Cristiano Ronaldo

By: Corey | July 14th, 2008

This is a post for me to address a few things I have seen recently. There has been questions raised about my commitment to the blog as well as my non-coverage the the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga and Euro 08. This commentor, who’s name doesnt need to be revealed, comments can be found here http://real.theoffside.com/team-news/blatter-is-an-idiot.html#comments . I feel its my duty to address these comments rather then ignore them, so that my 5 readers out there can understand my stance on a few things. So lets begin with my lack of commitment.

I hardly understand that. I have a full time job, a summer class, and a social life, yet I still do 2-3 posts a week. I took some time off when the season was over with and during Euro 08 to recharge my batteries, because blogging gets tedious after awhile, but we will be celebrating my 1 year anniversary here at the Offside next month in style. So you can question my commitment all you want, but I wouldnt judge the quality of my writing based off what I have during the summer, or the fact that I dont edit anything because this is a football blog! Not my thesis paper, or the management and organizational process studies I have done.

Euro 08

The few posts I have done this summer have been, lets say, lacking in substance. We had the European Championships, which were exciting, but were not my domain of coverage. I had intended to help out Ryan and Cesar on the World Cup blog covering Spain, but I found my schedule far to hectic at the time, starting a new job and moving into a new house. Its bad enough that I only saw maybe 6 Euro games. But I do not understand why the Real Madrid blog should have to cover Euro 2008? We at the Offside had a whole other website set up to cover that, and if you did not know that then I am sorry, but the main page is directly linked to the WC blog.

As a club blog, its hardly my duty to cover international games, even if Real Madrid players are in the games. I gave a review of each Real players performance in the European Championships, so I guess my question is what more do you want? Again, as I saw about 6 games, it wouldnt be prudent to do recaps of all games that Real players were involved in as I did not see them. Somehow the lack of coverage on Euro 2008 was miscontrued as lack of commitment to the Real Madrid blog. Again, Ryan and Cesar did a fantastic job covering Spains triumph, as I knew they would.

Creating Controversy For Real Madrid Bloggers Too

Second, there has been angry shouts about me not covering every nitty gritty detail about Cristiano Ronaldo. I have two ways to look at that, one I am not particularly proud of. The first is, why should I cover something that is all over every football website and newspaper almost every day. The over kill of interest in this prolonged transfer is almost nausiating to me. Now while I will not underscore that I think he is a very good player (I still have some doubts but thats normal) or that the transfer would be a huge coup for Real and probably do us a world of good from a business stand point. But is he worth the price, the aggony of dealing with Manchester United, or the possible disrupting the balance we have in our current squad?

Those are all questions without answers. And as of right now, his transfer is no where near close, so I treat as if it were gossip. Would you really want to see Cristiano Ronaldo stories everyday on this page? I guess I could, but it would have to include a picture of his girlfriend to make it even remotely interesting. Real fans may be excited about his possible transfer and thats great, but its just that, a possible transfer, and I will say that it looks increasingly unlikely as third parties continue to get involved. Sometimes less is more on these matters.

The second problem with the Ronaldo saga is that I am actually a bit ashamed of how Real has handled themselves. Manchester United are no saints, but Real goes about their business in a very brash and arrogant manner sometimes, which is the way of the super clubs of Europe. But when its between two super clubs, theres problems. And the last thing Real needs is another summer of negative, slanted press from the English football media. Recently Ramo Calderon has retracted much of what he has previously said with peace making comments like “We wont do anything unless Manchester wants to sell.” And thats how it should be. I agknowledge that much of the outside pressures Real has supposively been exerting on MU through the media is far fetched, as while papers like Marca are heavily pro-Real, you cant say that means the club is itself involved.

But if they were, I would be embaressed. Because we should be acting in such a manner, and I am not saying this because we are the best club in the world and thus are better then everyone else. I say this without a lick of arrogance, its not the proper way to do business. So until the whole situation gets cleared up and Manchester United swims in a pool of euro’s or Manchester gets treated to another year of man purses, I will keep my distance except for the important stuff.

Now Real’s preseason has begun, with the first team flying down to the Algarve with their families in toe today. They will then fly out to Irding after a 2 day lay over in Madrid to start the real physical work. So the preseason has begun and I will have some good stuff to write about now, and show I am ‘committed’.