Mr Galactico Galacti-goes!

In what was a bit of a shock, Florentino Perez resigned as president of Real Madrid last night. I actually think this is a respectable move by a businessman whose plan has quite simply not worked. The failure of his plan signifies something more important though, which I would like to briefly outline.

The ‘Galactico’ system- buying the best players in the world every year- was fundamentally flawed. If one is to look at the two players that exemplify the Galactico policy, Zidane and Ronaldo (with 6 World Player of the Year awards between them), an obvious question arises…what have they got to prove? Both have won world cups, virtually single-handedly, and between them boast virtually every major trophy the game has to offer.

The theme was repetitive throughout the team: Last year, if the Real Madrid starting XI got all their (major) medal out at the same time they would have had 21 La Liga titles, 17 Champions Leagues, 6 World Cups, 7 World Player of the Years, 5 European Player of the Years, 2 UEFA Cups, 4 Premierships, 3 Sirea As, 5 Copa Americas, 1 European Championship, 1 Copa Libertadores, and a partridge in a pear tree. What they wouldn’t have had: much hunger.

If you look at the main protagonists of the teams dominating Spain and England at the moment, Chealsea and Barcelona’s players don’t boast much between them, in crude English: they fucking want it. As we saw against Arsenal the other night, Real Madrid don’t seem that bothered, they’ve been there and got the T-shirt. Another obvious problem with buying Galacticos is that by their very nature they have hit their peak. They can only get worse, circa Zidane and Ronaldo. What they might have brought in shirt sales, they have stopped bringing in success. Perez clearly began to see that his masterplan was flawed, and the signings of Robinho, Baptista, Cicinho and Cassano show that they are moving in the right direction: buying young players who want to win, but this is too little too late.

Similarly whilst Perez has bought Galacticos, he has appointed buffoons to coach them. Duh! Real Madrid have recently been coached by Carlos Quieroz (randomly appointed after being assistant at an underachieving Man United- lasted a year), Wanderlay Luxemburgo (the guy who managed NOT to win the World Cup with Brazil) and John Toshak (frankly ridiculous).

So, a new era begins. If I was Real Madrid I would go for the Milan Mandaric-Harry Redknapp combo, with the ‘buyrandomio’ policy. Safe as houses.