Rumblings from Espanha

Galactico's 50/50 on Real No.9 Ronaldo

2009-09-18

Cristiano Ronaldo's new Real Madrid team-mates are divided in opinion as to whether the £80million superstar is good for the club, according to Spanish journalist Guillem Balague. The Portuguese winker has enjoyed an impressive start to life at the Santiago Bernabeu with his two goals on his European debut for Los Blancos in the 5-2 win over FC Zurich taking his tally to four in just three games.However, life may not be all that rosy according to Balague, who believes some Real stars are getting rubbed up the wrong way by CR9's arrogance and feel the extra media attention he brings to the club is an unwanted distraction." It's interesting that on the one hand the vibe that I am getting from within the changing rooms is that there is some doubt about the adaptability of Cristiano Ronaldo to the values of Real Madrid," Balague told skysports.com."I think there are some people within the changing room who don't appreciate the glamour and see some of his behaviour as arrogant."But at the same time the man is scoring goals so he is becoming the star and I wonder if that is going to create a bit of a problem. [end article]

I found this quote from Fabio Capello, the England NT coach and former Real Madrid boss:

"He (Ronaldo) is not worth £25million more than Kaka," declared the Italian."You can see that Manchester United’s directors have been cleverer than AC Milan's in their dealings with Real Madrid."

Capello is alluding to the transfer price of CR (80 million GBP) that United garnered, as opposed to the transfer fee AC Milan brokered for Kaka (57 million GBP). I am inclined to agree, but the price for United was non-negotiable. They knew that they had Real over a barrel when Perez bragged in the press of their 200 million GBP cache. So United said, "we'll take 80 million of that!...cash up front." CR was never going to leave unless United gave their blessing. 80 million ducats is a soothing salve for losing your best player...and CR liked being the most expensive transfer in the history of footy. But with that title comes a hefty weight on the shoulders.

Kaka (whose real name is Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite...his brother couldn't pronounce Ricardo when he was little so he said Kaka :) ) is a fabulous player. And his form has been stronger than CR's at RM. But we are early in the season. When CR gets going (if he gets going), it will be despite the other jealous morons on the team. None of them were even purchased for 20 million and it's quite obvious that Perez and Company still have a ways to go if their "dream team" is going to win anything. I think Senhor Balague hit the nail on the head! With their sloppy defense (evidenced by 2 goals from a weak Zurich side) they will need more than CR freekicks to advance in the Champions League...and to beat Barcelona in el Classico.