Real Madrid Transfers: Europe's top coaches don't buy the Galacticos 2.0 hype

Spanish Football / Ralph Ellis / 29 July 2009 / Leave a Comment

"Presumably that means they’d all lay the 2.24 for Madrid to win the Primera division, and back the 2.12 for Ronaldo and his new mates to end the season with no trophies."

Leonardo, Louis Van Gaal and Sir Alex Feguson aren't convinced that despite buying three of the world's top players this summer Real Madrid are ready to be challenging for top trophies just yet, says Ralph Ellis.

Okay, so we know Cristiano Ronaldo is good in the air. But Sir Alex Ferguson has warned the world's most expensive player he could end up playing centre half!

That's the latest jibe dished out by Fergie as he goes through pre-season talking freely about all things and all clubs. After having dismissed neighbours City as "a small club" at the weekend, he's now turned on Real Madrid and their new wave of Galacticos. Taking the £80million on offer from free spending president Florentino Perez was one thing. Wishing him luck was another entirely!

Fergie delivered his damning verdict - and a little history lesson - ahead of today's Audi Cup game in Berlin with Argentina's top side Boca Juniors. 'There is a great example of a team (that cannot buy success),' he warned. 'It was called Sunderland and spent so much money that it was known as the Bank of England club.

'They didn't win anything, and in the end they got themselves relegated. I am not saying that Real Madrid will get relegated but they will have plenty of problems with balance.

'I do not know how Pellegrini plans to pick his side because it has no balance. I told Ronaldo before he flew out that he will end up playing centre-half because I don't think they have one. I don't envy Pellegrini picking his team.'

Barcelona's manager Louis Van Gaal was not much kinder. 'My belief is that you have to make a team, you just cannot go out and buy one,' he said.
'I hope the trainer Real Madrid can make a team out of so many individuals but I don't know if they can.'

Brazil legend Leonardo was just as cutting. 'It will not be easy for Real Madrid and they have not succeeded in the past,' said the new Milan coach. 'They had their experiment with the galacticos and yet at the end of it all they did not win anything.

'You need more than just money to build a team. You need more than talent, you need spirit and we will have to see if Madrid have this spirit.'

Presumably that means they'd all lay the [2.24] for Madrid to win the Primera division, and back the [2.12] for Ronaldo and his new mates to end the season with no trophies. Incidentally if Fergie's wrong, and Ronaldo does get to play up front instead of at the heart of the defence, he's [6.0] to be the Spanish League's top scorer, just ahead of David Villa at [7.0]. Barcelona's new boy Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the [5.0] favourite.

Ronaldo may however be a little bit less likely to play full-back after this morning's news that Liverpool agreed a fee of £3.5 million to sell full-back Alvaro Arbeloa. Whether Xabi Alonso will end up joining him remains to be seen.
　
Five things you might not know about Florentino Perez

1. Born in March 1947 in Madrid, his boyhood hero was Alredo Di Stefano

2. He studied engineering at the Universidade Politecnica de Madrid

3. At 1.8billion dollars he's rated the 397th richest man in the world by Forbes

4. Spain's largest construction company, Actividades de Construccion y Servicios S.A., which he has headed since 1993, had $27.6billion worth of sales last year

5. He's twice dabbled in local politics, getting elected to Madrid's city council in 1979 but failing in a bid to become an MP seven years later