What might have been

This weekend's Sunday Telegraph has an interview with Carlos Queiroz, in which he reminisces about his year in charge at Real Madrid in between stints as assistant coach to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. In the wake of the usual end-of-season transfer speculation which has Real considering whether to make an offer of up to £100 million to United for Cristiano Ronaldo's services, Queiroz reveals that his young countryman was at the top of his wishlist when he made the move to the Bernabéu nearly five years ago. Given that United snapped him up soon afterwards for a "measly" £12 million (also indirectly through Queiroz), Real Madrid can only wonder what might have been.

Earlier this week, French sports daily L'Equipe reported that Mijatovic had recently been in the UK to talk to Queiroz about Cristiano. The Real Madrid sports director reportedly put 120 million euros on the table to make him the player to spearhead Real's assault on the Champions League. Queiroz is said to have retorted that "at that price, the striker will be with United next season", which, if the quote is accurate, suggests there is room for negotiation.

Of course, the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo has matured into the kind of player everybody wants must owe something to the way Alex Ferguson runs his Manchester United squads. The relative freedom from internal politics and his unchallenged status inside the club means that no player is more important than the squad and internal cliques and dissension are generally quashed before they can take hold. Whether he could have flourished in that way at Real Madrid is something we'll never know.

Ironically, it was Ferguson's intransigence in this regard that eventually led to media maelstrom David Beckham joining the rank of the galácticos at the same time as Queiroz. However, as Queiroz recalls, the seeds of destruction that resulted in three years without a trophy, including his one season at the club (the Spanish Supercup does not count) had already been sown. Real's president, Florentino Pérez, decided that "he knew something about football" and commanded that Makélélé be sold to Chelsea. This was "a criminal error, the president's worst decision. Makélélé wanted to stay. He told me and he told [Jorge] Valdano (then the club's general manager). But, in the president's mind, releasing Makélélé vacated a position in which David Beckham could play. He was worried that, with Makélélé in the team, Beckham would be blocked out. But of course we could have had both."

Queiroz also analyses Real's Zidanes y Pavones strategy: "the policy was to surround the galácticos with players from the academy, the cantera, as much as possible. It was a great idea and could have worked - except that the cantera could not deliver its requirements. The young players were not there. On top of that, the club had let some of the best go the year before - like Samuel Eto'o. He was a Real Madrid player before he went to Barcelona and emerged as world-class. When the season started, I gave an interview to Marca and said that, although it was true Real Madrid was a Ferrari, you could not win a race if the car had no wheels. Sad to say, I was proved right."

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The new Redondo?

Much has been written about the impending transfer of Argentinian wunderkind Fernando Gago from Boca Juniors to Real Madrid, most of it revolving around his fast-rising price tag and Ramón Calderón's need to add to his good news collection for this Sunday's Annual General Meeting.

However, an article in the Guardian's Sport Blog focuses on his playing style and asks interesting questions about how well he would fit into Capello's scheme at Real Madrid. The article quotes Jorge Valdano: "The club's idea is to bring him not as an alternative to Emerson or Diarra, but to Guti, but Gago doesn't play like Guti. Gago is a midfielder who needs another midfielder, but one bodyguard is enough. Otherwise, he has to play more forward, and the more forward he plays, the less of a player he is. Gago will join Madrid, won't play, and his evolution will be delayed because the only way to progress is competing, not watching matches from the subs bench. The list of players who failed arriving aged 20 a big club is so long that it's best to discuss the only exception: Kaká".

If we assume that Calderón is remaining true to his word and not bringing in players that have not been recommended after a technical assessment, then Capello must have a place for him in the squad. If he can't play as far forward as Guti, then this raises two problems: there is still no substitute for the only playmaker in the squad, and which of Emerson or Diarra will he replace? Given that Capello has been very reluctant to make any changes to his 'double pivot', you have to wonder what his plans are for Gago.

Will he therefore go the way of so many other young players at Real who never made the grade due to lack of opportunities or because they just did not fit in with the manager du jour's plans? The tag 'The new Redondo' is a hard one to live up to (just ask the Manchester United faithful) and maybe Real are just getting in there to prevent others taking advantage of this emerging talent. Let's hope not.

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