So what do you get in football for £240m? You get a group of individuals playing for themselves rather than each other, who disintegrate when resisted by more humble teams with a basic sense of solidarity, and a stadium abandoned by a mercenary fan base who can only too clearly see when they have a got bad deal.
That was the sad story of the Real Madrid players on Wednesday night as they tumbled out of the Champions League at the Bernabeu stadium having fallen to the magnificent Lyon musketeers. The sheer disfunctionality of the team in white was personified by the sight of superstar Christiano Ronaldo, time and time again demanding a pass from a team mate, only to be too often ignored. There was also something rather tragic, not to say, pathetic, in the image of Raul coming on as a late substitute and fouling like an amateur. The man who has built a legend on sweating the Madrid shirt long before the Galactico project ever came into vogue saw possibly his final Champions League performance all end in tears.
Probably the last Galactico that ever played as a team player was David Beckham, and he didn’t exactly crown himself with glory either this week. To play against the club (Manchester United) he once willingly abandoned (for more money), then to declare his enduring enduring loyalty the reds , after seeing them beat the club that happens to pay Beckham’s wages right now (Milan) , strikes me as pretty dodgy , in principle terms. Call it opportunistic or straight betrayal, this was not one of Beck’s endearing moments.
So a Champions League final without Real Madrid? I am praying for a rematch of Rome and a new Gladiator movie from Pep Guardiola.
Yes a tradegy, but the upside is that the will win the League at the expense of another of this seasons failures: Barcelona. Having also spent galactic prices, such as 70 million euros on the underperforming Zlatan Ibrahimović, this Spanish club has lost all the spark it had last season where they won everything albiet thanks to the scandalous performance of a referee who, most probably under Platini’s instructions, made sure there was no repeat of an all English final and refused 3 clear penalties in probably the most contoversial game of last seasons Champions Cup. If this Spanish Club reaches the final, an improbable event given there stuttering perfomance this season, they can rest assure that the whole of Madrid and the majority of the Bernabeau crowd will support the other finalist. Most Chelsea fans will be praying for a Barcelona / Chelsea final so justice can be finally delivered and in front of Platini, as the Nº 2 Spanish club fails miserably in the arena of their rivals while their president Laporta, who is selfishly using the Club as a spring board for his own outdated political ends, is forced to shake the hands of the King, the figurehead of a United Spain, and that Chelsea brings the Cup home to West London!