Opinion Salad

By: Corey | December 27th, 2007

Or Salaaad if your from the city. I dont write to many opinion salads, probably because my views on football polarize readers and I dont want to alienate anyone out their.

I will post an old Phil Ball column here as it is essential to read before you read my piece: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=474717&root=europe&cc=5901&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos2 We will pause for a moment and let you read, click on this embedded player for some waiting music while you read. But dont pay attention to the video, its covertly homosexual.

You probably didnt read his article in 33 seconds, but whatever. So, Phil Ball, the wise one of Spanish football, had commented that:

“Watching Tamudo chip Casillas on Saturday night made you wonder why on earth Real Madrid have spent so many seasons scouring the world with their cheque-book in hand, when such a gem was standing modestly on their doorstep. It ain’t rocket-science – or maybe it is.”

My thoughts exactly. Since Florentino Perez took over how many youth team players are still in the Real Madrid squad??? Hmm, Raul, Guti, Casillas, Torres, Soldado, Balboa and Codina….yep. How many Spanish players do we have? Raul, Guti, Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Torres, Salgado, Codina. How many even make the bench. 4 start and thats it. Now aside from being a nationalist prick, there needs to be more Spanish players. So if buying Albert Riera and whatever other Spanish players are in good form this year is how it has to be done then very well, I can accept that. But why not promote from within, hold the cash for once.

We had a great crop of youngsters, particularly in the attacking department last year, and two are in the first team. Torres coming up was a surprise, but he doesnt start regularly because Sergio Ramos is in front of him, thats acceptable again. Rocky Balboa and Roberto Soldado did great on loan last year, hence why they were brought back, but neither have figured much which is a coaching decision. Negredo was sold to Almeria where he has looked terrific, Esteban Granero is playing well at Getafe and may come back next year, who knows? Javi Garcia has done well at Osasuna and should have never been sold in the first place, and Ruben De La Red is simply outstanding at Getafe.

John had commented awhile ago that Micheal Laudrup, De La Red’s coach, had this to say about the youngster.

“According to John Jenson, Michael Laudrup’s number two, de la Red had played so few games for Getafe, this season, as he was simply too good for the rest of the side and needed to ‘lower’ his expectations of what his team mates could achieve when making passes, etc.

But with Getafe running on empty at half time and 0-0 against Murcia, de la Red was brought on and made an impact a few minutes later with a delightful cross that another sub, Kepa, slotted home.
‘This is a new sensation for me,’ joked Laudrup in the press room afterwards as he discussed his club’s first league win of the season.

John says this is a little tongue and cheek, but I believe it. He is a great player, far better then Gago in all facets of the game. The kid was suppose to be the big thing for Real, he was earmarked for greatness at 18. Now he is with Getafe where he is to good for his team mates. Why? Pedja and a combo of shitty coaches (Schuster, Capello, Luxemburgo, Lopez Caro, Quieroz etc.) They all had the chance to turn this kid into the real deal, Capello and Schuster mostly, but they all failed, preferring to buy a foreign player for a big chunk of change. This could be attributed to many things, most of all go with the sure thing considering the pressure atmosphere of the Bernabeu with concern to winning.

De La Red did well in all the game he played, passing with vision and composure, stripping the ball and breaking up attacks, strolling forward for shots or 1-2’s, and even late runs into the box. While Chris at the Roma Offside gets to hail Alberto Aquilani as King Alberto, the second in succession of midfield masters after Daniel De Rossi, I am left with still standing behind Guti. I love Guti, but he has 2-3 more years of competitive football, De La Red has 12 atleast. Heres a clip of the kid scoring:

Pretty goal, great shooting technique, Ruud hits his head on the bench because he was so happy to see the young man (christ De La Red is only a year older then me) score his first Real goal. A local lad with a whole lot of determination and potential, but he is sold off. Just plain stupid, Mijatovic and Portugal really did us an injustice by shedding the youth squad players.

http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/75847105.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF193954D2530456900040785D5FA06882EB4284831B75F48EF45

Juan Mata left on a free!?! How ridiculous is that, such a talented player. Negredo sold, Bueno still in the youth team, and what the hell happen to Adrian Gonzalez? Heres a clip of the youth team players at their finest.

Good stuff, even though Ponte are not the best team in the world. De La Red, Granero, Bueno, Javi Garcia, Mata, Adrian Gonzalez, Dani Guillen, and Codina were in that team. Codina is third choice behind Dudek, and Bueno is still with Castilla. All the other are gone, the cream of the crop to other teams. Then we pay Boca and River, Sao Paolo and Fluminense a crap load for their youth players and Juventus for their aged veterans. Also, we pick of players EPL teams didnt want anymore and overpay Ajax for Sneider. Sound like soung transfer policy?

Now I like all the players we bought except Heinze. But I want Real to start producing great players, and I want them to be more like Arsenal or Lyon, buying them fairly young and cheaply to develop them ourselves. Marcelo, Drenthe, Gago, Higuain were all bought for that reason, but they were already stars and we paid over the odds for them. Sunny of Valencia is a perfect example of what I want to see in our transfer policy. He is going to be a great player someday, definately. And Valencia got him for a little over 1 million for Ejido. Valencia also bought David Silva from Tenerife for peanuts, ham him in the youth team for a bit, loaned him out for awhile and now he is a great player.

Why are we not doing this, please enlighten me readers.