Grapevine 01/07
By: Corey | January 7th, 2009Here is what is going on in today’s Real Madrid news, as well as some other fun tid bits for you to savor while you look outside and realize your driveway and street are a sheet of ice and your not going anywhere today!
- First off, the whole Champions League registration gaffe, which I really havent commented much on because while its become increasingly easy to pick on Pedja for his, well, mediocrity in his job, its also a little disheartening to see this guy working for our club. Not that we all havent called for his head 100’s of times before this I found this quote from an article on La Liga Loca pretty interesting “Marca tracked down an unimpressed but unnamed director who blamed the whole affair on Pedja Mijatovic and his assistant Carlos Bucero complaining that the former has no experience in such legal matters and the latter was a gentleman who, until recently, ran a bar in Madrid. ”
Now, first off great article by La Liga Loca. Well written and full of insightful opinion (something I wish I had the time to do more often) to the point where it looks like Pedja simply wont last the summer. The problem with that is he should be out of their now. We need long term transfer strategy and he cant even figure out which over-priced, over-hyped English winger he wants to botch the signing of. You know why he looked to the Premier League for a right winger? Its not necessarily because Juande has an excellent scouting report of right wingers in England, he didnt coach there that long. Its because Mijatovic has pissed off every club in La Liga with his antics and horrible business acumen. Great.
- Creepy? I thought black face was frowned upon these days….
Its for the Dia de Reyes, Sergio Ramos dressed up as the Rey Baltasar. More on that here if your not familiar with Spanish holidays, or looking incredibly offensive.
- So Guti faked getting injured in order to avoid sitting on the bench as Lass was going to start over him against Vilarreal. Breath taking goal.com, really. What a load of shit. If you really want to bother with further reading, go here. But I will say this. Guti was training in the gym today with Parejo, which means he is indeed injured and did not fake anything, so there you go.
- If anyone was not aware, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is an incredibly talented player, and is a joy to watch. He is also an arrogant asshole. Fabio Cannavaro had this to say about Zlatan:
“When we were playing together at Juve, he told me: ‘If you won the Scudetto aged 30 it was thanks to me. Before that you hadn’t won anything,” Cannavaro told Chi magazine.
“We went our separate ways after that as he joined Inter and I came to Real Madrid. Since then I’ve won the World Cup, a Ballon d’Or and another two Liga titles. I crushed him!”
Cannavaro added: “For the moment if he wants to hold the Ballon d’Or his best chance is to come over to my house, as I won it in 2006!”
Hahaha Zlatan. To be fair Zlatan has won two Scudetto now too, and looks set for another. But still, what a verbal beatdown by Canna.
- Juventus is looking at Esteban Granero. I would be concerned but we have first option on him still, and I have a feeling that certain players will be leaving the club this summer, like VdV and Drenthe, to make room for Granero, who has to be a mouth watering prospect for Juande. Schuster is a god damn fool, but Juande will surely not be as short sighted to deny the lad the chance of impressing for Real. Guti is getting older, and Granero is his replacement. Parejo is unproven in La Liga, he will need a loan at a La Liga team next year regardless of what he does this year, so bring Granero back!
- Just so everyone is aware, the upcoming game at Mallorca will be El Capitan’s 500th La Liga game with Real Madrid. For more on the stats, look here. We will be cheering you on Raul!
Category: Team News
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Comments
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Corey, Tuttosport is anti-Turin, every rumour the come out with about Juve is 99% false. So, it’s pretty much certain up until this point that Juventus have no interest in Granero.
Posted from
United States
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Good Post, Thanks!
Posted from
Finland -
Corey First if Mijatovic will keep his position till the end of season, not only your winter transfers quality will drop down, but also the summer ones, because as you already know you start opening communication channels for new shopping starting from April at the latest -if thats true English expression- so to hire a new Director in june means, as its happening lately – no offense- you will have no choice but to buy from the rest.(The rest here mean: the players that were not bought already by other clubs because got no interest or no enough quality or had a higher price tag than they deserve).
Granero must be a priority, I still cant understand why he is not in RM already, but Mata isnt either so…
But loaning Parejo as u suggested get along with a common mistake Real Madrid is doing since a while. In barcelona -and here I am only explaining by example- they learned the lesson, to help a promising prospect get ready for action, keep him nearby, let him train with first team, give him dead opportunities -when you guarantee a result or in the cup, just don’t send him away if you raised him in your youth academy because he will go in a different path when you do so aside of the threat of failing to adapt else where and that damage a youth future and is irreversible. Barcelona didn’t lack options to loan Bojan, Pedro, Jef, thiago, and lot of others. But keeping a youth talent in your club raise him the way that match your playing style, improve the chemistry between youth and the rest of the squad, and create an Ice-breaking situation between them and veterans, so they become ready faster than they do when you send them to play in a smaller team that apply a style of 10 men behind the ball plus counter attacks in spaces, then you bring them back demanding that they penetrate in a crowded defense against an opponent that park the bus. completely different scenarios turn the youth to behave like Jim carry in “Me , myself and Irene”.
I say keep your boys under your eyes, and be aware that for a youth player there is a perfect moment when he have the spark, and thats exactly when u need to throw him to the field even with some gambling, or else u lose that opportunity, that moment may come any day of the season, may be while he is on loan, so you blow your golden chance.
But who take a barcelona fan advise to RM seriously?:)Posted from
Germany -
Ramzi- I bemoan the fact that Pedja wont be fired before the summer, thats the point I was trying to make.
As for loaning young players, how is Marc Crosas doing?
Posted from
United States -
Ahahaha corey
Seriously though I see the point ramsey is trying to make but our midfield is as crowded as manhattan at 4 pm he will not develop properly if you ask me so that’s why like corey I hope we send him out on loan next season then when he comes back guti will be 34 drenthe will be sold , vdv if he doesn’t return to form will be gone too not only will he be ready but we will also have room for him by then I mean it worked with de la red didn’t it ? And had we kept granero I think it would have worked with him as well but that’s just me though
Posted from
United States -
Corey, Fixing your info, Corsas is sold not loaned, but either you think you have as much quality and depth in your squad in general and in midfield as barcelona or you ignore the impact of that fact in such decisions, we have more than just a new buy that dont play and an old guy who have it one up 10 down (we smashed Atletico in your city without seven starters and two second option starters, we’ve seen how you did without Rob, Van, and Diarra 1) this is something to take in consideration when you plan how to deal with youth, do you have an accomplished squad or you are planning for following seasons?
now I read once u said u have a deep, quality squad already and I don’t want to argue that.Crosas got a fair chance training with first team for two years, then demanded more time to play -unlike others – so there was no other option other than selling him, and the buy back clause was a brilliant idea considering his situation, but I agree, in rare special cases we send youth out, and in rare cases you give a youth an opportunity. Now I am not sure you really want to start “How is this one doing?” and “how is that one doing?” You buried lot of talents already with this mentality but u like it u can stick to it, why do you think I care?I am not here to argue, its your page, I come and go.
Regarding Pedja, I was shedding more light, not criticizing what you wrote, don’t be over sensitive, you will get out of the tunnel, no worries.
I like your “prestigious” comments by the way.
Now I leave all the space for the whites, it seems you are too stressed for an opinion.
Posted from
Germany -
i think that the youth policy has to be a mix of loans , buybacks and keep with the first team. i think that a young player would learn more playing regularly and performing well than just sitting on the bench and watching a match thinking when he is gonna get on to the pitch.
so if we have a precocious talent , keep him with ourselves. if he is good but there are some doubts send him on a loan. and if after loaning him out there are still doubts let him gather more match experience and mental strength at some other team. a kid would learn more from the more personalized nurture he would get at a small club than he would in a pressure cooker like the bernabeu.
rather like the italian model. very few youngsters are given outright chances by the giants. mostly they are loaned out. and if they prove themselves good enough then they are brought back. look at giovinco. or acquafresca.
in the end it depends on the coach a lot. if he is confident and has enough backing from the board he will take gambles. and thats what youngsters are exactly. a gamble which if it pays off can be super but if not will be highly detrimental to everyone. maybe thats the reason bernadine didn’t take chances on youngsters. he didn’t have complete backing from the board and in today’s high pressure environment if he had taken a risk on some youngsters and they hadn’t come off well , he would have been out on his ass. can’t really blame him for wanting to keep his job.
Posted from
United States -
Corey,
I also read the same article on La Liga Loca, and it was spot on; Mijatovic has to go now, not at the end of the season, but now, he’s a disgrace, he’s not competent enough for the job, and he’s burned lots of bridges in spain, so local talent will be hard to come by
The faster we get rid of him, the sooner the new GM can start planning for next year…
As for the young players, it’s been a chronic problem from us, the last 3 top level products were raul, iker, and guti, and after that, we’ve only had good, but not great players come out of our system; if any of the players produced in the last 10 years were stars, they’d be with the team…
I also think Barcelona has an easier transition right now, because of the model Cruyff installed while he was at the club, and also because the last 2 coaches have the same ideals and fundamentals; that’s the thing with guardiola, he played inder cruyff, then he coached the youth teams and made them play the same way as the dream team, and now many of his players are under him on the first team, my point is, they have an identity, an style of play, and we don’t, that’s why they have more and better cantera players than we do…
Posted from
United States -
How many great players have the guards of honor produced over the last 10 years ? puyol , xavi , iniesta and messi , that’s 4 players but barcelona fans act like they produce world class players every damn day most of those new kids they’re giving a couple of minutes here and there too will end up playing somewhere else , if you really look at it over the past 3 years there hasn’t been much of a difference between our cantera and theirs we’ve given opportunities to 6 canteranos in torres , de la red , javi garcia , palanca , bueno , saldado and they ‘ve given it to pedro , pique , jeffren , busquets and bojan so which leads me to wonder where the hell the big difference is ? If it is somewhere well I can’t find it
Also before we started appointing jack asses as our president madrid had a great cantera there was even a year when our youths almost won la liga , yes la liga because back then they were allowed to play in the primeraPosted from
United States -
Nice of u to leave out fabregas, pique, valdes, bojan, busquets.
The only players on madrid that actually play regularly and are in the youth system are guti, raul, casillas, javi For Barca: Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Puyol, Valdez, Bojan, Busquets.
Posted from
Kuwait -
Geez. Talk about bottled up anger. You forgot Fabregas and Mikel Arteta for Barca BTW.
Nobody doubts the Madrid cantera’s talent but rather the way it has been utilized ever since the Galacticos era. Here’s several quick points:
1) First, lets looks at the generational (age) gaps between uncontested cantera starters at both clubs.
RM- Guti (32), Raul (31), and Iker (27)
Barca- Puyol (30), Xavi (28), Valdes (26), Iniesta (24), Messi (21)These are guys who are unquestioned starters on each team. See where RM suffered a drop off in Cantera starters being integrated to the team during the Galacticos? Cantera players have come and gone in both teams but these are the guys that really end up making a difference. The Spanish National Team has 3 Masia grads as unquestioned starters, and another (Cesc) as a first choice sub vs a single Castilla guy as a starter (Casillas), maybe 1 more as a 2nd or 3rd choice sub if Negredo gets called up again.
2) Castilla has had probably more talent in recent years than Barca with the possible exception of the Juvenil Pique-Cesc-Messi teams that steamrolled everybody in sight. The problem is that they haven’t integrated them into the team or have let them go. Over those years, Castilla has produced guys like Alvaro Arbeloa, Esteban Cambiasso, Luis Garcia, Negredo, Granero, de la Red, and , my favorite, Samuel Eto. All quality players who RM could have used at one point or another. How many of those guys have seriously contributed to RM thus far? De la Red will hopefully recover from his stroke and Granero MIGHT be recalled next year but before this year, the Cantera treatment from Pedjha and company was pitiful. Now it appears that Juande is making amends by bringing back Parejo, begin to integrate Palanca and Bueno, and maybe recall Granero but that wont erase those 5-8 years of incompetence and lost talent.
3) To attempt to answer Andres’ question about the difference is playing time and level of contribution. Bojan although currently struggling scored 10 goals last year at 18 and has 4 so far this year. Soldado was pretty much ignored and fled to Getafe with bitter feelings while Bueno has only scored that 1 Copa goal with the first team. Pique (21) is a significant contributor who sometimes starts and puts in plenty of minutes due to injury and yellow cards. He’s the 3rd choice at centerback behind Puyol and Marquez. Busquets (20) has started numerous times, and has done so well so as to merit consideration as an unquestioned starter. Jeffren and Pedrito have gotten their share of playing time in pre-season and meaningless minutes during real games.
On the other hand, Soldado was treated like dirt and left, Torres has contributed only occasionally and even then pretty erratically since Capello left, Palanca has made two appearences but is apparently already the next Robben, Bueno has scored a single goal so far and appeared only a couple of times, and Javi Garcia may as well be gone with the Lass signing and hasn’t looked good all year. Of those, de la Red would get my vote as the only significant contributor but unfortunately he’ll probably miss the season.
Hopefully all of this will change when Pedja is shown the door and Juande revamps the Castilla treatment from the first team.
Posted from
United States -
I cant believe you mentioning Fabregas and Pique! Sure they played for your youth teams but did u forget at what age they left and moved over to england. Fabregas is the player he is because of the opportunities he was given by Wenger. Lots of credit should be given to Arsenal for making him the player he is today.
Posted from
Germany -
Yea cesc left when he was 15 so to me he is an arsenal product
Hector torres contributed greatly before he started getting injjured time after time and casillas is not the only castilla player playing for the NT de la red does you’re right on on everything else though
Ajax is prolly the only ones who have a better academy than madrid but we need to give more importance to our youthsPosted from
United States -
Corey,
you’re =/= your
Love,
Kate.Posted from
United States -
Kate tell him about to and too, too!
Posted from
United States -
Yeah I have bad grammar, thanks for pointing that out. Im a blogger with no editor to proof read anything.
Posted from
United States -
Wooo!! a new Ronaldo rumors ..
Do not fed up yet,i think this time it comes from a somehow reliable source.
check this –> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article5477891.ecePosted from
Australia -
Oh, man. This is some good stuff:
Go Rafa, Go!
Posted from
United States
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