Are Madrid 12-round Prize Fighters Or Just King Of The 4-Rounders?

Real Madrid unveiled French striker Karim Benzema yesterday as its third big money signing of summer transfer season. The former Lyon man cost a mere $57M for Los Blancos pushing Madrid’s summer spending over the $300M mark. All this spending makes for great headlines and underlines Perez’s stated goal to do in one year what took three years last time around with the original Galacticos, but does Perez have enough juice to finish the job?

Perez came out of the corner in his second term throwing many haymakers, landing most, signing the long sought after Cristiano Ronaldo, the 2007 Ballon d’Or winner Kaka, and now Benzema, but seemingly missing out Franck Ribery, David Villa, and perhaps Xabi Alonso. The question now is whether Perez is more Iron Mike Tyson or post-prison Mike Tyson. The difference being the latter was not disciplined enough for a 12-round fight any longer often punching himself out of a bout.

All the other clubs were stunned initially with Madrid’s explosion (except maybe Manchester City), but they seem to have righted themselves knowing they can make headway by grabbing the gems Madrid now considers flawed. Perez has already stated that he must offload at least 10 players this summer. Yet, he has only sold one, Javier Saviola.

The selloff rationale is two-fold. First, he cannot have a squad that large and pay the amount of money to the players who may only see the pitch every couple matches because the costs are ridiculous and the players will not be happy. Second, Perez believes he can make up a considerable amount of his outlays in increased shirt sales, but he must be counting on selling players to defray his outlays.

The Dutch contingent he has thrown out into the yard sale has not moved yet. There is good reason for this. All the other clubs see the staggering heavyweight who may have punched himself out of the fight. The longer the wait, the better the deals they may find on a Robben, Sneijder, Van der Vaart or Huntelaar. Come August as the transfer window begins to close, the bargain bin shoppers will have considerably more leverage and Perez may not get the funds he needs to finance his enormous outlays. This is Perez’s first mistake this summer.

His second has been his timing. This splurge would make so much more sense and yield more revenue for Madrid had there been an upcoming TV contract to negotiate. There is not. Madrid just started in 2008 a new five-year contract. Those broadcasters have a great deal now, just like many of Madrid’s other sponsors, which might explain the rumors that Perez is trying to strong-arm adidas into doubling its current deal that runs until 2012. Adidas should be laughing all the way to the bank at Perez’s offer.

Perez and Madrid are certainly gunning for the top. It just is not clear whether they have the endurance to make it all the way there. Chinks in the armor are already showing and the rest of this summer will go a long way to determining their success.

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What Will Real Madrid's Roster and Lineup Look Like Next Season?

Galacticos 2.0?

Florentino Perez is clearly playing fantasy football in the real world right now with the mega-signings of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka in the past few days. It also does not appear he is finished collecting superstar players Galacticos 2.0, with David Villa, Franck Ribery, Xabi Alonso, Nemanja Vidic and Javier Mascherano all still rumored to be moving to the Bernabeu this summer, with the Villa move looking ever more likely these days. So, what will his new manager, Manuel Pellegrini, have to play with at beginning of next season? And what his favored lineup be?

Perez has said he will trim 10 players from the current roster to make way for the new signings. Whether this means he will cut down the squad size or Perez intends to sign 10 new players is not clear. Although, it likely means next season's roster will be smaller than this season's.

The Blancos roster at the end of this season looked like this:



12 Agus D 16 Gabriel Ivan Heinze D
28 Alberto Alberto Bueno F 20 Gonzalo Gerardo Higuaín F
27 Chema Anton D 19 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar F
5 Fabio Cannavaro D 24 Javi García M
1 Iker Casillas G 12 Marcelo D
13 Jordi Codina G 21 Christoph Metzelder D
18 Ruben De la Red M 2 Michel Michel Salgado D
6 Lassana Diarra M 35 Miguel Palanca F
6 Mahamadou Diarra M 17 Daniel Parejo M
15 Royston Ricky Drenthe D 3 Pepe D
25 Jerzy Dudek G 7 Raúl F
18 Julien Faubert M 11 Arjen Robben M
8 Fernando Rubén Gago M 9 Javier Saviola F
29 Gary Gary D 4 Sergio Sergio Ramos D
14 Jose Maria Guti M 10 Wesley Sneijder M
28 Marcos Ramiro Tebar M 22 Miguel Torres D
23 Rafael Van der Vaart M 17 Ruud Van Nistelrooy F
26 Velayos D

Dudek, Salgado, and Cannavaro are gone, but Ezequiel Garay returns from loan and you must add Ronaldo and Kaka to the list as well.

So, who gets culled from the roster?

It won't be a firesale because Real can afford to keep the players but there might be some discounts to be had and players will certainly want to leave for more playing time. Ruud, Heinze, Robben, Van der Vaart and Sneijder have all been rumored to be leaving. In fact, the Dutch contingent in Madrid could be nearly wiped out this offseason.

It is looking very likely that Villa will be coming in, so it makes it much more likely that Ruud, who is coming off an injury and is getting up there, and Saviola, who barely had any playing time this year, will on their way out. Huntelaar, while a new acquisition, could also be shipped on his way, but I think it unlikely.

Current midfielders at the Bernabeu should be very worried about their status. Kaka will take up the starting central attacking midfield position and everybody else will be second choice and deservedly so. Van der Vaart, who likes the central role with either have to slide over to the wings for playing time or sit back in a reserve role. Guti, the long-time Blanco and vice-captain, would likely be a much more willing reserve.

Ronaldo will take up a starting winger position meaning Robben, Sneijder and Van der Vaart will all have to fight for time on the wing. If Real signs up Ribery this will mean only more competition. This would seem to add credent to Van der Vaart leaving Madrid and likely either Robben or Sneijder leaving for greener pastures. My money would be on Robben leaving since he can only play on the right side, whereas Sneijder is a bit more versatile. None of these three will like severly reduced playing time that next season will likely bring if all remain.

In the defense the only likely exit will be Heinze due to his age. This is the one area where Real Madrid does not have a surfeit of talent and will likely bring in another central defender and left fullback (Raul Albiol? Vidic? Who else?).

As an LFC fan, I would swap Alonso for Gago and Sneijder/Higuain if Perez wants Xabi so badly. Fair deal if you ask me.

With so much offensive firepower, what do you think the preferred lineup for Pellegrini will be?

My best guess would be a 4-2-3-1.

Villa

Sneijder - Kaka - Ronaldo

Diarra - Gago

Marcelo - Metzelder - Pepe - Ramos

Casillas

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Your Dreams Can Come True

No, you're not bedding Giselle. But, have you ever dreamed of owning your own football club? Dreams of ü75 FC dancing in your head when it hits the pillow? With the advent of the ebays and intertubes, your dream is only a few clicks and a few Andrew Jacksons away.

The latest trend in club ownership, besides Americans buying Premiership clubs, is purchasing a share of a lower-tier club and participating in the operation of the club. Plus, you can do it any number of languages--English, Danish, French and even American.

If you can't afford to purchase a team, there is always an oppotunity to just participate online of the management of a squad, regardless of whether you want to help or hurt the team. Tel Aviv club Hapoel Kiryat Shalom allows--quick, tell your local al Qaeda member about this wonderous opportunity for pratfalls, hijinks and the such against their most hated enemy.

In 2007, Israeli entrepreneur Moshe Hogeg bought Tel Aviv soccer team Hapoel Kiryat Shalom. Although fans don't own the team, they can go to a Website set up by Mr. Hogeg -- web2sport.com -- and vote for free on team selection and formation. Fans can then watch the game online and vote on substitutions during the match. So far 11,500 fans regularly log on to watch the matches. (In 2006, the Schaumburg Flyers, an independent minor-league baseball team near Chicago, allowed fans as part of an interactive online series to vote on lineups -- which left, on occasion, outfielders playing the infield.)

For Mr. Hogeg's soccer team, there have been a few glitches along the way, as well. During a recent match, fans from rival teams went onto the Web site and voted off Shalom's star striker. This cost the team the match. Another problem: Since fans like to stay home and watch the match interactively on their computers, stadium attendance has fallen. Web2sport is now planning to implement a voting system via text message, and Mr. Hogeg says he hopes to buy a club in England this year.

Take the plunge and you can drop the fantasy from your title of fantasy football manager.

Hat-tip to The Big Lead.

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