Real Madrid Must Protect Senior Players to Avoid Facing a Leadership Vacuum
Smartly dressed, sun shining down on him, Iker Casillas strode out onto the turf at the Santiago Bernabeu, roughly 2,000 Real Madrid fans stationed at one end of the stadium there to greet him. As they chanted, he smiled, waved, positioning himself between two European Cups that sat beaming in the sun.
There he posed for photos, sandwiched not only between those two trophies but between 17 others as well. Everything he'd won at Real Madrid surrounded him: Five league trophies, four Spanish Super Cups, three European Cups, two King's Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups and one Club World Cup—19 titles collected across 17 years and 725 games.
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Had it not been for the day before, a day that featured a casually clothed Casillas alone in the Real Madrid press room saying farewell without a single club official alongside him, this occasion might have been a pleasant one. But it wasn't; it was awkward, a club saying goodbye to a player for whom the Bernabeu's exits have long been left open.
So here he finally was, figuratively walking through them, Real Madrid losing an icon. A winner. A captain. A leader.
A week earlier, it felt as though he might be joined by another such figure, as Sergio Ramos edged closer to the same doors amid different circumstances but carrying similar dissatisfaction. Ramos' departure now appears less likely, but as his transfer saga rumbled on, Marca asked a pertinent question: "Who will catch the armband?"
More than just a question, it was an anxious glance at the club's leadership stocks—is there any captaincy material at the Bernabeu behind Casillas and Ramos? Later that day, Marca had an answer: "Aye-aye to captain Marcelo," the Madrid-based daily wrote, presenting the findings of a poll but hardly inspiring confidence, raising an important issue as it did so.
The Brazilian full-back had been given the nod over Cristiano Ronaldo by the poll's respondents to take the captaincy if both Casillas and Ramos were to depart. The issue, however, was that they weren't spoiled for choice.
Real Madrid like their captains to be two things: iron-willed and Spanish. Ramos fits the bill. So did Casillas. Before them, Raul, Fernando Hierro and Manolo Sanchis did too. But such characters have become scarce in Chamartin, and leaders in a more general sense are also short in number.
In the current squad, with Casillas now gone, five men strike you as leaders: Ramos, Marcelo, Ronaldo, Pepe and Luka Modric. But Ramos' future is uncertain, Pepe has just 12 months to run on his current contract and extension talks have stalled, and Marcelo and Modric, while being mercurial and majestic, aren't exactly imposing. Or forceful. Or put-a-team-on-their-back kind of guys.
Any way you cut it, Real Madrid look short on the club's archetypal leaders. But why?
The answer lies in the club's recent transfer business, president Florentino Perez having maintained a theme through every deal across the last two years: youth.
In the summer of 2013, Real signed Gareth Bale, Asier Illarramendi, Isco, Daniel Carvajal and Casemiro, while also elevating Alvaro Morata, Jese, Nacho and Denis Cheryshev from the Castilla squad. The following summer, James Rodriguez, Toni Kroos and Keylor Navas were lured to the Spanish capital and Fernando Pacheco won a promotion. And in 2015 we've seen Martin Odegaard, Lucas Silva, Danilo, Marco Asensio and Lucas Vazquez follow.
Among those 18 players, 17 are 25 years of age or younger—two are still teenagers—and only Navas was older than 24 when he first put pen to paper at the Bernabeu.
In a long-term sense, such a haul looks promising; Real Madrid have a core of young, precocious talents who, if they're retained, will grow together. But in an immediate sense, it's problematic. The current squad packs power, strength, explosiveness and verve, but concurrently lacks experience, resilience and know-how—particularly following the sales of Xabi Alonso, Angel Di Maria, Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil, Gonzalo Higuain, Raul Albiol and Jose Callejon in the two-year period alluded to. That's not to say that every one of those sales was misguided, but the eroding away of experience is undeniable. And in 2014-15, it showed.
Leaders help a team recover from setbacks. They guide clubs through turmoil; act as sounding boards for younger players; deal with the press in moments of despair; provide composure in the hottest cauldrons; set an example on the training pitch; motivate those struggling. How you pull out of form slumps is often down to senior figures and leaders. Last season, Real Madrid and Barcelona both found trouble at the same time in January. But only one truly recovered.
Interestingly, Barcelona's recent dealings in the transfer market have stood in great contrast to their rivals in the capital. Last summer, Barca's signings were Claudio Bravo, Jeremy Mathieu, Thomas Vermaelen, Luis Suarez, Ivan Rakitic and Marc-Andre ter Stegen. When they arrived, those men were 31, 30, 28, 27, 26 and 22, respectively, only Ter Stegen bucking the trend and arriving with relative inexperience. This summer, the club has snapped up the 28-year-old Arda Turan.
As such, what Barcelona have added along with talent is nous, savvy, resilience, durability and the composure only experience can bring—strong dressing-room voices who can have an impact both on and off the pitch.
Naturally, a balance must be struck, and a club must react to its own unique circumstances. But at Real Madrid, the youth-only policy for signings feels too rigid, built to design a squad that's magical in a simulation; not a group of men able to overcome ups and downs in reality. Youthful exuberance can't do it all.
What Real Madrid need to have watched this week is the extremely contrasting deals that have played out in northwest England. At Old Trafford, Manchester United snapped the 30-year-old Bastian Schweinsteiger for £14.4 million. At the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City forked out a colossal £49 million for the decade-younger Raheem Sterling.
The latter is the sort of marquee signing Real Madrid have made a habit of, but most would argue the former is going to have a bigger bearing on the upcoming Premier League season. Whereas Sterling will excite and tantalise, Schweinsteiger will marshal a midfield, a system. His influence will be more tangible, further reaching. He brings qualities Sterling will only acquire with time.
Of course, the Englishman will long outlast the German, but for Real Madrid it's a notable example: Collecting talents like Sterling without ever adding and retaining the complementary leaders is essentially buying a future that will never arrive—a future of staggering potential but one that forever remains one step away.
At the Bernabeu, however, Perez's transfer policy is unlikely to change, meaning senior figures won't be arriving, true leaders remaining scarce. Thus, after Casillas' departure, Real Madrid must do everything they can to hold on to the few they have.
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