By Sarthak Verma
With the league title seemingly beyond reach at the moment and Barcelona continuing their winning ways, Real Madrid is in crisis – and it’s not just its 1-0 loss to Atletico that Perez has to worry about. The cracks are only ever papered over. The boardroom chaos at Los Blancos is visible on the field and white handkerchiefs have become more eminent than the goals. Only Zidane has taken the bull by the horns with Bale and Danilo, but other Galacticos are busy commenting on the “quality” of their teammates and winning “Salon d’Ors along the way. Its latest project at a whole is skewing off course, springing more and more leaks. There are many factors behind this total breakdown of confidence between management, staff and fans.
TRANSFER DEALINGS IN BOO-NITEZ’S ERA
The average ability of any given player in the squad was higher after the transfer window than it was before – however, the only major new signings were Danilo (who has not paid off) and Mateo Kovacic, along with a handful of so-called ‘in-house’ reinforcements such as Denis Cheryshev, Casemiro, Lucas Vazquez and Kiko Casilla. The situation became similar to charging a cess from the taxpayer to uplift the lifestyle of incumbents which saw the then office holder, Rafa Boo-nitez getting the “sack “.
THE FITNESS PROBLEM
An injury crisis has affected the likes of Sergio Ramos, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale, who have spent many days on the treatment table, coming to the club headquarters on paydays only. Plenty of other players are performing below their best, Toni Kroos, Isco, James Rodriguez. This prompted Cristiano Ronaldo to publicly criticise the “quality” of his fellow mates. Well, if Real had 2-3 more Ronaldos, one cannot be sure of football success, but the club would be bitten by debt for sure.
RAMOS ‘MANCHESTER CONNECTIONS
For a number of weeks, the No.4 was closer to Manchester than Madrid. In that limbo between a renewal and an exit, the captain saw several unfavourable reports about the negotiations hit the news. Ramos is one of the most respected players in the dressing room, by Cristiano among others, and the self-destructive attack within the club was never quite understood.
PROTEST AGAINST PEREZ
It is not yet very strong but fans are organized, albeit in small groups and with dubious leaders such as the ‘Ultras’ elements. The cries of ‘Florentino, resign’, however, are spreading across the Bernabeu. Looks like it’s time for the self- proclaimed Galactic president to step down.
DEVILISH TRIDENT
The indomitable trio of Leo Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar Jr. has outgunned teams in every possible club competition and there is no stopping them in their tracks. With 101 goals between them this season, MSN have taken Barcelona to a whole new level and pundits are bidding on them repeating the treble this season.
To say that it’s all about results at first team level would be an insult to a man who has played hundreds of games for club and country and has rapidly made the transition. As a former Real player, Zidane will be fully aware of the expectations of him and but he will have to “liberalise” Real again because the honeymoon period appears to be drawing to a close.
