Stats Corner: Real Madrid vs. Manchester United

Previous Head-to-head Results

Competition	Date	Score
European Supercup	08-Aug-2017	Real Madrid	2-1	Man. United
Champions League - Last 16	05-Mar-2013	Man. United	1-2	Real Madrid
Champions League - Last 16	13-Feb-2013	Real Madrid	1-1	Man. United
Champions League - Quarter Final	23-Apr-2003	Man. United	4-3	Real Madrid
Champions League - Quarter Final	08-Apr-2003	Real Madrid	3-1	Man. United
Champions League - Quarter Final	19-Apr-2000	Man. United	2-3	Real Madrid
Champions League - Quarter Final	04-Apr-2000	Real Madrid	0-0	Man. United
European Cup - Semifinal	15-May-1968	Real Madrid	3-3	Man. United
European Cup - Semifinal	24-Apr-1968	Man. United	1-0	Real Madrid
European Cup - Semifinal	25-Apr-1957	Man. United	2-2	Real Madrid
European Cup - Semifinal	11-Apr-1957	Real Madrid	3-1	Man. United

Totals
P	W	D	L	F	A
11	5	4	2	22	17

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Ferguson still bitter over Ronaldo

Alex Ferguson has a right to be remembered as one of the best club managers the world has ever seen. His list of trophies (22 in 22 years) at the helm of Manchester United, including a treble (League, Cup and European Cup) in 1999 helped earn him a knighthood. He even won the now defunct Cup Winners' Cup with Aberdeen back in 1983, beating, you've guessed it, Real Madrid.

He is also a controversial media figure, and has not spoken to the BBC since they broadcast a programme over his son's alleged involvement in the football transfer market, an allegation that was never proved.

Ferguson is known for his clever use of psychology on both his players and on opponents, most famously when he completely unsettled Kevin Keegan, then at Newcastle, for the 1996 league title. However, he is not above showing his frustration when things don't go his way, and frequently criticises referees when he feels his players aren't properly 'protected'.

In an interview with GQ Magazine published in The Times, he gives vent to some of his annoyances over the whole summer saga regarding the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo.

"I knew it was coming, so I wasn't surprised. When we sold Gabriel Heinze to Real Madrid [the previous summer], we knew it was going to happen, because Ronaldo was very close to Heinze. I knew what they were doing. I don't believe they were interested in Heinze – good player though he is. The endgame was to get Ronaldo.

What made it really obscene was that Madrid, as General Franco's club, had a history of being able to get whoever and whatever they wanted, before democracy came to Spain."

OK, you can perhaps forgive Ferguson being annoyed that his star player was the target of one of the biggest clubs on the planet, and that they made few bones about making it known (even though appearances were more or less maintained). The player and his advisers, who must surely shoulder a large part of the blame for the whole media circus, also unsurprisingly escape Ferguson's wrath - one wonders whether he would be so understanding had Ronaldo made a stronger attempt to leave Old Trafford. I wont even delve into the accusations he has faced of similar behaviour when he had wanted players to come to Manchester United.

But Ferguson is very conveniently ignoring both recent and ancient history. Gabriel Heinze did not go to Real Madrid in the summer of 2007 because he was part of a master plan to sign Cristiano Ronaldo. Heinze had been approached by Liverpool and Ferguson blocked the transfer, gifting a bargain to Real Madrid in the process. The whole thing was transacted in a matter of days, not weeks or months.

The whole General Franco claim is just laughable, all the more so in this day and age. Someone should perhaps point out that while Real Madrid won more league titles than either Barcelona or Atlético during the Franco years (14, vs. 8 and 7 respectively), Athletic Bilbao and Barcelona, clubs from parts of the country that had been against Franco during the Civil War, won more cup titles (9 and 8 vs. 6).

Even if any of that were true, the suggestion that in the 32 years since Spain became a democracy, Real Madrid still have the attitude that they can buy anyone they want when they want because of the Franco legacy is just plain bonkers, or to use Ferguson's own word, obscene.

Real Madrid have been seen as arrogant in European footballing circles because since Florentino put the club on a much sounder financial footing, they have been able to compete in the hyperinflationary transfer market. His policy of buying the best player on the market every year was the subject of worldwide media attention, even if, as we now know, it actually led to an unbalanced side that won no trophies for three years.

That transfer market, it must be said, is now led by Premiership clubs flush with TV and foreign owners' cash. Real Madrid are not unique in looking out for the best players and never have been, something that Ferguson conveniently forgets. But hey, he says he's retiring at the end of next season. Maybe he can spend some of his free time reading some history, instead of revising it.

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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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The waiting is over... for now

As the Real Madrid squad fly out to Colombia for a (presumably) lucrative friendly against Independiente de Santa Fé, the news filtered out that the long-running saga around Cristiano Ronaldo is over, at least for this summer.

In an interview with Portuguese daily Publico (reproduced in full and translated to English in The Guardian), the Manchester United winger finally declared his desire to "fight and honour the shirt with the same desire and dedication I always have".

It has taken a lot longer than the "couple of days" he needed to sort out his future after Portugal was dumped out of Euro 2008 back in June. This delay, however, was not covered in the questions in the carefully crafted interview. The player now claims he's listened to Alex Ferguson's arguments and has been persuaded to stay at Manchester United. Crucially, Ronaldo says he will be playing at United "next season", rather than any more concrete statements about seeing out his contract. This has fuelled further speculation that there is some sort of understanding between Manchester United and Real Madrid to resume negotiations after the season is over.

Cristiano took the blame upon himself (although "wholly unintentionally") for the tense relationship between the two clubs, and has not ruled out playing for Real Madrid at some point in the future, as he would like a "new challenge" and "the chance of being an hour's flight" from his family in Portugal. What he does not make clear is whether he is now persuaded that Manchester will give him the challenge that he is looking for.

He does not fear the potentially hostile Manchester United fan base on his return to Old Trafford, saying that "people can't be upset about me fulfilling a childhood dream", which is either naive or disingenuous. Given that he's probably out injured until October, tempers may have cooled enough by that time to help ease his way back into the team relatively smoothly.

All this leaves Real Madrid, and especially motormouth president Ramón Calderón, without their summer star signing (for the third year in a row). In and of itself, that is not necessarily a bad thing, as I've argued several times that Ronaldo was perhaps not the best fit, either for squad balance, or from a team-morale perspective. However, the whole saga has unsettled Robinho, who's been asking to be sold to Chelsea to join Scolari's new project there.

On top of that, all of Real Madrid's transfer plans have been dependent on this one huge deal, which have meant very little movement in June and July, other than the signing of Van der Vaart (probably accelerated - and made more expensive - after Schuster's outburst last week). The one silver lining is that there are still over three weeks left of the transfer window, but Calderón has already intimated that there may not be any more signings this summer. I guess this all depends on any players leaving, and the squad looks a little light in the centre forward stakes.

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Mijatovic makes a move

During this interminable summer transfer saga that is Cristiano Ronaldo, it has at times seemed like Real Madrid were putting everything on hold, waiting for him to either arrive or decide to stay at Manchester United. Whether because there's just over a month left of the transfer window, or because Real know that there's a good chance they won't be getting the Portuguese winger this summer, it now looks like Mijatovic has decided to make his first move in the market (if you don't count Garay, back in May). The target is Netherlands midfielder and Hamburg captain Rafael van der Vaart.

The 25-year-old Dutchman, who has a Spanish mother, joined Hamburg from Ajax in 2005 for €5.5 million as midfield playmaker and has since been given the captaincy of their squad. He was instrumental in Hamburg's performance in last season's Bundesliga and has been linked with a number of clubs even before the summer transfer window, among them Chelsea, Inter, Valencia, as well as Real Madrid. Though he signed a 5-year deal with Hamburg, his contract terms state that from the end of the upcoming season, he can leave the club for a "mere" €1 million, hence the upsurge in interest in his services.

The German club's website noted in a brief announcement yesterday evening that they had received and rejected an offer from Real Madrid, as "unworthy of discussion". The value of the offer was then disclosed in German newspaper Die Welt as €6 million, coming in the form of a fax sent to Hamburg Thursday evening by Real Madrid sports director Predrag Mijatovic.

Van der Vaart could potentially be seen as a medium-term replacement for Guti, as he has played alongside Sneijder in that position both at Ajax and in the Dutch national side. The Real Madrid vice-captain, though indisputably talented, suffers from erratic form (and questionable temper) and has finished many of his 14 seasons at the club as a substitute. Nonetheless, he had a pretty regular season under Schuster last year and back in April signed a 'life contract', which saw his previous deal extended until 2011 with an annual renewal clause if he plays 30 games every season.

Hamburg's outright rejection of the offer is seen as a first step in the negotiations between both clubs, who are expected to revisit the matter when they meet in London for the Emirates Cup at the beginning of August.

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Waiting for Cristiano

The whole of Real Madrid's transfer policy for the summer is predicated on what happens in the Cristiano Ronaldo saga, according to Ramón Calderón. Not that this is surprising: if the figures of 90 million euros or thereabouts are to be believed, it's clear Real will find it hard to make any decisions on what happens to other players, whether incoming or outgoing, until this is resolved. It doesn't take a genius to work out that this is bad for the club's planning for the new season and bad for players' morale, so the longer it drags on the worse it will be.

Ramón Calderón is of a different mind, however, and seems willing to wait, perhaps all summer. To Marca on Saturday he accepted that time is working for Real Madrid and against Manchester United: "theoretically we still have time, two months until the end of August, as long as Manchester United get in touch with Real Madrid to negotiate. Ronaldo said he would like to play for us, that it was his dream to come to Real Madrid, but the player's wishes cannot be realised without Manchester United's agreement".

Calderón seems to be doing the rounds of the media to keep the pressure on United. While in London over the weekend to attend the Wimbledon men's singles final, he replied to a question from The Sun on whether he would put any money on Cristiano joining Real with "I would bet. If a player wants to leave it is difficult to keep him. It is the same for me. If I have a player who wants to go somewhere else, we let them go".

Separately, to As, he gave some hints on what Real's negotiating position vis-à-vis a transfer price for the Portuguese winger would be: "Zidane cost 75 million euros at the age of 29. If Zidane, who was the best player in the World, cost that much in 2001, then it seems logical that for Ronaldo, who is significantly younger, you could now pay 5 or 10 million euros more. That would be fair, wouldn't it?".

The player himself travelled to Amsterdam today to undergo surgery on his ankle. This is expected to keep him out of action for approximately six weeks, which begs the question, why wait that long? Portugal was dumped out of Euro 2008 nearly three weeks ago. Some reports suggest that it was at United's suggestion to delay surgery and see how his condition would develop, but one can't help but speculate whether it was at all influenced by the potential negotiations with Real Madrid.

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FIFA rules out action against Real

FIFA has responded to last week's complaint by Manchester United about Real Madrid's alleged 'tapping up' of Cristiano Ronaldo by saying that no breach of contract has taken place and no action will be taken.

In their statement, FIFA confirmed that "we received last week a formal complaint from Manchester United related to the player Cristiano Ronaldo and the club Real Madrid. From the documentation received, no breach of contract appears to have occurred yet. Therefore, in accordance with the applicable practice, no kind of formal procedure has been opened by Fifa regarding this matter.

"The Spanish Football Federation has been informed of the complaint lodged by the English club and been asked to remind its member club Real Madrid about the potential legal consequences of a breach of contract without just cause during the protected period and of a possible inducement to such a breach of contract, as established by the Fifa Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players"

Earlier today, sports lawyer Mel Goldberg has argued that even if the complaint prospered, any punishment meted out by FIFA to Real Madrid would likely be minimal. "If Real Madrid are reported to FIFA, they will probably get a rap on the knuckles. I don't know whether they would be expelled from, for example, the European Cup or whether they would be deducted points in the league. What FIFA would probably say is you cannot keep a player against his will if he is not happy and wants to go elsewhere. They would give some minor castigation and the deal would go through.", he said.

As the whole saga unfolds, the ever-unreliable Daily Express reported that Real Madrid is ready to deal directly with Manchester United's owners, the Glazer family and put an offer on the table around the 90 million euro mark (or 50 million plus Robinho, according to Marca). This supposedly has sent Alex Ferguson into a fit of fury with threats of resigning if the owners sell Cristiano without his consent. All this is most likely fantasy, but it was so amusing I just had to put it in.

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United rattled by Real

In a statement on the Manchester United official website, the English club has announced that it has made a formal complaint to FIFA over the alleged involvement of Real Madrid in the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo. The brief statement reads:

On 27 May, Manchester United made clear its intention to report Real Madrid to FIFA if it continued to involve itself in the future of Cristiano Ronaldo.

Unfortunately, Real Madrid has not kept its own counsel and the Club feels it has no alternative but to make a formal complaint to the world governing body, which it has done today.

The precise content and nature will remain confidential.

FIFA spokesman Pekka Odriozola confirmed the complaint had been made: "it is too early to say how the matter will be dealt with. We will first have to look at the precise nature of the complaint before seeing what steps will be taken."

Though there are few people who doubt that Real Madrid have been "sniffing around" the Portuguese star, it is doubtful whether any complaint to FIFA can be made to stick, as there is unlikely to be anything signed between the player and the club and proving any other type of contact is potentially difficult. However, given that both Manchester United and FIFA are keeping the contents of the complaint confidential at this time, it is possible that evidence that is compelling enough has been unearthed.

Depending on how this pans out, it may spark 'tit for tat' complaints between clubs. Sir Alex Ferguson, for one, has been criticised for his alleged approach of Owen Hargreaves while the player was still under contract at Bayern Munich in 2006, although a transfer was eventually agreed between the two clubs in the summer of 2007.

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Cristiano Crusade

You cannot pick up an issue of either the British or the Madrid sports press without reading some story about Cristiano Ronaldo's proposed transfer to Real Madrid, each more outlandish than the last: 80 million euros, 50 million euros plus Ramos, Diarra and Robinho, 30 million euros plus a treasure map to the mythical Eldorado (only one of those is made up, by me anyway). It's getting increasingly tedious and with over 3 months left until the closing of the transfer window on 31st August, it can only get more so as the summer progresses. Regardless of the level of truth in these reports, the real question that should be posed concerning the motives behind such an environmentally unfriendly waste of trees and ink is: cui bono?

First and foremost, those who stand to profit either way are the press: it's in their interests to keep this going as long as possible, so people can keep buying papers in the lulls between seasons. Expect it to be particularly intense between now and the start of Euro 2008 on 7th June, and to pick up either immediately afterwards (29th June) or as soon as Spain is knocked out of the competition. However, while the press clearly manufacture stories to continue whipping up interest (the one about an official Real Madrid club car with some documents with Cristiano Ronaldo's name on them is particularly clumsy), there would be little to keep this going without the collusion of other characters adding their little bit of fuel to the fire.

The principal suspect in this is Cristiano Ronaldo himself (or his agent). Although he signed a new deal tying him to Manchester United until 2012 just over a year ago, his impressive season (he has scored a whopping 42 goals in all competitions) means he may be trying to capitalise and strike (no pun intended) while the iron is hot. His current deal at United includes an annual salary of over £6 million for the next four years. However, the recent Webster ruling means that he can leave in 2010 by compensating United for one year's salary if he doesn't renew his contract (under the rule, any player aged between 23 and 28 can walk away from his club, as long as he has served three years out of a four or five-year contract). Ale, at The Offside, puts it best with: "Ronaldo, as usual, spent his day frustrating everyone again with claims of 'I dream of playing for Real Madrid' and 'My head is in Manchester.' Just come out with it and say 'I want a new contract or I go to Madrid.' Problem solved."

Let's not forget however, that others may seek to benefit from all this media mayhem. Real Madrid, or to be more precise, president Calderón, has had a bit of a torrid time recently despite being at the helm of a side that's won back-to-back league championships. Add to that the fact that certain sectors won't let him forget that of the three players he promised as part of his electoral campaign two years ago (Robben, Cesc, Kaka), he has only managed to deliver one to Real Madrid. While he mounted an ultimately unsuccessful media offensive for Kaka last year, he may have decided to deflect attention by continuing to feed the press little snippets about how welcome Cristiano would be at Real Madrid.

Finally, and this may be a little bit of a stretch, Manchester United may be using the whole affair to keep the British press occupied while they quietly go about building up their squad for next season. They did well on the transfer market last summer by signing up a couple of highly rated Portuguese youngsters (Nani and Anderson) catching everyone else on the hop. I suspect however, that if this is happening, it's more of a case of taking advantage of the current situation than of the club trying to manipulate events. Alex Ferguson's recent tirade against Real Madrid is just the Scot being his usual prickly self (and there's plenty of non-Manchester supporters saying this is just a case of the pot calling the kettle black).

Ultimately, I believe this is all so much summer hot air. Real don't need Cristiano (certainly not at the prices being quoted) and Cristiano doesn't need Real Madrid: he has just won the Champions League with a relatively young side and would his international profile really be much bigger at the Spanish club? There would probably be more chance of Real launching a ridiculous bid for him if they had not won anything for a couple of seasons or if they were in the middle of presidential elections. As it is, their money would be better spent on reinforcing the squad and offloading some of the underperforming players.

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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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Ruud renewal

The man they call Van Gol has tied his fortunes to Real Madrid until 2010, the club announced earlier today. His contract was due to expire at the end of the current season, although it included a clause extending it for one further year if he made 35 appearances for Real Madrid. He left his previous club under a cloud, reportedly having fallen out with Sir Alex Ferguson, even though he had scored 150 goals for the club (38 of them in the Champions League, still a Manchester United club record).

Ruud joined Real Madrid in the summer of 2006 for 18 million euros and found success in his opening season by becoming pichichi, the league's top scorer, with 25 goals. Four of those were in the same game, against Osasuna, a feat not often achieved. In all, Van Nistelrooy has scored 46 times in 67 appearances for Real Madrid, so he's unlikely to top the 150 goals he scored for Manchester United by 2010 (it is one less season than the five he played for the Red Devils, after all).

There's no reason, other than injury, why he should not continue to score goals at the same rate until his new contract expires, as he will only turn 34 the following day. I suspect very few will disagree with the club's decision; readers of this blog voted him Player of the Month in December.

The contrasting fortunes of Ruud's fellow Dutchman, Arjen Robben, mean he has once again injured himself, the fourth time since he joined (already injured) from Chelsea. He truly is earning his nickname man of glass. Curiously, Bernd Schuster opted to pretend the injury hadn't happened in his press conference today in advance of the Copa del Rey tie tomorrow at Mallorca. The injury doesn't look serious and Robben should be back fit quite soon, but he's not going to get much of a chance to displace any of the other starters if he keeps getting injured.

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