Calderon, Gone Gone?
Friday, 16 January 09, 05:06 PM · Comments(1)
After a contentious two years in control, headlined by two league titles and two disgraced coaches, as of this morning the Ramon Calderon era at Real Madrid is over. In a meeting in December, he was able to survive a vote of no-confidence at the Club Assembly on December 7th, but it has come out this week that he used "bused-in" ultra groups to intimidate members and used non-members to rig the vote in his favor. Now everyone is calling on the club to move forward and call a general election to find his successor, and that's all well and good but the fact remains that regardless of the fact that he failed to meet his campaign promises of bringing Cesc Fabregas, Kaka' and Cristiano Ronaldo to the Bernabeu there are some embarrassing allegations coming from Madrid and it has shamed a club that just 8 months ago were celebrating a second consecutive La Liga title at the Cibeles.
Frankly, no one should have been surprised. There were signs even from the beginning. During the election there were reports that whole blocks of mailed-in votes were ignored. From then on he was constantly on the defensive. He hired an experienced coach in Capello who had already had a tempestuous reign a decade earlier in Madrid, gave him an inexperienced Sporting Director in Peja Mijatovic, and walked around with the wide-eyed look of a deer in headlights. When the transfer windows opened his response was usually, "We have tons to spend, let's have it on then!" and he was usually surprised why other clubs negotiated higher with Madrid than any other club. His transfers were haphazard, poorly thought-out, and often lacked coordination with the needs of the squad, the availability of players for all competitions, let alone for reasonable financial terms. Other clubs disrespected Real Madrid's leadership and never took them seriously.
Calderon was surprised that Capello, noted for his no-nonsense approach to club management and often dour tactics, brought a similar mentality to the capital and almost immediately wanted him gone calling for excitement to return to the Bernabeu. Capello, rather than taking the bait and leaving back to Italy, circled the wagons and won the League again for los blancos stopping only to flip a bird at club leadership. The fiasco of Bernt Schuster's hiring and firing, well I won't even get into that. Anyone who expected anything less of the German doesn't remember him as a player. There were financial problems despite a profit over the last two years and in the end he showed what an honorable President he had been for Madrid by stepping down, but only after trying to deflect the blame to two of his most trusted advisors.
Some would ask how Calderon's term would be remembered, I'd say think of his trip to New York last year when was detained for hours by the authorities who mistook him for a criminal. Right now there isn't much of a difference.
Make sure to check out our new site at ForzaFutbol.com
Like this blog? Help spread the word: 
-
forzafutbol
Los Angeles, US
A better lens into the World's Game. We talk about UEFA Cup, Champions League and International matches, especially when they intersect with teams in Spain and Italy, we talk transfer rumours, gossip and everything else that revolves around the world's greatest game.
-
Pet Snakes said:Love your writing style and the design of your blog, its very original! Well do...
Mando said:I think you can get 3 for the price of what you'd pay for Kaka and Ronaldo. Aul...
trooper said:here is my squad list:
GK - iker casillas & codina
DEFENCE: maicon,ramo...
Keftbubpoet said:I don't like the colour.
---------------------------------------
signature:...
Twitted by realmadridtalk said:[...] This post was Twitted by realmadridtalk - Real-url.org [...]
1 Comments · Add yours
he is gone i tell u ..bye