http://football.guardian.co.uk/continentalfootball/story/0,,1719775,00.htmlGalactic era that began in triumph ends in disarraySid LoweTuesday February 28, 2006
www.guardian.co.ukThe emperor with the new clothes finally realised his nakedness last night. Florentino Pérez, the architect of the galáctico, football's greatest romantic or perhaps its greatest cynic, has departed Real Madrid after almost six years of triumphalism. He has at last recognised that, amid the successes, the club's failings were his too; that the wondrous football team he wore so proudly simply did not exist.
Under Pérez, Real Madrid loudly proclaimed themselves the greatest club in the world; over the last three years, the reality made a mockery of such hubris. The man crawlingly referred to as "a superior being" by vice-president Emilio Butragueño has finally turned the blame on himself, having employed four directors of football and seven coaches.
Pérez departs with Real Madrid 10 points adrift in the league, out of the Copa del Rey and on a knife-edge in the Champions League. Should Madrid finish the year empty-handed, it would be their third successive season without a major trophy - the first time they would have endured such a drought since 1950-53.
In the last four years under Pérez, they have steadily slipped back in the Champions League, too: winners in 2001-02, semi-finalists the year after, then quarters, then last 16, Madrid's worst performance since the competition was re-formed in 1995. This year they are on the verge of going out at the same stage. And all that despite the galácticos, despite building the most ludicrously talented team in history - certainly the most famous team in history.
But a president who thinks he knows best is asking for trouble, here more than anywhere. Anyone else can go a season or two trophy-free - Barça did it for six long years - but not Madrid. Not when their supposed superiority is thrust so wilfully down throats.
It was no coincidence that the rest of Spain so gleefully revelled in Madrid's defeat in the 2002 Cup final - a final held at the Bernabéu on their 100th birthday. Madrid's celebrations that year saw them visit the Pope, the King and the United Nations. By the end of this year, they will have featured in four feature films and gone on three world tours. For a while, they seemed worth it: when a Fifa World XI faced Madrid to celebrate their centenary, the home side had the better team. But the successes, aided by a media that was often willing to serve and on occasion scared not to, were exaggerated.
Ronaldo has never won the European Cup, David Beckham has not won anything since arriving in 2003. The England captain cannot be blamed, but that was the beginning of the end. Sure, Madrid have increased income enormously, but how many fans gather to celebrate a great bank balance? And, besides, huge income has come at the cost of huge outlay - £285m on transfers alone, plus £4m a season per galáctico, after tax.
Madrid failed not despite the galácticos, but because of them. Pérez created an unmanageable monster, a satiated, divided squad of ageing players, a club where marketing ranks ahead of meritocracy. Where tours of the Far East take precedence over pre-season training, where those who play know they will play come what may and those that do not, know they will not; where the non-galácticos are consciously undervalued.
A huge poster on the side of the Bernabéu used to show the galácticos in various action poses. "It's as if they're the only bloody people at the club," one first-teamer remarked sadly. Coaches, of whom there had been six in less than three years, were stripped of all authority. When Mariano García Remón left Ronaldo on the bench, Pérez asked him: "Who do you think you are to leave Ronaldo out?" García Rémon replied: "The coach." Within days, he was the ex-coach. Too many players simply do not care and those that do care grow more and more frustrated. "This club has lost its soul," one first-teamer privately insisted after Madrid were defeated by Barcelona in November. Now it has lost its emperor. The galactic era is over. Maybe now Real Madrid can become a football team once more.
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