What's grabbing the world football headlines these days? Euro ? Nope. Sadly so, it is the Cristiano Ronaldo saga, which has been blown out of proportion. For many weeks we have seen every newspaper, every website and every TV channel that is connected to football talk about the supposed interest from Real Madrid in Manchester United's star midfielder.
First and foremost, there has been NO official approach from Real Madrid at all. A certain Spanish newspaper called Marca which is obsessed with stories that sell and create unnecessary hype is the devil behind this scheme. They have been doing this from when I can remember. Every year they pick one superstar that is apparently bound to arrive at Real Madrid and most often that does not happen. For example, last year the best player was Kaka, and Marca expectedly linked him to Real and all summer long there were stories. What is so different this year then? The mere fact that it is an English team, and more importantly the mother of all such stories, Manchester United. You could alter Shakespeare's saying to suit this context and say "Hype, thy middle name be English football", and perhaps first name Manchester United. Marca sells news like this year after year and they strategically chose England and haven't they been successful.
Another part of this story that not many know the details of is the fact that Manchester United lodged a complaint to FIFA that Real are illegally trying to tap up their player who is currently contracted to them. FIFA of course as expected branded this as rubbish stating that there is no proof that Real have done anything to create this spur. You could argue that FIFA is pro Real, but the truth of the matter is that there has been nothing official and hence Manchester have nothing to work against. Manchester famously declared to the world that they are not the greatest fans of Real's transfer policy, but this where they are at fault. Hypocrisy is one thing that puts off most people. They publicise their ever so famous youth development policy, but the truth is after the so called golden generation of the 99 Champions league winning team, there is nobody that can be called their own. Their moves for Hargreaves,Rooney,Ferdinand etc are all very similar to what they criticize Real for except it was not blown out of proportion like this one. “Do as I say but not as I do” should certainly not be what a club like Manchester United practice if they are going to attack other clubs for being interested in their players. So while Manchester United fans and staff complain about Real’s alleged efforts to sign Ronaldo, Manchester United goes right ahead and does similar types move to what Real is being accused of, and in some cases even worse because they get players with great potential for peanuts. Although the scale is much different between a 15 year old prospect and a 23 year super star (although he is unproven to most of the world as of yet), the principle is still the same.
Similar is the case with other English teams too, Arsenal too buy players at a ridiculously young age, Liverpool raid Spain at every given chance and Chelsea make the most random buys one can. The face of football is changing, loyalty is a thing of the past. Perhaps Spanish teams can be accused of not doing the same but what can be done if English clubs tap up youth prospects at a young age of 15 only because the contract rules are different in Spain,Italy etc than England. They should develop their own players, and maybe some Englishmen, because these days the national team finds it hard even to qualify for big competitions.
8 comments:
Amidst all the hype, you forget to mention about ronaldo's statements themself. I doubt kaka went as far last year. And what is united going to do about it if their player wants to go? Complaining to mommy wont help then, would it?
nice post..i dont follow football(ya i know :P ) but it made interesting reading nevertheless.. and lol at "Hype, thy middle name be English football", and perhaps first name Manchester United
i used to watch epl till i was in 12th and not after that so please bear with a few inconsistencies.
the trouble is there a few rich clubs,a lot more not so rich ones and a few poor ones.the rich go scouting for talent and shell out obscene amounts of cash. so if theres a player who is really gifted in one of the smaller clubs, theres no way he's going to stay there for more than a season or two.like Rooney,Ferdinand etc. and further,the clubs not at the top keep circulating players amongst themselves as a result their level of performance remains almost the same.and if by chance they produce a really good player, they know they have no chance of sticking on to him. if i'm not mistaken,ajax was really good in europe and they produced some great players. but these guys found greener pastures elsewhere and left.
so basically the "not so big" are just breeding ground for talent.they get money alright but that's not healthy for the game.
this will continue because united, real,chelsea etc get millions of dollars in revenue.its better to go shopping instead of working at developing talent.thats how they see it.
great blog.
Relax da, everyone knows that Christian Ronaldo's birth certificate really says Diving Faggot.
But I still feel he's gonna make a move to Madrid.
@ kaustubh - sigh :( yeah looks like
@ bala yeah thats the point im making, united have no right to complain while they are doing just the same
Nice blog.
As they say, "People in glasshouses shouldnt throw stones", Man-U has no rite in complaining.
p.s - I see u havent run out of ideas as u said, but neway keep it up. Njoyed reading it.
i couldnt agree more on the issue... it is sad that the player hogging the limelight is c.ronaldo(a mere shadow of the great brazilian himself), n not the people like arshavin or villa...i mean they aren't getting they're due credit, just imagine if it was a ronaldo or even worse wayne rooney...
but marca has and will be real's mouthpiece...agreed they've failed many a time, but through that, real decleares interest in a player and if he is flattered by it, he will move...major case: jose reyes, whose problems with england started developing only after marca morphed a pic of him in a real shirt...
barc*lona is more than guilty of this tapping up...they're by far the worst team to handle in the transfer market...they have a similar mouth-piece(cant remember the name) and used it to get henry, now hleb or adebayor apparently(dunno abt non-gunners!).. with fifa's stupid transfer market regulations and the new webster clause, they are misusing the power that they have 2 aquire the players...
u might argue that arsenal's doing the same thing(albeit without a mouth-piece) with youngsters, but this isnt restricted to arsenal alone, all other clubs do it too...its just that these youngsters come into the limelight more quickly at arsenal than at other clubs...
i think in a few years we'll see a collapse of this "transfer market", but i'd love to see a death of the tabloid-culture..
The clubs like Barca Arsenal Man U are theoretically supposed to have great Youth academies but off late they have not produced home grown talent. But even still Barca has produced players like Cesc Fabregas, Messi etc and we should not forget Ronaldo though a great talent was grew in stature and gained value at Old Trafford. The game of Football thrives on such transfers. It is a game of money and hence the richer clubs get better players.Thats why people like Roman Ibravomich and Tashkin Shinawatra invest in it as they can build their teams. What can you change about it? nothing much i guess. If I am not mistaken Arsenal fielded a team with no English player a few seasons ago. Well only England is the problem area as they are not producing quality players and you really cant generalize this. There are amazing young players in Spain and Italy. And one more point it is very good for a player to go on win
a Champions league medal with a big club than stay at the small club and may be win a league title and also loose on millions of Euros. Well if I go on it can be a blog here....
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