Real Madrid's Galatico Effect

The term Galatico's stems from Real Madrid's President Florentino Perez ethos at Madrid at the time in 2000/2001 by setting his stall out to recruit the biggest names in World Football and put them together into a team. The Galatico's bought in that era were the likes of David Beckham,Roberto Carlos, Figo and Zidane. Real Madrid paid huge transfer fee's for them and at the time Zidane was the worlds most expensive player at a cost of 48 Million Euros.

Figo had been the previous record at a cost of 37 million so they had conducted big business in 2001 to assemble their side of Galatico's. Real Madrid won the Champions League in 2002 and they followed that up with the Spanish Title in 2003 but then it all went sour. They didn't win another trophy for 3 years afterwards. So does this indicate that the short term benefits are very rewarding but there is an element of doubt long term?.

Florentino Perez is now back at the club recently and has decided to do the same again. You may or may not have read in the various European Football websites but he has just spent over 140 million euros on two players. Kaka the midfield maestro from Milan and Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for a reported £80 million. Perez has taken the bull by the horns and is putting together his new Galatico's in order to try and catch and overcome FC Barcelona who won the Spanish League and Champions League last season.

The downside to his plan however, is that its been reported that he is looking to offload up to 9 of the current first team squad to recoup some of the huge sums of money that he has spent in recent weeks. There are still ongoing rumours about at least 2-3 other players being linked with Perez and Madrid so the spending may not be over. Surely, this will have a detrimental effect on Real Madrid's squad and playing staff to see such big names come in and a large number of existing players being shown the door. New players take time to gel into a team. To get to know each other and the way they all play together so this will take time.

Let's not forget that FC Barcelona won what they did last season, yes because they have big names and arguably their own Galactico's, but they work hard for each other and fight for each other. Madrid need to use this example as a stepping stone or despite the huge sums of money being spent, will still find themselves with another trophy less season and all that money spent will not change their position behind FC Barcelona.

The European soccer transfer market

So in light of the money that Real Madrid have paid for Kaka and Ronaldo and the fact that Manchester United and AC Milan now have money to burn, it seems as thought the rest of the big European clubs have taken notice and are now asking for ridiculous sums of money. They see the amount of money paid for two players so will now hold out for huge sums of money even if their players have expressed desires to leave and move to another club.

For example my club Chelsea Football Club in the UK are looking to bring in one or two new signings to freshen up the side along with our new Manager Carlo Ancelotti. It has been reported that we have tabled a bid for Bayern Munich midfielder Frank Ribery who is still under contract at Bayern. The bid is believe to be in the region of 40 Million and has apparently been REJECTED with an instruction back to Chelsea to "Up their offer".

I find this remarkable at a time where there is an apparent global credit crunch that these sums of money are being spent or reportedly spent on Football Players who train for 2 hours a day and then play football for 90 minutes maybe three times a week at most. Granted the successes these players can bring to a club can't be dismissed but you have to ask why this amount of money is spent now?

With the next couple of months still to pass by in the close season around all the European Leagues it will be interesting to see if the spending silly money continues or European Football has a reality check and comes to some sort of common sense!.

Written by: Chelseadaft
chelseadaftmail@gmail.com
http://chelseadaft.blogspot.com

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