Back when Los Blancos splashed out so much in the mid of the 2000’s, barcelona still dominated them locally. Yes, Real have always been known for spending big but has it really worked out in recent years ?
Ever since Zenedine Zidane’s wonder goal won them the Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen in 2002, Real Madrid had to wait 12 years later before they could get an European silverware after being knocked out seasons after seasons by teams that never even spent half of what they did, and even see their Spanish counterpart, Barcelona win the trophy three times and consecutive league titles, whilst the later relied mostly on her academy players, then.
In comparison, Los Merengues had to shatter their transfer record twice yet, had no success in the Champions League. Maybe the time money does it all is gone.
The art of football will never come with money. For Barcelona, Leo Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandes and the likes were all from the club’s famous academy, La Masia, and unlike Real, they never even had to spend big on transfers and the achievement of the team was just astonishing.
A simple strike to how money won’t help in stamping your authority can also be traced to Barcelona when the Catalan club decides to spend big, unfortunately, none of their big money acquisition live up to expectations.
When a player moves to a big club with lots expected of him, it doesn’t just take your footballing skills to get us to the atmosphere, but psychologically, you also have to be rich.
Times and again, players falter in Madrid and we just can’t blame them. Well, it is Real Madrid, the standard that has been set is enough to put off these players.
If you think money actually helps, look at all other big team like Manchester United and AC Milan, who were both one of the big teams you should always look out for two decades ago, and ruled Europe, with squad comprising mostly, from their academy.
United have spent well over one billon Euro in the last seven years and did not even win the league, and Milan well, did not do well with money too.
So where did it all go wrong for Madrid ?
1. They spend on needless players at unrealistic amounts.
How on earth do you buy a 30 year old player for €100m, or a one season 30 goal a season striker at Frankfurt over £60million. These are one of the terrible mistakes the Real Madrid board have made that has drawn back the Madrid team.
2. Unappreciative of their own talents.
We can all see what Marcus Llorente is doing at atletico, and how Achraf Hakimi in the Serie A, Sergio Reguilon in the Premier League and you just can’t believe that these guys left the Santiago Bernabeu because they are not good enough and you have the likes of Lucas Vazquez and Alvaro Odriozola in the team. Absurd.
All in the name of spending big, Madrid has actually lost so many world class players. How on earth did they even let Mesut Ozil leave at such a young age ?
3. Majority of current players are old players.
This lead to the degradation of AC Milan, and if Re Madrid are not careful with the situation, it just might happen to them too. With Ramos, Modric, Marcelo, Kroos, Nacho Fernandes, Benzema, over 30. Especially when you think they would be replaced by the likes of Rodrygo Goes and Vinicius Junior.
4. Too much reliance on the BBC
Surely, Real Madrid will not be thinking the team that won the Champions League four times in five years was gonna do last forever. Yet, they have taken little to no step in planning life after them.
What is the way forward for Real Madrid ?
Simple, they shouldn’t expect anything big for a long time, trust in their own younger players with prospects and step up the activities in their academy. The likes of Martin Odegaard, Take Kubo, Luka Jovic, Fede Valverde and more are capable of thriving in a good set-up that provide them with needed trust and confidence. Then try to stand with the manager on a long term project.
The Barcelona’s team of 2000s rose out from beneath when nobody expected and conquered Europe without spending much and in the next couple of years,
Maybe they’ll be ruling Europe again, with the team already looking long term by the close watch on Fati, Puig, Araujo, Pedri, Alena, Mingueza and others.
Madrid can also learn from their rivals in order to get the best out of their prospects and youngsters, getting them in competitions with the experienced players.
The future of football is not dependent on money spent, but how well a squad of players understand one another.
Al Fuad Sobayo
