Saturday, 21st November – Real Madrid kick off with a single aim. Reduce a three point gap with Barcelona to zero. A couple of hours later, they were booed off the pitch by their own fans. In between, the current treble holders produced a sublime performance. And this with the world’s best player, Lionel Messi, on the bench. For 90 minutes, the Madrid players looked disjointed, overwhelmed, disinterested and downright petulant. Never have I sat and watched a Los Blancos side this unbothered while facing their eternal rivals. A lot of factors combined to see the collapse of Real Madrid at the hands of the blaugrana. Here are a few of them.
Florentino Perez – The guy is basically a businessman. Yes, he is passionate about football, but to him it is all about the bottom line. Buying the best attacking talents that sell the most official shirts and bring sponsorship millions to Madrid has been his tactic. This makes for a squad that is unbalanced and always under pressure to play flowing, beautiful football. It works in Manager Mode in FIFA. It does not work in the real world against a direct rival.
Cristiano Ronaldo – I love this guy, I really do. My respect for Cristiano is as much as a Messi and FC Barcelona fan can show. But Lord Jesus! Please just leave Spain already. With FC Barcelona doing what they do, perhaps even better than under Guardiola, you won’t ever win trophies here! Real Madrid’s record goalscorer with no one even close to breaking his numbers, Ronaldo should just leave if he wants to finish a glittering career with trophies and not second-place medals. Maybe go to PSG or Manchester United or Qatar or even Barca because at least then he might win!