Greasy Hair Does Not Guarantee Good Deals

By: Corey | September 10th, 2007

So I said I would write this little piece on our transfer dealings of the mercato. The point of this article is to closely examine how well Real go about their business in the merky waters of the transfer market. This will not turn into a “why are we offloading our youth team players?!i?!” rant like in my previous post, but more a cultured look at some of the highs and lows of our transfer guru’s, and basically to rip of the format that Chris at the Roma Offside used to rate our transfers.

Love this picture

Lets begin by saying I am disappointed at the fees payed for the recruits this summer, it was bad business. All the players we brought in are decent, Sneijer by far the best. These players are what Schustie wanted so lets roll with him on it, but loosing youth team players always means a “You Fail” sticker on the forhead for Mr. Mijatovic. Me and Mijatovic are “Seperate Ways, Worlds Apart”.

Please play the video, you will completely understand this post if you do. And Journey is the shit, neatly quaffed mullets and the two dudes staches, quality 80s right there. Anyways, lets look at our deals this summer.

Summer 07

Saviola 7/10

So we signed Saviola from Barca on a Bosman, and he will have alot of goals to score before he wins over the Ultra Sur. I dont see him as being the kind of quality striker to compliment RVN because they both play as in-the-box poachers with a touch of class. Frugal yes, but wouldnt you want a diverse front line, because now we have RVN, Soldado, Bueno and Saviola playing for one spot, while Raul, Baptista, and maybe Guti play for another. To be honest, we needed another Raul in his prime type player here. He was a good pickup, but his wages are ridiculous, so he either scores 20+ this year or he is a bust.

Metzelder 9/10

Metzelder was brought in on a free too, and he was suppose to have joined us after the 2002 WC. He got injured alot, and if thats behind him he will do well for us. A Schuster pick most likely, but he did well in the 2006 WC and for Dortmund. No world beater, but will prove useful at time. He and Cannavaro might be decent together, we will see. I say this one was a good pickup.

Pepe 7/10

Then we shelled out 30 million on Pepe. 30 million on a guy who I have never been impressed with, and he may be just another one to join the center back graveyard (Samuel, Woodgate, etc.). Thats alot of scrilla for a guy who has been in Portugal his whole career, and we know Portugal is not much of a league, sorry. A handful of CL games help him, but he has to win me over alot for 30 million. The whole throw money at Porto and see what sticks thing comes to mind, and I think this was Mijatovic’s first major mistake this summer (But his 40th of his short career). Careless spending like this got us into trouble with Sanz in charge. A 7/10 because of the price, but I cant deny his potential.

Robben 6/10 to 9/10

The Arjen Robben is what I refer to him now, or TAR for short, who is over rated for me because he is often injured, dives alot and lacks even a shallow pool of confidence in his own play due to the Special One. Came on like gang busters with PSV and did well in his first season at Chelsea, but since then its been nothing but mediocre displays and injuries. Why we would pay 40 million for him is beyond me, and even though Calderon promised him, he pays attention to those promises. Christ, Laporta promised Beckham, but he got Ronaldinho. Who made out better there? Robben has come, but at such a cost. And is the left wing that weak? We have technically 3 young left backs, as well as Balboa, Adrian Gonzalez and Robinho to play there, although Robinho and Balboa are right sided primarily, and Baptista and Guti can provide a slighty narrow cover there. That seems sufficient for me, Schuster is not playing with wingers otherwise Guti is not gonna cut it in midfield. So is Robben needed? He came for a hyper over-inflated fee. More bad business by Mijatovic and co. If he returns to his form of two years ago then obviously an 9/10, we will see in the coming weeks.

Drenthe 5/10

Drenthe is a prospect, had a good tournament and a decent season at a few different positions, and I like players with dread locks. But I tell you, for the amount of money Real payed, Adrian Gonzalez and Balboa were practically free to be a young understudy on the left wing. Drenthes potential is kinda raw, and again, why pay that kind of money for raw talent? He could be a good player for us, but he will sit the bench or not even make the bench for his first year if Marcelo starts playing well again. I gave this a 5/10 because of price and the Clarence Seedorf precedent, although Seedorf was way more talented when he came to Madrid. He will learn alot with us, then be sold for peanuts to Inter in two years, thats the Seedorf precedent, just like Solari, Cambiasso, Figo, Samuel, Zamarano etc.

Sneijder 9/10

Sneijder is a player ive liked since he was 19 and scored against Scotland for Holland in the 6-1 thrashing that lead to them going to Euro 2004. He is 23 now, and he stills scores alot (just like me with the ladies), and he provides a level of defensive awareness unseen in someone like Guti, but his creativity is in question. Cant have it all right, sure. A box to box midfielder, he will form a solid partnership with Diarra and is brought because A. Guti is inconsistent lets face it and B. Gago has yet to really impress. For all his positives, he still cost way to much, and this has been a trend at Real for some years. If I was Ramon Calderon, and I saw the price the wanted, I would have pulled a Don Corleone, thanks but no thanks, I wish you luck unless your business interferes with my business. Seeing as how Kallstrom was not realistic, Van der Vaart is not a central midfielder, and buying a Spanish player is out of the question at a Spanish powerhouse, we got him. He should do just fine, to the detriment of Gago, De La Red, and probably Granero. And of course, Javi Garcia will have to leave to play. 4 players that should be first team regulars will now train week in, week out for scraps of playing time. But Sneijder has already stamped himself on the team, he is in great form, so despite price and loosing my man crush De La Red, he gets the 9, he will do well for us for years to come.

Heinze 7/10

Price wise he wasnt to bad, he is a bit old though now, and he pushes Torres and Marcelo to the bench, as well as Drenthe. He isnt much of an attacking threat, then again with Robben/Guti in head of him he will need to stay back most of the time. Then again Sergio Ramos goes forward whenever he can, and he is still our best defender. I really dont know about him, he is solid but I still am on the fence. We will get to see him play against Almeria soon enough.

Dudek 0 nuff said

I dont like Rafa, probably because he plays boring football like the Special One, but he was right about Dudek. He is terrible, lets hop Jordi Codina gets te #2 spot after a few glaring errors by mr Dudek. I equate hime to Baldy Barthez, a guy who has won stuff without having talent. CL and UEFA cup while sucking at life, shit I should get to win those too. Big fat donut hole for this “signing”, accompanied by two thumbs down and a fart noise.

The long standing saga of Ricky Kaka. The amount of money quoted for him was stupid, no player is worth that much, Zidane was not worth as much as we payed for him. 50 million should be the cap on player valuations I believe, that would help alot with this nonsense. Dont get me wrong, I loved Zidane, he is the greatest player of my life time, and yes my lifetime includes Maradonna, but doin coke doesnt help you out. Kaka probably could have had a similar effect as Zidane, but you need to build a team, not a collection of tricky players. Where would he play, Milan’s system is built around him, and they are dour and defensive at the best of times. He may still come, but at what cost to the team? The same for Cesc Fabregas, there doesnt seem to be a spot for him either now, so Id say both of these guys are out of the picture. Focus on developing the players yourself Real, both Kaka and Cesc were bought at young ages (19 and 14) and were developed within the team, that is the way to do things.

Losing De La Red, Emerson and Javi Garcia for peanuts while spending close to 75 million on three players just seems silly to me. Of course we sold off Raul Bravo, Paco Pavon, Alvaro Mejia, Borja, Carlos Diogo, loaned out the other grubby Uruguayan Pablo Garcia, we got rid of Cassano finally and sold Diego Lopez for a hefty sum (doesnt matter, we got Jerzy Dudek in his place). Loaning out Adrian and Granero was probably a good idea, Adrian maybe to a Liga side would have been preferable. Looks like Alberto Bueno is back with Castilla, which sucks, but then again Soldado has yet to figure much which also sucks. Woodgate was sold, which is to bad cause he looked like he was healthy and I always thought he was quality.

I may have forgotten a sale or two, it was a long summer. Go ahead and correct me its fine, Im not egotistical. Enjoy, its a celebration bitches.