The Grapevine (Dutch Version)

By: Corey | August 13th, 2007

Transfer News From All Over

Its Christmas time in Madrid for old Bernd, as he got two young dutchment today. Steve of course has broke the news and I will give you the clean up. First off, Wesley.

Sneijder
Wesley Sneijder, 20 goals this season, has signed on in a deal worth 27 million. Steve already covered this, so I will simply give you the skinny on his medical:

http://www.realmadrid.com/articulo/rma41798.htm

Passed his medical, good ole Del Corral of of course explaing that he has never been seriously injured, blah blah blah. Here is his first press conference:

http://www.realmadrid.com/articulo/rma41802.htm

I would have prefered Van der Vaart, although he still may come but Valencia is hot and heavy for him now. Anyways, he will battle it out with Guti and Baptista for a starting spot. De La Red and Gago just dropped a few spots which is not looking good for them, but Sneijder may play on the left in a narrow looking midfield once and awhile. Again, RVdV would have been my prefered signing for this role. But thats fine, good luck SHHHHHHHneijdaaaaaaaa

Drenthe
The dreadlocked one will now join Balboa and old dutch favorite (not really) Seedorf in the annals of the Bernabeau’s Rasta hair club. I for one am excited, and posted earlier about seeing him in the Toulan torunament and being pretty psyched about him. His position will have to be figured out but once thats done he will be prowling the left flank like a mad man. Heres the RealMadrid.com medical stuff:

“Twenty year-old Royston Drenthe arrived at Sanitas La Moraleja Hospital at 9 am to have his medical. He was accompanied at all times by his father and was greeted by Dr. Alfonso Del Corral, Chief of Real Madrid’s Medical Staff.

http://www.realmadrid.com/articulo/rma41792.htm

He passed his medical and is in good condition, and he will be presented today with Sneijder at 6:30 if i did the time change right. Anyways, video of it wont be up til tomorrow so I would tune in, I will put a youtube clip up tomorrow. Heres his first interview:

http://www.realmadrid.com/articulo/rma41790.htm

Schuster Post-Match Presser
“This result is not that bad”

Bernd Schuster analysed the match in a press conference. The German coach believes his team can come back from the 1-0 defeat at the Bernabéu next week.

You changed your system tonight.
We knew we wouldn’t attack so much with two midfielders. We wanted to have the game under control as much as we could in order to gradually do better, as in the second half.
You’ve used a diamond shaped system during the entire preseason.
Diamond? No, not once.

What are your thoughts on the game?
It isn’t such a bad result because we can come back from it in the second leg. We can still win the title. Sevilla have been playing together for years and this was obvious during the match; they know each other perfectly well. We’re not quite there yet and we find things to be much harder. We’ll get there in time.

Did you expect your players to do better?
We lost because of a penalty. We shouldn’t make a big deal out of this.

If Sneijder doesn’t come, would it affect your plans?
I’m working with the players I have right now. I’m not worried about the players I don’t have.

Are you worried for not being in optimum form yet?
There is a lot of pressure and we are forced to win every game. I’m convinced some players will arrive to help the squad and allow us to tackle the different goals we have set ourselves this season.

Did you like the image the team gave?
Several things aren’t working out yet, especially in tough matches against hard rivals like tonight’s. We’ll soon solve these problems. I’m not too worried.

Well he is a straight shooter, I love the diamond formation question, damn hilarious. He is not gonna give away his tactical plans, so dont bother asking. In my recap of the Super Cup first leg i said it looked like a 4-3-2-1, which is not a diamond. I guess the formation is up to interpretation.

Cassano Get Lost
He should leave for Sampdoria if he takes a 500,000 euro pay cut from Real as the two teams look to balance out the wages paid. Please please please leave.

Emerson Likewise?
http://www.realmadrid.dk/news/article/?newsid=10109
This may happen now that Sneijder is in, and Djila is really the unconditional started at DM. But, Gago and De La Red, can they provide the adequate coverage Emerson provided. Yep, he didnt do shit.

Javi Garcia
Any news on him going to Depor or LiverMadirdPool? I have not heard anything, he is still with Castilla and I really hope we dont lose hm but with Sneijder signing he lost another chance to move up. To bad, maybe a loan to Depor is a good idead though, just keep him away from the grubby mits of Rafa.

EPL comments
I could go on and on about how the EPL is over rated, but I watched 4 games this weekend and I enjoyed it, probably cause I havent seen competitive games since Real won the title. Yeah, I will go with that one.

Robben
Should we forget about him? I certainly dont want and all Dutch team, I think his transfer is done and dusted, he stays with Chelsea because of their ridiculous valuation of an oft injured oft off form player who has really bad alopecia.

Training
Ruud and Metzelder rejoin squad

Real Madrid returned to work at Valdebebas. Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Cristoph Metzelder rejoined the squad, experiencing no problems during the session. Gonzalo Higuaín did recovery work on his own. The squad worked out in the gym and did mild jogging exercises. They will attend another session this evening at 19:30.

Real Madrid returned to training for the first time after the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup against Sevilla. Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Christoph Metzelder rejoined the squad and experienced no problems during the work-out. If the Dutch striker and the German defender continue working at this pace they will probably play in the second leg of the aforementioned competition. Gonzalo Higuaín was the only player to train on his own, doing specific recovery work on his injury.
The squad began by jogging mildly around the training pitch during ten minutes. They then did some stretching exercises prior to being divided into two groups.

The first group continued training in the gym. The remaining 15 players did ball work divided into two teams: Cicinho, Marcelo, Baptista, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Robinho and Roberto Soldado wore no bibs, while Raúl, Míchel Salgado, Miguel Torres, Adrián González and Javier Saviola wore orange bibs. They all worked out inside the box of one goal.

The squad will return at 19:30 this evening, presumably to do more ball exercises.

And of course to hold hands some more