Using each other as competitive baselines, both clubs have perpetually used each other as benchmarks, and relative points of excellence with which to measure their own achievements; when Barcelona bid for the transcendent Alfredo Di Stéfano in 1953, the Royal Whites managed to intercept the deal and eventually build an iconic era of their own around the Argentine. Though Real Madrid were once co-owners to Samuel Eto'o's contract rights along with fellow Spanish side Mallorca, Barcelona swept in on the coveted striker and placed him at the helm of one of their many trophy-laden revolutions. Florentino Pérez' first Galáctico, Luís Figo, evoked semi-dormant hostilities between the super-clubs with his 2000 transfer to Madrid from Barcelona, a move that ignited the Pérez Era and earned the Portuguese striker a FIFA World Player of the Year award before the Culés got the chance to throw pig heads at him in distaste in a 2002 Clásico.
While the overlying objective became to recharge Real Madrid’s domestic and intercontinental standing by strengthening their own homegrown spine, Pérez first ran an audacious turn of course, splurging on international stars Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Karim Benzema for over €200 million, a whimsical move, and one that earned charming response and optimism from the club’s main shareholders - the Madridistas themselves. As with Figo at the turn of the millennium, and Beckham, Ronaldo, and Zidane thereafter him, transfer records were shattered and reassembled in the summer of 2009, though not in vain. At the time, the arrival of Kaká, Cristiano, and Benzema was Pérez' classic fallback plan of resistance against the Barcelona reign, and an old fashioned page out of Real Madrid's handbook.
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After signing Neymar last year, as with anything the Blaugrana do, the Blancos counteracted, purchasing Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur for a record-breaking fee after a summer of speculation. When Barcelona seized the window of controversy following Liverpool poacher Luis Suárez' patchy World Cup exit [and ensuing four-month ban under allegations of biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini] by swooping in for the talisman Real Madrid had been reportedly linked with for years, in response, and in typical Florentino fashion, in came Toni Kroos, followed by James Rodríguez, from Bayern Munich and AS Monaco respectively. Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas followed suit, making the golden trek to the reigning European champions in an intraleague transfer from Levante. As a result, out went third goalkeeper Jesús Fernández, to fill Levante's new void between the posts, Diego López to Milan after a tenure of chaos, debate, and unsung success, and Castilla product Álvaro Morata to Juventus, with Spanish tabloids allotting new price tags atop Sami Khedira, and Ángel Di María's heads by the hour.
After their displays in this year’s tournament, signing World Cup champion Toni Kroos, Golden Boot winner James Rodríguez, and three-time Man of the Match victor Keylor Navas makes sense from a qualitative standpoint, placing three individual cases of brilliance into royal white. The issues arise due to the lack of obvious positional roles for them to assume in the upcoming season.
As for Real's priciest acquisition of the summer James Rodríguez, a move to the Bernabéu comes after shining as the unlikely starlet during Colombia's World Cup campaign. After being a relatively unsung entity in Ligue 1 after prior success in Portugal's Primeira Liga, the midfielder captured instant all-star status thanks to the world's grandest footballing stage in Brazil this summer, where six goals four assists earned him the tournament Golden Boot before his 23rd birthday, though it remains doubtful whether he'll occupy the lone attacking midfield position in a squad boasting the likes of Ángel Di María and Isco. With their latest additions, Europe's deepest squad may have... too much depth.
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But, Mr. Pérez is a gambler, with no problem - materially or figuratively - offloading phenomenal Blanco contributors who have excelled and developed in the club's values and system for instant phenomena, even less so if the aforementioned Blancos seem to have lost touch with the club's principles. Señorío, or gentlemanliness, is a moral dimension that the Royal Whites pride themselves in. You can and will be just as easily replaced should you fail to comply on the playing field or off of it, with a simple cash-in and few words, as even fewer are needed to convince a comfortable majority of footballers to choose Madrid as their playing home. |
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With intervention from the press, the Florentino Pérez had only just begun fighting personal backlash from Madrid supporters after reportedly spewing put-downs of Özil's character and attitude in response to those angered by his departure. Mesut Özil's sale had been contorted into a scandalous expulsion, where Pérez' apparent raging distaste for Özil's alleged lack of professionalism and cavalier infatuation with nightlife, coupled with the midfielder's "inability to cope with the pressures of playing for Real Madrid," led to a mutual decision. As with many intraclub controversies, most Madridistas took sides, even subconsciously - "Pro-Pérez" versus "Anti-Pérez", an unspoken war that is to be expected after unregretfully discarding and shaming La Liga's finest playmaker and assist-man, in the waning hours of departure day for a record £42.5 million, no less. But, Real Madrid revitalized with big signings like Illarramendi, Bale, and Isco, that invited skeptics on paper but formed a pleasantly surprising on-field matrimony. By the end of the season, outstanding player displays ultimately brought home La Décima, as well as the Anti-Pérez supporters that had gone astray.
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Karim Benzema remains the only target option for Los Blancos, after Gonzalo Higuaín's departure for Napoli last summer left an unanswered void in the Real Madrid front line that’s only been widened with Álvaro Morata’s €20 million move to Juventus. Rumors of a possible transfer for Monaco's talisman Radamel Falcao haven't settled, yet they've been left seemingly untouched as well, raising the question; is securing a backup striker not more of a priority than redecorating one of Europe’s most cohesive midfields for €120 million? In the summer of 2003/04, a center-of-the-pitch overload exuded similar warning signs: even with Ronaldo, Figo, Beckham, Zidane, and honorary Galáctico Raúl all contributing to Real Madrid’s midfield set-up, the disconnect between on-field personalities, and lack of positional variety per capita, was less than pragmatic.
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Without offloading some of the club’s most important contributors, the team remains in risk of making tactical adjustments simply to accommodate more midfield stars. In the meanwhile, Benzema remains without a replacement, while central defense remains untouched. After a year of building one of the most delicate chemistries in modern football, capable of championing the Copa Del Rey and La Décima, the necessary offloads could shatter Real’s current footballing machine and Ancelotti’s plans. Has Spain’s greatest sporting empire fallen back into an all-to-familiar, crippling pattern of neglecting their progression as a sporting project in favor of marketability, or will the big bucks spent on this summer’s signings pay off?
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It's as if Ancelotti built this intricate jigsaw puzzle that revealed La Decima, then Florentino replaced a few pieces w/ Lego blocks.
— Andres Cordero (@DreCordero) September 13, 2014
The process has become inherently cyclical: win titles, reap the rewards, offload as necessary, and continue building a dynasty. With the pressure of La Décima now a figment of the past, there is more ability to do such. Madrid’s sponsorship commitments and aims to develop its $484 million brand finance a monumental operating income that makes their glowing transfers ever-more possible. Forbes valued Los Blancos at $3.4 billion in May of 2014, an elitist sporting machine that generates more revenue than any other world sports team with a $675 million projectile for 2014. Last year, the club’s shirt sponsor switch from bwin.com to Fly Emirates, the familiar Dubai-centric airline sported by clubs ranging from Arsenal to Hamburger SV, was rumored to be for a deal as lucrative as €30 million. The club’s controlling shareholders are its own members, Madridistas, who fuel the $710 million of matchday income, while their leonine control on Spain’s television broadcasting reels in $1.12 billion. To put Madrid's financial footprint into some sort of perspective, the attacking trio of James Rodríguez, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Gareth Bale ring up to a grand total higher than Eredivisie side Ajax has spent on transfers in their entire 114-year history, per Fox Sports.
Today, the towers at Cuatro Torres have been unofficially nicknamed in honor of the aforementioned four players by an adoring public. It’s a quiet ode, not only to their role in the city’s history and that of its most beloved club, but also an unspoken vow of thanks to their savior, mastermind, and current bearer of the eternal Blanco torch, Mr. Florentino Pérez.