Few surprises

Having switched off from football for two weeks (hey, we all need a break from time to time), I return to find Real Madrid has, in that time:

• won the season's first title in contention (the Spanish Supercup against Valencia)
• lost the league opener away to Deportivo
• sold Robinho to Manchester City for a club record €40 million.

Which of these is the most surprising news item?

At first glance you might think that Robinho's last-gasp record-breaking move to the English Premiership would fit the bill. And I must admit at an initial level of disbelief on hearing the news. This was then followed by relief (that it was all finally over) and finally, glee.

Because despite Real's disastrous transfer policy over the summer after having an almost unprecedented three months to shape the squad for the coming season, the club managed to get full market price (if not somewhat above) for a player who was unhappy, and who had lost the confidence of his manager and his colleagues. They also avoided selling the player to a direct rival in the Champions League who had gone so far as advertising Robinho replica shirts on the club's website.

But, although the destination was surprising, the fact that Robinho left was not. He had burnt his bridges two weeks ago with his first public statement on the matter, and compounded it on the last day of the transfer window by calling a press conference to express his unwavering desire to join Chelsea.

This leaves Real Madrid with just one Brazilian player on their books (Marcelo), confirming the club's recent trend in signings.

Real's loss away to Deportivo was also unsurprising. With Sneijder (injured) and Van der Vaart (suspended) missing, the midfield struggled to create and contain. Riazor is also somewhat of a "cursed" ground for Real Madrid, who have not won there since 1992 and last managed to get a point in November 2002.

Hence Real Madrid's triumph in the Spanish Supercup must rank as the most surprising news item of the three. After a narrow defeat away to Valencia in the first leg, Real left themselves a mountain to climb after conceding first (Silva, in the 33rd minute) and losing Van der Vaart 6 minutes later when he was sent off for a nasty challenge on Mata. Despite equalising early in the second half, Real then found themselves with nine men after Van Nistelrooy was dismissed for a second bookable offence. Nevertheless, they still managed to outplay Valencia with three more goals to put the game beyond them.

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Burning Bridges

He's been unsettled all summer. Who would have guessed that Real Madrid's chasing of Cristiano Ronaldo would have the effect, not of bringing the Portuguese winger to Madrid, but of driving away one of last season's fans' (and the readers of this blog's) favourites?

It's been on the cards since Wagner Ribeiro, Robinho's agent, said last month that the player felt "undervalued" and that there was interest from Chelsea. However, Robinho himself has kept quiet on the issue, at least in public. Until today.

In an interview with Spanish news agency EFE, Robinho has finally said publicly that he wants to leave Real Madrid for Chelsea. In a move calculated to put pressure on the Real Madrid president and board, he will soon have the fans asking for him to leave with statements like:

It's not for money. My personal objective is to be the best player in the World and that is not going to happen at Real Madrid. That's why I've set myself the target of playing in the English Premiership next season.

I think my time at Real Madrid is at an end. I hope that the management reaches agreement with Chelsea to resolve my situation as soon as possible.

I've never missed a training session at Real Madrid. I've trained every day and I will continue to do so. Whether I play or not [against Valencia in the Spanish Supercup this Sunday] I don't know, mainly because if I don't have a good game people can say it's because my mind is elsewhere. To avoid those kinds of comments, it's better for Schuster to pick other players.

My message to the fans is thank you for your affection and the way you've treated me.

So now the ball is firmly in Calderón's court. He can keep Robinho at Real against his wishes, but, after such a public statement, neither the fans nor his team mates will be very happy with him in the squad. All of which plays to some extent into Chelsea's hands. Wagner Ribeiro said earlier this week that Real Madrid would be willing to sell Robinho to the London club for €40 million. I wonder if his price has now dropped somewhat.

This blog will be on hiatus for the next two weeks and will return the week before Real Madrid's second league fixture against Numancia.

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Bye Bye Brazil, Hello Holland

Real Madrid's love affair with Brazilian footballers seems to be slowly coming to an end. At its height, back in Florentino Pérez's last season as club president, the squad boasted five Brazilians in its ranks: Roberto Carlos, Cicinho, Baptista, Robinho and Ronaldo. As of today, with the sale of Julio Baptista to Roma for €12 million, this number now stands at two: Robinho and Marcelo. If you listen to the sports press, and Robinho does end up in Phil Scolari's Chelsea, it could soon be just one.

There could be two factors at play in this changing trend: the most plausible one is that, Marcelo aside, all of the other Brazilian players were signed before Ramón Calderón's ascent to power at Real Madrid. And, apart from Roberto Carlos, they were all signed in Florentino Pérez's era. Calderón has not bothered to hide his dislike for his previous boss and has even gone so far as to accuse him of meddling in the affairs of the club following his resignation. He may be thinking of putting his own stamp on the squad by getting rid of those who arrived under Florentino. The second possible factor is the growing perception at Real Madrid of Brazilians as "problematic". In other words, a fondness for the party life and complaints when not selected in the starting 11.

It is no secret that Robinho is unsettled at the club. Marca goes so far as to suggest that he has told Calderón in person that he wants to leave, although the president has so far refused to entertain any offers from Chelsea. This contrasts interestingly with some of his statements during the Cristiano Ronaldo saga to the effect that he would never keep anyone at the club who was unhappy there.

The focus at the club, quite possibly heavily influenced by Bernd Schuster, has now shifted towards players perceived to be more solid, more reliable. This has resulted in an unprecedented number of Dutch players being signed. Van Nistelrooy was signed in 2006 (under Capello), followed by Robben, Sneijder and Drenthe last summer. The recent addition of Van der Vaart to the squad brings the total number up to five. The only nationality with a larger representation is, obviously, Spanish.

The Dutchmen have all, so far, integrated well at the club, and there are no obvious cliques being formed. Without generalising about national traits (a futile exercise, in any case), there is a feeling that these signings are contributing to building a more compact, resilient squad. More of a team than a bunch of talented individuals, in other words. And that can only be a good thing in the long run.

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Robinho looks to Chelsea

Robinho, chosen by the readers of this blog as Real Madrid's best player of last season is reportedly unhappy at being considered as a possible makeweight in the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United. In a statement to Brazilian sports site Globoesporte his agent, Wagner Ribeiro said that both he and the player were unhappy at this "undervaluation as an athlete. Robinho is as good or better than Cristiano Ronaldo. If Real Madrid had won the Champions League I have no doubt that Robinho would be considered the World's best player"

Ribeiro then added that he had spoken to Frank Arnesen (Chelsea's chief scout) and two of his advisors by telephone and that they had expressed to him a desire to try to temp Robinho to join the London club. Though he mentioned no figures, the sum of 35 million euros has been doing the rounds of various Spanish and Brazilian media. "Robinho has to return to Madrid on the 14th of July. I will go with him some time before that date, I'm not yet sure when, to see how things will end", Ribeiro concluded.

If Robinho moves to London, he will rejoin former Brazil and Portugal manager "Big Phil" Scolari, who has already secured his first signing for the club in the form of former Barcelona midfielder Deco. Frankly, if the reported numbers are correct, then Real would be crazy to spend more than twice the amount on Cristiano Ronaldo than they are likely to get for Robinho.

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Diarra doomed?

Analysing Real's defeat to Almería on Saturday, Phil Ball makes an interesting statement about why Mahamadou Diarra may not have a long and illustrious career at the Bernabéu. He draws a parallel with Claude Makélélé, a player who performed a very similar role, but was unloved by the Madrid faithful because of his lack of skill in playing the ball forward creatively, while overlooking his obvious qualities as a defensive midfielder.

Almería's midfielders turned the tables on the Mali captain by putting intense pressure on him every time he had the ball, forcing him to give it away time and again. This, Phil Ball argues, is why he will eventually be let go in favour of someone like Gago, less able defensively, but much more comfortable with his passing skills.

I wonder how likely it is that history will repeat itself. The departure of Makélélé in 2003 coincided with a downturn in Real's galáctico fortunes, and they did not manage to win a trophy again until the league championship last year. Some have argued that the lack of an effective defensive midfielder, a "destructive" rather than a "constructive" player, was a major contributing factor, and that Real Madrid really did miss Makélélé.

Florentino Pérez's inelegant parting shot to a player who then went on to form a core part of Mourinho's Chelsea may have come back to haunt him: "He wasn't a header of the ball and he rarely passed the ball more than three metres. Younger players will arrive who will cause Makélélé to be forgotten.". There's a place in the squad for a player of Diarra's characteristics. Let's hope Schuster has the wisdom to see it.

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When there's no unrest, make it up

Bernd Schuster is going to have to learn quickly how things work when you are in charge of a big club. And number one on his list is to realise that every word he says will be scrutinised minutely for meanings, even where none exist. Take for instance his interview with German TV channel Premiere following Real's 2-1 win over Werder Bremen in Tuesday's Champions League match:

"I have got to wait and see if this is what I really want. I have to see if I enjoy the way things work at Real Madrid in the long-term. You see all the people who come to training, and that really is a big responsibility for somebody who has previously only worked at small clubs. At Real you only get opinions, not facts. This is not good and I am not yet used to it. I will have to just see how this year goes."

I've not seen the interview, and even if I had I could not comment on it as my German is nonexistent. The above translation is taken from the Spanish version on Marca, so something may have been lost on the way. German tabloid Bild and Marca itself believe it signals a desire for Schuster to leave at the end of the season. As, on the other hand, has completely ignored the story and is keener on trying to sell the fact that Bremen's Brazilian midfielder Diego is on his way to the Bernabéu next summer. The likelihood is that these are the unguarded words of someone whose life and way of working has changed radically since his last job and is saying he needs to take stock after some time to see how he is doing. I think it unlikely that he is sending a message to his employers this early in the season, and when things so far are going his way. But what Schuster has to learn, and learn quickly, is that everything you say can and will be taken out of context by a press desperate to get their angle of the story onto their front pages. And this can contribute to a destabilisation in the club; not by itself, of course, but if other factors also come into play.

Schuster must have realised that he had to provide some context, which is what he did the following evening on the Spanish Antena 3 TV channel: "Of course I'm happy. Just being in Real Madrid makes me happy because I have finally arrived at a big club and the results are going my way. I cannot ask for more. If I'm not happy now I don't know when I would be".

Some think that Marca is just causing trouble because, coincidentally, one of their favourite coaches, José Mourinho last night decided to leave Chelsea and they would like him at the helm. Personally, I find this a little far fetched. Others think, like I do, that this is just an easy way for Marca and Bild to fill their front pages.

In other news, BBDO consulting, a unit of the world's largest advertising agency, published a ranking of the 25 most valuable teams in Europe. Real Madrid is top with a brand value of 1,063 million euros, followed by Barcelona with 948 million and Manchester United with 922 million. The report also says that Real's three-year jersey sponsorship with online gambling company Bwin is worth more than 60 million euros.

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