending, the former Tottenham boss has managed to extract six points from direct competitors (Valencia, Villarreal) and win convincingly away from home for the first time in months.

Before getting too excited about the magnitude of that win, it is important to note that Mallorca are a team on the brink. Already in the relegation zone, they did nothing to suggest that they may be able to dig themselves out of that hole come the summer. Nonetheless, after some of the trouble Real Madrid has had this season to subdue allegedly weaker sides, there is no doubt that improvements have been made on Schuster's tactics and team selections.

Real were seemingly not hampered by being unable to train properly on the last day before flying out to Mallorca following the largest snowfall in Madrid for 30 years. Admittedly, scoring a goal after just two minutes does help, and it is Real's man of the moment, Arjen Robben, who grabbed the initiative, latching onto a quick counter-attacking move and squeezing the ball between the Mallorca 'keeper's legs.

Mallorca had set out five men in the defensive line, but, for all they did on the opener, they may as well have still been thinking about Christmas dinner. And they did not get better as, on the quarter hour, Higuaín jinked past several to lay it off for Raúl to cleverly backheel it into the net.

The Real Madrid captain was also celebrating his 500th league appearance, the sixth man ever to do so, and his goal (his 212th) effectively finished off the locals. It's staggering to think that, in his 15 seasons, Raúl has scored 20% of his side's total goal tally.

Nonetheless, that Casillas had so little work to do means that everyone else did their job properly. Lass looks like he has adjusted to his role and position admirably in just two games and ably assisted Gago in the holding midfielder roles.

Their positioning (why was it so difficult for Schuster to get this right?) meant that Pepe and Cannavaro could do their job in central defence, and even meant that the other two defenders, Heinze and Sergio Ramos, could get forward, adding width to the attack.

It was Sergio Ramos who scored Real's third in an offside position and made Juande Ramos comfortable enough with the eventual outcome, that he could afford to rest Robben and Raúl to give some minutes to Huntelaar (who could have scored a fourth) and youngster Palanca.

The result puts Real Madrid up to second in the standings, still twelve points behind runaway leader Barcelona, ahead of a seemingly simple home tie against last-placed Osasuna next Sunday.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

UEFA Postpones Decision on Huntelaar and Diarra Registration for Real Madrid

Gonzalo — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:55:06 -0500

UEFA's Control and Disciplinary committee did not finally make any pronouncements today as had been expected, regarding the registration of both "Lass" Diarra and Huntelaar as Real Madrid players for the knock-out stages of the Champions League.

The story has been brewing for a couple of weeks now, ever since Real Madrid signed Lass from Portsmouth and then "discovered", via the press, that UEFA rules state that of a maximum of three new players that can be registered for the knock-out stages by Feb. 1, only one can have played in another European competition, such as the UEFA Cup.

Admittedly, Real Madrid have found themselves in a fairly unusual position, having lost three players for the remainder of the season before the year was out. However, UEFA rules are quite clear on this point, and have been for some years.

Protestations to the contrary cannot disguise the fact that the club's sporting director, Predrag Mijatovic, or one of his team, should have known. The chances of a resignation, or, at the very least, some sort of apology for the mistake, are, shall we say, remote.

Mijatovic & co. have tried to deal with this in typical fashion, acting as if it is someone else's fault. In this case, they argue that UEFA's rules are ambiguous and contradictory, given that third-placed teams in the Champions League group stages then go on to compete in the UEFA Cup, and say they are prepared to appeal all the way to the Tribunal of Arbitration for Sport.

Besides the fact that it is unlikely that there is enough time for the appeals process to be completed before the Feb. 1 deadline, Real Madrid's directors are being at best disingenuous (and thus once again incompetent) or at worst just going through the motions for appearance's sake.

The rules are quite clear (articles 17.17 and 17.18 if you want to look them up) and Real will have to pick one of their two recent acquisitions (probably Lass) for registration.

Whether the rules are "fair," given Real Madrid's injury situation, is irrelevant, and UEFA may very well decide to alter them, but only in time for next season.

Update: UEFA finally announced late on Thursday evening that its Control and Disciplinary Body had rejected Real Madrid's request and that any appeals would be heard next week.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid Swaps Diarra for Diarra

Gonzalo — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:46:41 -0500

With the signing of Lassana Diarra from English Premiership side Portsmouth, Real Madrid have taken their pre-Christmas spending to €40 million, matching the amount spent two years ago to sign Gago, Higuaín, and Marcelo.

That figure takes into account only the "baseline" amount agreed between Real Madrid and Ajax for Huntelaar earlier this month. A further €7 million may be paid out depending on results over the next few seasons.

Portsmouth have made a nice return on a player for whom they splashed out £5 million just under a year ago. With a reported transfer fee of £20 million, or €20 million (the near parity between the pound and the euro means that the numbers in both currencies are virtually identical), Lassana Diarra has now hit the big time.

Except this is not the first time he has joined a large club. He started his professional career in French second division side Le Havre (despite having the same surname as Mahamadou, given his Malian descent, Lassana was born in Paris and has already been called up to the French national side). In 2005 he moved to Chelsea, but did not feel he was given enough opportunities by Jose Mourinho and moved to Arsenal in 2007.

Life under Arsene Wenger was no better (in terms of first team football, at least) and Lassana decided to leave after just five months to join Portsmouth in an attempt to get more playing time and exhibit his potential for other clubs to see. He is clearly ambitious and the injury crisis at Real will very likely furnish him plenty of opportunities this season to show off his talent. Whether he makes the most of them remains to be seen.

Although he plays in the same position as Mahamadou Diarra, as a defensive midfielder his style is less about athleticism and muscle, and more about vision of play and passing accuracy.

Lassana completed his transfer after passing his medical on Monday afternoon and signed a four-and-a-half year deal that will see him play for Real Madrid until 2013. He will wear the No. 6 jersey, the same as his namesake, although with the nickname "Lass" rather than his surname to avoid confusion.

Last week, Real Madrid also negotiated the early return of one of its youngsters. Dani Parejo had joined Queen's Park Rangers on loan at the beginning of the season and will be another option in midfield for Juande Ramos, although he's less likely to get as much playing time from the off as Lassana Diarra.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Clásico: Mission Impossible or Golden Opportunity for Real Madrid?

Gonzalo — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:28:02 -0500

As the media machine that precedes every encounter between Real Madrid and Barcelona gears up to full speed, Juande Ramos should be thinking that this is a gilt-edged opportunity to turn his new charges' fortunes around.

The 3-0 win at home to Zenit on Wednesday was certainly morale-boosting, but neither its effect, nor the performance of the players should be overestimated. It's good to kick your tenure off with a victory and a clean sheet to boot, but let's not forget that there was nothing in play for the Russian side, as they had no chance to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League.

A win (or possibly even a draw) at the Nou Camp would have no impact in the relative standings, and is unlikely to be particularly decisive in the championship race. However, psychologically it would sow some doubt in Barcelona's mind—they have been unstoppable recently—and might have the same effect on the Real Madrid squad that the equivalent fixture had two seasons ago when Capello was in charge.

The managerial reshuffle has made things a little more complicated for Pep Guardiola, who rested some of his players in the midweek loss to Shakhtar Donetsk thinking that Bernd Schuster would be in the visitor's dugout on Saturday. Some Barcelona fans are a little worried too.

"With Schuster, we knew more or less what they were doing. With Juande, I imagine they'll do other things," said Guardiola, adding that he would look at the video of the Zenit game and some of the Sevilla games when Ramos was in charge (clearly he doesn't rate Juande's stint at Spurs to be too significant).

Guardiola is also using cautious language when asked whether Real Madrid's numerous injuries would benefit Barcelona. "There are no second rate players in either Real Madrid or Barcelona," he said. His counterpart has not made a pronouncement either way, but it surely cannot be helpful to have to add Rubén de la Red to Diarra and Van Nistelrooy as players who will be out for the remainder of the season. De la Red has been the subject of numerous tests for what is believed to be a heart-related condition, which may force his premature retirement from football.

Regarding the probable Real Madrid line-up, the talk this week has been about Dudek getting a start ahead of Casillas in the Zenit game. Iker's uncharacteristic poor form this season (24 goals in 14 games) fuelled speculation that he might not be included in Saturday's squad, although the most likely explanation was that he was being rested so he could fully concentrate on the Clásico.

Juande has been forced to experiment already to cope with injuries and suspensions, bringing Metzelder in as right back, instead of his usual central position, and switching Salgado to the left during the midweek tie. Initially, the rumours suggested that Salgado would keep that position as Marcelo was suspended for Saturday and Juande wanted a right footed player to try to control Messi's runs on that flank. It now looks like it may be Sergio Ramos who will get that responsibility.

Arjen Robben, perhaps Real's most dangerous and in-form player, is also suspended for the Barcelona clash following his sending off last weekend against Sevilla. Drenthe is likely to be the player Juande feels can bring some width and speed (if not much in the way of precision) to his side.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Schuster Replaced by Juande Ramos at Real Madrid

Gonzalo — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 01:53:09 -0500

In hindsight, it was almost inevitable. Ramón Calderón survived a fractious AGM on Sunday and bought himself the time he needed to try to steer a new course before the ship that is Real Madrid is hauled into dock for a complete refit.

As it is, the sacking of Bernd Schuster and installation of Juande Ramos as caretaker coach is like careening the vessel at high tide to scour the hull—a superficial short-term fix that may do little to change the club's fortunes this season.

Sunday was a tough day for the club. The AGM approved the accounts, but with a fairly tight margin (55% of "yes" votes). This was preceded by socio after socio standing up to speak to criticise Calderón for his management of the club.

Though there was some vocal support from the gallery, the word was that they had been bussed in by the president to clap and cheer at the appropriate moments.

The accounts were approved and the budget was passed, but there remained the small matter of Sevilla visiting the Bernabéu in the evening. With Barcelona having demolished Valencia 4-0 the previous evening and nine points ahead in the standings before next week's Clásico at the Camp Nou, clinching all three points was essential for the men in white.

The game was a high scoring affair, with refereeing controversy thrown in in for good measure. The visitors scored first (again) after a mistake by Casillas (again) before being pulled back by a Raúl goal. By half time Real Madrid were 3-1 down and the local crowd was chanting for the president (not the coach) to resign.

Somehow they managed to get back on equal terms after the break, with Arjen Robben providing the width that broke open the Sevilla defence. They could have even gone ahead, but were denied by goalkeeper Palop's miraculous interventions in front of Raúl and Robben.

Sevilla were on the ropes and reeling when the referee decided to ignore a clear penalty on Higuaín by Palop and then showed Robben his second yellow card for protesting the decision. This proved another turning point in the match, with Sevilla making their extra man count to score the winner six minutes from time.

Schuster, in his post-match press conference, decided to dig his own grave (and, to the more cynical among us, guarantee himself a tidy pay-off) by saying the unsayable: "we cannot win at Barcelona because they are far superior and I think this will be their year. We can go there and be competitive, but that's about it."

Thirty-six hours later, Mijatovic informed Schuster of the club's decision to let him go and replace him with former Tottenham Hotspur and Sevilla manager Juande Ramos. After "short, but intense" negotiations, Juande signed for the remainder of the season, with an option to remain at the helm depending on the team's performance.

This weekend, Barcelona!

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Youth Director Resigns and Lambasts Real Madrid President

Gonzalo — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:27:22 -0500

The feelgood factor generated for Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón by the signing of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar lasted barely twenty-four hours as his youth categories director tendered his resignation and blasted him for his "lack of knowledge or interest in the youth teams".

Calderón, who had already hinted at another possible transfer announcement in advance of the club's Annual General meeting on Sunday, may not find it so easy to dismiss the comments made by former Real Madrid player José Miguel González Martín del Campo, or Míchel, as he is best known. For one, it was his idea to recruit the former legend to look after the lower teams to imbue them with the right kind of madridismo.

Míchel, a member of the famous Quinta del Buitre in the 1980s, joined the Calderón team in 2006 as coach of the Real Madrid Castilla side. As the team was relegated from the second division at the end of that season, Míchel then took overall responsibility for the younger sides, charged with spotting and moulding the future stars of Real Madrid.

It's no secret that few have made it into the senior side, and some, like De la Red, had to leave to prove their worth elsewhere. Schuster has been accused of not calling up the youngsters even when he was short of players through injuries and yet, a player like Juan Mata, whom Míchel pleaded with to stay at the club, is now succeeding with Valencia.

In a radio interview on Tuesday evening, Míchel had a few choice words for his former employer:

"In the last two years he hasn't even bothered to come for the annual team picture with the youngsters and we had to cut and paste it in.

"On Monday the president asked Mijatovic to fire me. I believe it's because of an argument I had with one of the board directors who was pressuring me to include someone's child in the youth team. The president himself brought another lad three months ago to try to do the same thing.

"How is it possible that in two and a half years twenty players have left the youth teams and not one of them is good enough for the first squad?

"Back in February 2007 I was offered Fabio Capello's job, because according to the president, he was about to be fired. In March 2007 he offered me Mijatovic's job."

I leave it to the reader to decide whether this is just a case of sour grapes from Míchel or yet another nail in Calderón's coffin.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar an Early Christmas Present For Real Madrid

Gonzalo — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:16:28 -0500

There are a number of traditions regarding the opening of presents for those who celebrate Christmas. The earliest presents are opened on St. Nicholas' Day on December 6th in Holland, Belgium, Germany, the Czech Republic, and a number of other European countries.

In most other countries, presents are opened on Christmas morning. In Spain, and some other countries with a Catholic tradition, the custom is to open presents on the feast of the Epiphany on January 6th, commemorating the visit of the Magi.

Whichever tradition applies, Real Madrid have bought themselves an early Christmas gift in the shape of Ajax and Holland striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. They will however have to wait until January 1st to open that present, when the winter transfer window opens.

It is of course only "coincidence", as Mijatovic insists, that this signing is being announced mere days before the club's AGM this Sunday.

Both Calderón and Mijatovic are expected to face heavy criticism at the meeting, particularly over their disastrous summer transfer policy, where they sold Robinho to Manchester City in order to finance the supposed signing of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United. Coincidentally, the Portuguese winger was confirmed yesterday as the winner of the Ballon d'Or, making him the European Footballer of the Year.

Huntelaar was this year made Ajax captain by manager Marco van Basten, an important recognition for a 25-year-old. He is seen as both a short and long term replacement for Ruud van Nistelrooy, who is out for the rest of the season.

But he himself is carrying an ankle ligament injury which means he won't play again until after he joins Real Madrid in January. This led Michel Salgado to joke that "we even sign them injured" on Tuesday evening as the agreement was made public.

Earlier in the week Ramón Calderón had promised new signings to alleviate the raft of injuries to the squad, although he said that any winter signings would come to "help out, because we already have the good players up front: Raúl, Higuaín, and Robben". Let's hope Huntelaar sees a bit more of the pitch than Javier Saviola, for instance.

On the technical side, there's little question that Huntelaar is a valuable addition to the squad. He's a centre forward at heart, so he will need good service from the midfield players, rather than tracking back to get the ball himself.

However, the presence of so many Dutchmen in the squad should make his adaptation relatively straightforward. His goal record speaks for itself; last season alone he scored 33 goals in 34 games in the Dutch league championship.

Real Madrid will pay Ajax 20 million euros for his services, plus another seven million depending on results. Huntelaar will be in Madrid for a medical on Wednesday and is expected to sign a contract until 2013.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

It's All Uphill From Here For Real Madrid

Gonzalo — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:21:00 -0500

"It's hard to win a game where they score against you in the first few minutes of each half," said Guti, summing up the impotence felt by Real Madrid at Getafe.

More importantly, it illustrates why the recent mini-run of two 1-0 victories (against Recreativo and BATE) was a mirage and bodes extremely badly for the next lot of league games against the top-placed teams.

The week has been somewhat overshadowed by Ramón Calderón's announcement that a couple of "young, promising" players will be signed in January when the transfer window opens, plus two top stars in the summer.

Given that he's clearly trying to shield himself from the ire of the socios at the upcoming Annual General Meeting next Sunday, this really does very little for the current squad in the current season.

Add to this the plague of injuries decimating the side (Sneijder and Torres had to be substituted in the first half hour) and the next few weeks, or even months, look very bleak. The medical staff and physios have been added to the close scrutiny everyone else is under.

The Spanish league this season has been likened to the Tour de France, and December sees the Alpine stages as many of the "top" teams face each other. Next week, it's Sevilla, followed by Barcelona, Valencia and Villareal.

Barcelona have already made short work of Sevilla with a 3-0 away win and look to be running away with the Championship. The shape that Real Madrid is in means that they'll struggle to compete for a Champions League place come next May.

Things have got so bad that Casillas had possibly his worst game in years. He looked insecure every time he came out for the ball and was particularly uninspired in Getafe's second goal. He even conceded a penalty that the referee did not see (or maybe he took pity on him).

And yet, even after going two down at the beginning of the second half, Real might have got back in the game as Guti found Saviola for his first league goal for his team. Getafe looked shaken for all of five minutes when Raúl could have equalised.

It was not to be (nor would it have reflected the relative merits of both sides). Eight minutes from time Uche made it 3-1, meaning Real Madrid are losing sight of the leading rider as they are slowly absorbed into the ranks of the peloton.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid's Much Needed Win is Scant Consolation for More Injuries

Gonzalo — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:08:31 -0500

There were a few positives for Real Madrid following the weekend's action in la Liga. A win against Recreativo de Huelva when the top three teams all dropped points means Real Madrid climbed to second place, three points behind leaders Barcelona.

It was also their first clean sheet since the 2-0 away win at Racing back in September, and, surprisingly, Real Madrid are now the best home side in the league, with sixteen points out of a possible eighteen. Aside from the purely statistical though, there is little joy to be derived from this game, and the patient still remains in intensive care.

There was so little football that there is barely any need to recap the game, if only to note that Sneijder's goal, six minutes before half-time, was the only one of only a handful of chances to go in, and was helped in some measure by the wicked deflection it took on its way into Riesgo's goal.

Injuries to Cannavaro end Heinze forced Schuster to make Pepe and Ramos his pair of central defenders, and, to be fair, the team looked a little more solid at the back than in recent weeks. Whether this was due to the opposition's lack of ambition in attack is another matter. Miguel Torres, returning from injury, was an able substitute on the right flank and even Marcelo appeared less accident prone than thus far this season.

However, the lack of a true centre forward meant that Raúl was forced into a position he's uncomfortable in, and it showed. Even Higuaín managed to miss an open goal before having to be stretchered off with an ankle injury that may keep him out for up to ten days.

To their already extensive injury list, Real also added Sneijder's name. He was replaced by Van der Vaart, who is likely to start in Tuesday's Champions League game against BATE Borisov. He is also likely to be joined in the starting line-up by either Saviola or youngster Alberto Bueno, both of whom featured late on in the game.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

The Scales Tip Yet Again at Real Madrid

Gonzalo — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:17:06 -0500

It's obvious, but perhaps it needs to be stated from time to time, and Xavi, the Barcelona and Spain midfielder put it succinctly the other day when he said: "Barça and Real are like a set of scales, when things go well for one, they go badly for the other, and vice versa".

Just think back six months: Real Madrid were running rampant in a league championship they eventually won with an eighteen-point lead over Barcelona. When the Catalan club visited the capital, Real had already won the title and the Barcelona players had to do the traditional pasillo.

Key players like Eto'o were accused of forcing a yellow card in their previous game so they wouldn't have to face the humiliation in Madrid. Barcelona went on to lose the game 4-1. Club president Joan Laporta had to face a motion of no censure, which he narrowly defeated.

Fast forward to the last few weeks and you can see the scales have truly tipped. After six wins on the trot in September, Real Madrid have lost both Champions League ties against Juventus, been dumped out of the Copa del Rey by a third division side, and have managed just three wins in their last six league games, conceding ten goals in the process.

Conversely, Barcelona are riding high, with a five-point lead at the top of the standings, and a truly breathtaking start to the championship. They have scored thirty-six goals in eleven games and Eto'o is the current pichichi with thirteen. Confidence is clearly with the men in red & blue as the two sides look to their first meeting of the season in mid-December.

It's always been thus, but the roots of this particular debacle can clearly be traced to the disastrous way Real Madrid managed their summer transfer campaign. Having won the league early, and being in the enviable position of planning for the coming season with several months in their back pocket, they decided to base their entire strategy around the signing of one Cristiano Ronaldo (remember him?).

Ramón Calderón has always felt the long shadow of his predecessor, Florentino Pérez, and his failure to match the galáctico-signing antics of the Florentino years has always weighed heavily on this much-criticised president.

Only yesterday, he hit out at Florentino's being photographed at a charity match organised by Zinedine Zidane: "It's sad. I would have loved to have seen that photo when we won two league titles and the supercopa. It illustrates that badly kept secret that he has spent the past two-and-a-half years obstructing and trying to discredit the Real Madrid board. He only thinks of his own personal gain."

Calderón must have reasoned that the only way to make people forget about Florentino was to secure the services of one of the most sought-after players in the world. Well, we all remember what happened, which is that not only did Real Madrid not manage to sign the tricky Portuguese winger, but they also managed to enrage their most creative player (Robinho) to such an extent that he upped sticks and left them for Manchester City.

In all of this, Mijatovic has aided and abetted his boss, and Schuster claims to have been a mere spectator. However, while he may have a strong case to claim he has been handed an unbalanced squad, and taking into account a number of injuries in key positions, Schuster still cannot expect to be seen as purely innocent.

There is no excuse for conceding six goals and being eliminated from the cup by a third division side, not with this squad. There is no excuse for claiming he has "no idea" why his side is letting in a record number of goals.

We knew what we were getting when Schuster was signed. He's always been temperamental and difficult with the media, but when you barely get involved in a game you're losing and then go AWOL for several days without explaining what your strategy is to get the team out of the mess it's in, then, frankly, it's all downhill from there.

So the recent vote of confidence in the coach from the Real Madrid board is as convincing as Mijatovic's press conference to announce it. Fielding a question about what would happen if Real lost again this weekend at home to Recreativo, he avoided saying that the result was not linked to Schuster staying at the club: "I can't be certain as to what would happen. We would have no problem in taking difficult decisions if we have to, but we won't rush into them".

We just need to keep watching to see whether the scales have any further to tip before they start heading back the other way...

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid Get That Sinking Feeling

Gonzalo — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:22:56 -0500

With talk of this game being make or break for Bernd Schuster, you would think that both coach and players would make that extra effort to show everybody that they are worthy holders of the league championship they conquered last year.

None of this was in evidence as an extremely poor Real Madrid fell to a not particularly inspired Valladolid. Not even their goalscoring prowess came to the rescue this time, as they failed to score for the first time this season.

Perhaps they were really missing Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was earlier this week diagnosed with a serious knee injury that could keep him out for up to nine months. The players wore t-shirts with messages of support to the Dutch goal-magnet as they stepped onto the pitch.

Schuster's approach to this game was visibly cautious, with the more defensive Javi García in for Wesley Sneijder in midfield, waiting for openings in the Valladolid defence, instead of taking the initiative.

Guti, often the player others look to, was totally uninspired and Real felt flat, with no depth or width and none of the self-belief that has got them out of trouble in other games this season.

Though Valladolid have not been prolific in their scoring thus far, they had one chance just after the half-time break and took it well through Canobbio.

The expected reaction did not come. Sure, they had a couple of chances to put the game level, and perhaps they should have taken them, but did they look like a winning team out there? No, they looked like little lost sheep, scared to show what we have seen they are capable of.

Frankly, the fixture list for November is not as complicated as the one that closes out 2008, and yet Real Madrid are making a meal of every game. You have to wonder whether Calderón and the board will have to get rid of Schuster sooner rather than later, especially given the fact that no reaction seems forthcoming from the players.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Irún Puts Real Madrid in Intensive Care

Gonzalo — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:58:37 -0500

The word crisis, whispered in the last few weeks, has now reached a crescendo at the Bernabéu, as Real Madrid were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by a third division side.

A repeat of the 4-3 weekend scoreline was not enough to subdue a Real Unión de Irún squad that ran rampant for large stretches of the game, as if the venue or their opponents were of no consequence. Not even a hat-trick from captain Raúl was enough to bring his half-dead team back to life.

The first half was symptomatic of everything that ails Real Madrid at the moment. This is a side split in half to such an extent that they seemed at times to have completely abandoned the midfield to the opposition. It's not just that the defenders are sometimes slow to react and badly positioned, there is just no support from most of their team-mates.

But the lack of players tracking back to defend was also in evidence when the team had the ball. It's not in Real's genetic make-up to play long-ball football, but that is exactly what the local crowd were treated to for most of the first forty-five minutes.

Raúl, the busiest player by far on the night, acted as link-up man, even though he was nominally one of the two strikers, the other being Saviola. This seemed to change in the second half as Sneijder dropped back more often, but just exactly what are Schuster's tactical instructions at the beginning of the game? Asking Metzelder to make runs on the left wing was a first, and what Real gained in attack they more than lost on defence.

The visitors went ahead through Abasolo after 13 minutes, after Salgado failed to deal with a cross on his wing and left Dudek with little chance of making the save. It took a mistake from Eduard, the Irún goalkeeper, to allow Real to equalise, with Raúl easily heading the ball over the advancing goalie after a cross from Marcelo.

Saviola could then have put his side ahead but his goal was disallowed on the stroke of half-time when he was clearly on-side.

That was the linesman's fault, but someone needs to take the referee aside and explain to him how to apply the advantage rule, though his failures in this respect affected both sides equally.

Schuster swapped Cannavaro for Javi García during the break for no apparent reason, other than the Italy captain was not having a very good night—but then, neither were any of his colleagues in the back four. Three minutes in, García and Metzelder were not fast enough to catch Salcedo—though it must be said they had precious little support from any of the midfield players, who were all far too far upfield.

Fortunately for Real, Irún's lead lasted just over a minute, as Raúl got his second after Saviola's pass had found him free in the area.

With the game at 2-2 fifteen minutes into the second half, Schuster brought Alberto Bueno on for Drenthe. The player from the Castilla reserve side only had two minutes on his debut in the first leg in Irún. The promising youngster impressed with his energy and talent and went on to score the goal of the night to put his side ahead and even the tie.

Raúl then thought he had put his side through five minutes from time with his third of the night from a free kick intended as a cross which none of the other players got a touch on. It was the first time all night that the home side was mathematically in the last 16 round of the Copa del Rey.

In a heart-stopping finish to the game, Real Unión took advantage of yet another defensive blunder to score their third in the 89th minute and put Real out of the competition on away goals.

Real Madrid have shown all season that they have the talent up front and the self-belief to enable them to claw their way out of adverse scorelines. However, this is a side so unbalanced on the pitch that any team with a modicum of tactical nous can control the game at their leisure. We haven't seen Bernd Schuster do anything to remedy this over the last few weeks and, as he admitted in the post-match press conference, it's now looking like he doesn't know how to.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid Need Four From Higuaín to Win

Gonzalo — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:48:50 -0500

There is a school of thought that holds that the only objective in football is to score more goals than the opposition.

Real Madrid's performance against Málaga was an exemplar of this; coming back after being down in the match three times, playing one man down for all of the second half, and still managing to win the game with all four goals scored by the same man: Gonzalo Higuaín.

Last time a Real Madrid player scored four goals in a match was two years ago (almost to the day) when Van Nistelrooy bagged all four against Osasuna.

Diego Armando Maradona, Argentina's recent appointment as head coach of the national side, had earlier told El Pipa Higuaín that if he wanted to make his team he had to become "more involved" in games. Higuaín must have taken his words to heart, as the great man watched from the stands in the Bernabéu.

Málaga played some great one-touch football, ably assisted by Real Madrid's hapless defence. It's astonishing that virtually the same line-up that conceded the least number of goals last season (thirty-six) has now let in sixteen in ten games. The first came after a mere six minutes, as Eliseu toyed with Marcelo on the left wing, played it back from the touchline and then picked up the rebound to score.

Two minutes later Real were on equal terms as Higuaín found the ball almost rebounding from his boot into the back of the net following a save from Málaga goalkeeper Arnau.

More defensive shambles were at the heart of Málaga's second goal, especially from Heinze, who seemed to allow the ball to go past him and through to Baha for the goal, when he could have easily cleared it.

One again Higuaín pulled the home team back, this time from the penalty spot, following a handball in the area. Though the Argentinian is not a natural pick for taking spot kicks (Van Nistelrooy, Raúl and Van der Vaart are preferred by Schuster), his heroics in the Madrid derby last month meant that it was he who took the responsibility (that and the fact that Raúl was on the bench and Van Nistelrooy could be out of action for at least a couple of months after aggravating a knock on his knee—however, Van der Vaart was on the pitch).

With four goals scored, the half was not yet over when Sergio Ramos decided incomprehensibly to stamp on Eliseo while the Málaga player was on the ground following an earlier tackle. The result was his eight dismissal as a Real Madrid player.

Schuster brought on Salgado for Sneijder after the break and Málaga scented the chance of a famous victory. They must have thought they were there when twenty minutes from time Gago bundled a Málaga player over for a penalty which Apoño converted.

But it was not to be, as Higuaín responded with a superb effort from outside the area barely a minute later then followed it up with his fourth from the penalty spot. Strictly speaking, his final goal was not a penalty kick, as Arnau saved it and Higuaín put away the rebound. There was also the whiff of a dive by Higuaín for the penalty, but that wasn't going to stop him celebrating.

The plan was to put behind the disappointment of the loss to Juventus in midweek by putting together a convincing performance against Málaga, and follow it up with a win over lower division Real Unión on Tuesday. Morale was perhaps bolstered by the "epic" nature of the comeback, but it does nothing to allay the fears for the erratic way the squad is defending.

Adding to those fears is the growing number of players out with injuries. As well as Van Nistelrooy, Robben is out for up to six weeks, De la Red is out for an indefinite period following his loss of consciousness last week, and Diarra picked up a knock in the dying minutes of the Málaga game, while Pepe is expected to return for the Copa del Rey game on Tuesday.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid Beaten up by Old Lady from Turin

Gonzalo — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:16:43 -0500

If Schuster thought he had been having trouble with the Madrid sports press recently, he had better think again, as both they and the Bernabéu faithful are laying the blame squarely on his shoulders.

The latest defeat against the 'Old Lady' of Turin, Juventus on Wednesday, proved too much for the home crowd who booed the German coach after Alessandro Del Piero's free kick put the game beyond Real Madrid.

The Bianconeri secured their passage into the knockout stages of the Champions League, but Real still has some work to do to see off the challenge of Zenit St. Petersburg for the other spot in Group H.

It could not have started worse for Real Madrid, as Arjen Robben tore a calf muscle during the warm-up and had to be replaced by Royston Drenthe. He could be out for up to six weeks.

Though Schuster can perhaps point to a host of missed chances and a couple of debatable penalty decisions, it was nevertheless the Italian side that had the better of the encounter.

Their coach, Ranieri, put together the sort of solid defence that Real must be hoping to ape at some point soon: this is the ninth game on the trot that they have failed to keep a clean sheet.

The contrast with last year's defensive solidity, which enabled Iker Casillas to lift his first Zamora trophy as the best goalkeeper in the league, are striking, all the more so because the line-up hasn't changed. Del Piero's second goal came from a poorly set-up wall, which Casillas later took responsibility for.

Del Piero had the sort of magical European night his Real Madrid counterpart, Raúl, has been dreaming of for some time.

It had been 46 years since either of the two sides managed to win at the other's ground. Real Madrid failed to improve on that statistic two weeks ago, but, inspired by their rejuvenated captain, Juventus made history at the Bernabéu. As Ranieri substituted Del Piero in the dying seconds of injury time, the local crowd gave him a standing ovation, much as they did for Ronaldinho when he led Barcelona to victory against Real back in 2005.

Real Madrid will look to two home games in a row against (on paper at least) 'weaker' opposition to bolster their much-battered morale. The first is against Málaga this coming Saturday, followed by the return Copa del Rey fixture against Racing Club de Irún on Wednesday.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid Drop off the Pace in La Liga

Gonzalo — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:56:41 -0500

Real Madrid put paid to a lacklustre last few games with a draw at Primera División newcomers Almería (this is only their second season ever in the top flight). This leaves them still lying in third place in the league standings, two points behind leaders Barcelona, who have had a particularly impressive run of form recently, scoring fifteen goals (including five against Almería) in their last four encounters. Almería's late equaliser left Real feeling like they'd "let two points escape", as Bernd Schuster put it.

It was a particularly tedious first half, with no shots on goal from the local team, and not much more from the visitors. The only bright spot was Raúl's goal, which came from a great bit of skill from Higuaín on the wing, crossing the ball for the captain to deflect it past the 'keeper with a diving header.

It was Raúl's first goal away from the Bernabéu since the one he scored against Racing Santander last April and his fifth in the league so far.

If anything, the second half was even more depressing from a Real Madrid standpoint, as the players (and coach) obviously had their minds on the clash with Juventus on Wednesday and decided to "secure" the win. Inevitably, this led to a lack of depth (to add to the general lack of width in the side), with lots of losses of possession. Almería grew in confidence and self-belief as the half wore on, and it was only a matter of time before they scored.

Sergio Ramos, who had otherwise had an acceptable game, gave the ball away with a header into no-man's land. A lightning-quick move from Almería caught him and the other defenders napping and gave Casillas no chance. Almería even had the chance to walk away with all three points, and it would not necessarily have been an unfair result.

To add insult to injury (or should that be injury to insult?), Pepe limped off three minutes into the second half and is doubtful for Wednesday's Champions League game. Another player certain of not being selected is Rubén de la Red, who fainted in Real's midweek Copa del Rey clash and who is out for an indefinite period until the doctors can determine what caused his loss of consciousness.

All in all, this game is best forgotten. One hopes that Real has plenty more up their sleeve against a Juventus finding their form, otherwise their chances of qualifying for the Champions League knockout stages (not to say anything about getting further in the competition) may be in jeopardy.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid President Accused of Living Off The Club

Gonzalo — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:37:11 -0400

How much more can Ramón Calderón take before he decides that enough is enough and he packs his bags? It's not been an easy few days for the president of Real Madrid, continuously dogged by issues that have nothing to do with the team's sporting results.

Last week he had to contend with the announcement by Juan Villalonga that he would seek the presidency of the club at the next election, scheduled to take place by 2010. You may remember this same Villalonga was looking to poach Calderón's right-hand man José Ángel Sánchez back in July to head his proposed take-over at Valencia.

After Villalonga's attempt fell through just ten days later, nobody could predict that the man who used to run Spain's Telefónica, before having to leave over accusations of insider trading, would next try to take over an even bigger football club. Over at La Liga Loca there's an excellent review of the background to this story.

There followed rumours that Florentino Pérez, the architect of the galácticos was seriously considering returning to the post he voluntarily resigned from in February 2006.

None of this should perhaps worry Calderón too much. After all, a lot can happen in two years, and the club has had sporting success with two consecutive league championships. However, it is the president's personal financial affairs that are now taking centre stage.

On Wednesday, business newspaper Negocio published an article detailing Calderón's income and tax statements since 2004. Without specifying how these details were obtained, the surprising news is that Calderón has declared no income and paid no tax between 2004 and 2007, and yet somehow managed to buy a flat in the centre of Madrid valued at some 800,000 Euros.

This was followed that same next evening in José Antonio Abellán's personal crusade against the Real Madrid president in his radio programme El Tirachinas. Abellán claims that Calderón is charging personal expenses using two club credit cards for items as varied as cups of coffee, fuel for his car, rounds of golf and visits to health spas.

Abellán even published copies of these card statements on the radio station's website, blanking out some of the amounts. Abellán extended his accusations to the rest of the club's board members, saying Calderón was merely the figurehead.

In my opinion, the "documents" don't look very official and could have been knocked up very quickly. Also, some of the expenses are in locations that Calderón is known to have visited with the team during the preseason in Irdning and the Algarve. However, the allegations are extremely serious and have been echoed widely in the Spanish press.

Whether they can be justified as legitimate business expenses will presumably be addressed by Calderón himself at a press conference tonight at 19:00 local time (18:00 GMT).

Update: At his press conference, Calderón blasted his accusers, saying they had obtained information illegally and supplemented it with lies.

"Sadly I have to stand here before you to make a formal declaration to answer these very serious accusations, which this morning I have put in the hands of they police so they can initiate the relevant investigation."

"Most of the items mentioned were of my daughter Leticia and the rest are false. None of those items has been paid by Real Madrid. The situation is so serious and so brutally damaging to my prestige and the honour of Real Madrid that I could not remain silent."

He then went on to present documentary evidence from the banks to the effect that those credit cards had not been used by him for any personal motive and that most of the transactions that were published by the various media were from a debit account in the name of his daughter. He also showed copies of his tax statements for the past 4 years, in reply to the article from Negocio about his apparent lack of income.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Sir Alex Ferguson Still Bitter at Real Madrid over Cristiano Ronaldo

Gonzalo — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:54:48 -0400

Alex Ferguson has a right to be remembered as one of the best club managers the world has ever seen. His list of trophies (22 in 22 years) at the helm of Manchester United, including a treble (League, Cup, and European Cup) in 1999 helped earn him a knighthood. He even won the now defunct Cup Winners' Cup with Aberdeen back in 1983, beating, you've guessed it, Real Madrid.

He is also a controversial media figure, and has not spoken to the BBC since they broadcast a programme over his son's alleged involvement in the football transfer market, an allegation that was never proved.

Ferguson is known for his clever use of psychology on both his players and on opponents, most famously when he completely unsettled Kevin Keegan, then at Newcastle, for the 1996 league title. However, he is not above showing his frustration when things don't go his way, and frequently criticises referees when he feels his players aren't properly "protected."

In an interview with GQ Magazine published in The Times, he gives vent to some of his annoyances over the whole summer saga regarding the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo.

"I knew it was coming, so I wasn't surprised. When we sold Gabriel Heinze to Real Madrid [the previous summer], we knew it was going to happen, because Ronaldo was very close to Heinze. I knew what they were doing. I don't believe they were interested in Heinze—good player though he is. The endgame was to get Ronaldo.

What made it really obscene was that Madrid, as General Franco's club, had a history of being able to get whoever and whatever they wanted, before democracy came to Spain."

OK, you can perhaps forgive Ferguson being annoyed that his star player was the target of one of the biggest clubs on the planet, and that they made few bones about making it known (even though appearances were more or less maintained).

The player and his advisers, who must surely shoulder a large part of the blame for the whole media circus, also unsurprisingly escape Ferguson's wrath—one wonders whether he would be so understanding had Ronaldo made a stronger attempt to leave Old Trafford. I won't even delve into the accusations he has faced of similar behaviour when he had wanted players to come to Manchester United.

But Ferguson is very conveniently ignoring both recent and ancient history. Gabriel Heinze did not go to Real Madrid in the summer of 2007 because he was part of a master plan to sign Cristiano Ronaldo. Heinze had been approached by Liverpool and Ferguson blocked the transfer, gifting a bargain to Real Madrid in the process. The whole thing was transacted in a matter of days, not weeks or months.

The whole General Franco claim is just laughable, all the more so in this day and age. Someone should perhaps point out that while Real Madrid won more league titles than either Barcelona or Atlético during the Franco years (14, vs. eight and seven, respectively), Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona, clubs from parts of the country that had been against Franco during the Civil War, won more cup titles (nine and eight vs. six).

Even if any of that were true, the suggestion that in the 32 years since Spain became a democracy, Real Madrid still have the attitude that they can buy anyone they want when they want because of the Franco legacy is just plain bonkers, or to use Ferguson's own word, obscene.

Real Madrid have been seen as arrogant in European footballing circles because since Florentino put the club on a much sounder financial footing, they have been able to compete in the hyperinflationary transfer market. His policy of buying the best player on the market every year was the subject of worldwide media attention, even if, as we now know, it actually led to an unbalanced side that won no trophies for three years.

That transfer market, it must be said, is now led by Premiership clubs flush with TV and foreign owners' cash. Real Madrid are not unique in looking out for the best players and never have been, something that Ferguson conveniently forgets. But hey, he says he's retiring at the end of next season. Maybe he can spend some of his free time reading some history, instead of revising it.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Can Real Madrid Please Stop Moaning?

Gonzalo — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:55:04 -0400

Regular readers of my entries in this site will know that I'm not fond of conspiracy theories (for my previous 'rant' on this issue, see the recent article and comments on Raúl). The latest one comes straight from the heart of Real Madrid Towers and revolves around dodgy refereeing decisions.

Pedja 'Brylcreem' Mijatovic left little of his state of mind (such as it is) to the imagination with statements like, "We are worried. It's too easy to rule against Real. If in doubt they rule against and that cannot be." Even Schuster got in on the act during his post-match press conference saying he "shared Mijatovic's worries."

Are they at all justified? It's true to say that the referee in the Madrid derby last week was truly appalling, a particularly poor example of a particularly poor breed. Goals were disallowed, penalties awarded and players sent off, much like in this Sunday's game against Athletic.

The thing is, the facts just do not stack up; some decisions went against Real and some benefited them. Higuaín's disallowed goal last night was not offside and Heinze's penalty was more than doubtful. However, Marcelo should have seen red, not yellow, for his horrific tackle on Etxeberria on the stroke of halftime. And Real Madrid won the game, like last week.

Refereeing conspiracy theories have been the bread and butter of the Spanish sports press for decades—probably since the first ball was ever kicked between two sides. Alfredo Relaño in As for instance, has been claiming for years that the Spanish Federation, and Villar, its president, are at the core of a monstrous attempt to pervert the course of Spanish football by favouring Barcelona over Real Madrid.

There are supposedly no direct instructions (of course not, these would be too easy to disprove). Instead, referees who see things "the right way" are allegedly rewarded with Cup finals and international appointments, and those who don't are relegated to obscurity.

In other words, a triumph of insinuative rather than the investigative journalism they should be doing if they really thought there was this level of corruption at the heart of the game.

Now, for a conspiracy to prosper, you need a couple of things: As few parties as possible must be involved and they must all be able to keep a secret...forever.

Call me naïve, but the general level of competence of the federation and its lackeys does not inspire me with a great deal of confidence in their chances of keeping a secret for longer than 24 hours, on a Tuesday, in July, when they're all home with the flu. Plus, the level of discretion displayed by the average club director is such that they could just not keep it to themselves if they'd somehow managed to put one over the opposition.

But the funny thing is, the papers this time are taking a different tack. Uncharacteristically for Marca, they have published an "analysis" that seeks to show that controversial refereeing decisions have been both for and against Real and that in no case have they had an influence in the result of the game (at least against Real Madrid), given that they have won all those games.

The Barcelona manager, Pep Guardiola, has taken the high ground that Real Madrid should aspire to occupy by saying that neither club should complain about the referees.

"Seriously, these things work themselves out in the long term," Guardiola said. "We sportsmen have an obligation to behave ourselves. The referees do the best they can and that's the end of it."

Let's hope that he continues to keep his composure, as neither Mijatovic nor Schuster seems to be able to do so. Perhaps they should also take note of the Athletic manager who said ironically, "How hard it is to know how to win" after the game.

Another one who has recently joined the ranks of the moaners is Sergio Ramos. Following his midweek outburst, saying that his recent poor performances are due to the fact that he gets little support on his wing, Bernd Schuster decided to leave him out of the squad and play Michel Salgado in his stead.

"To be honest, I'm not happy playing right now," Ramos said. "Before I had help on the right wing from Beckham and others and that helped a lot. Nowadays, I feel very alone on the wing and it looks like I get the blame for all the mistakes."

Though Schuster claimed that the change was for "rest and rotation" reasons, he also pointedly avoided making any comment on Ramos's statements, even after being repeatedly questioned about it just before the game.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Dramatic Madrid Derby

Gonzalo — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:00:00 -0400

Gonzalo Higuaín snatched all three points for Real Madrid, with a goal from the penalty spot deep into injury time that extended his side's unbeaten run at the Vicente Calderón stadium to nine years.

However, the true "star" of the show was, for all the wrong reasons, referee Carlos Clos Gómez. Two disallowed goals, two extremely rigorous sendings-off and one instance of not applying the advantage rule when it could have resulted in a goal mean that he will get significantly more column inches than any of the other 22 men on the pitch.

The stadium, with a three-match ban from UEFA hanging over it for the incidents at the recent Champions League clash with Olympique Marseille, thankfully did not become a protagonist on the night. The fact that there were only a few hundred "visiting" fans (clearly a result of ticket allocation rules rather than the "inconvenience" of staying on the Madrid Metro for a few more stops) meant the large police contingent had little to deal with. Less impressive however, was the unfurling of a 10 metre-long banner just before half-time paying homage to recently deceased extreme right-wing Austrian politician Jörg Haider.

It took a mere 34 seconds for Ruud van Nistelrooy to get on the scoresheet, with a cheeky shot from outside the area that found the corner of the goal and surprised Atlético 'keeper Leo Franco. Twenty minutes later the Dutchman wasn't so lucky as the referee disallowed his goal for a dubious offside decision. Raúl then had another goal disallowed for offside, this time more debatable, but certainly a close call.

Real could have finished the half three goals up as Atlético's midfield fought with Gago and De la Red and lost. Instead, both sides went to the dressing room a man down. Perea slapped Sneijder and got his marching orders on the half hour. For Real Madrid, Van Nistelrooy was on the receiving end of an extremely harsh decision just eight minutes later. Frankly, it had the whiff of "compensation" from the referee.

Javier Aguirre, the home coach, brought on Simao after the break, making a huge difference to his side and forcing Real to give up significant ground. Sergio Ramos, who had had a fairly easy time of it in the first half, struggled to contain Atlético's attacks on his wing in the second. It was Simao himself who would send the local fans into a delirium of happiness as his free kick beat a static Casillas to level the match with one minute left of normal time.

However, there was still more drama to be played out. The referee had to stop the match in the second half for an injury he himself had picked up, and consequently had to add on plenty of stoppage time. On the 96th minute, Drenthe was clearly tripped inside the area by Heitinga, and Higuaín put away the resulting spot kick to extend Atlético's derby curse for yet another year.

View the original article at the All In White blog.

Real Madrid President Calderón Faces Calls For His Resignation

Gonzalo — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:55:50 -0400

In a week where the various international fixtures mean there is little in the way of Liga to talk about, the Madrid sports dailies try to entice punters to buy their wares with a tried-and-tested strategy: transfer talk.

Never mind that it's only six weeks since the transfer window closed, AS continue to carp on about Benzema and Marca have wheeled out Bernd Schuster to stoke the flames surrounding the future of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Obviously, if you're looking for news items unfavourable to Real Madrid, you need only to look at the Barcelona sports dailies ("Mourinho wants Pepe and Higuaín" - Mundo Deportivo, "Saviola to be asked to leave" - Sport). It is unusual, however, to have an interview with a pro-Real Madrid group in such a publication, except of course, when it's used to air grievances over Ramón Calderon's presidency of the club.

Plataforma Blanca, a group of several hundred Real Madrid socios (members) unhappy with the way the club is run, are headed by Eugenio Martínez, managing director of a PR firm. In the interview, Martínez claims he will demand Calderón's resignation at the next General Assembly:

Is reform necessary at the club? Calderón's management team has shown that it does not have the ability to help Real Madrid evolve. We have to look to the future.

You see yourselves as an alternative at the helm? We have the desire to be an alternative. Change is in the air.

Some say that Plataforma Blanca is just a front for Florentino [Pérez, former Real Madrid president]. There is nobody behind us. This initiative has come from young, professional, Real Madrid supporters looking to reform the club.

Calderón seems to go from conflict to conflict. Has his presidency really been so bad? The club's image has been damaged by all those scandals and alleged irregularities. The climate right now is not favourable towards him, as he does no inspire confidence or credibility.

And the socios still don't have the accounts for the last financial year. It's unbelievable that this late in the year we still have not seen the accounts or that a date has been set for the General Assembly.

Could debt once again threaten the club's survival? I'm waiting to see the accounts, but by my reckoning, we could be three hundred million euros in debt. That leaves us with negative room to manoeuvre. The ability to generate revenue is smaller than expenditure, so the debt just keeps on growing.

How do you feel about those figures? We are against approving the accounts. If that happens, it would be the first time in the club's history and the club would be effectively paralysed. A similar situation happened when Ramón Mendoza resigned as president [in 1995]. Ironically, it was Calderón who urged the socios to reject the budget, ending with Mendoza leaving and Lorenzo Sanz becoming president.

So Calderón could go from executioner to executed. If you live by the sword, you die by the sword.

Is Calderón frightened of the socios? It's understandable, given how they rejected his proposed reforms last May and asked for his resignation.

Will you ask for him to resign? I will request it at the next Assembly, and if he does not, we'll have to consider a censure motion.

What is needed for a censure motion to succeed? Half of the members present at the Assembly plus one. If Mr Calderón has any remaining self-respect, he should leave the club.

You have begun a civil suit alleging irregularities in the election of Socios compromisarios. We are accusing Calderón and his friend Carrascosa of manipulating the database of socios in order to gain control over the Assembly. We do not intend to take the club to court, unlike Calderón himself did over the postal vote.

Is this just a few dissenting voices, or are Plataforma Blanca the tip of the iceberg? According to club rules, Calderón has until the end of December to convene a General Assembly and get the accounts approved, so we won't have long to wait.

View the original article at the All In White blog.