@Emil
Hvad så nu?
Hvad så nu?
Klub top 3: Newcastle,............................... Barcelona
Spiller top 3: Ronaldo(fede), Ronaldinho, Romario
Real Madrid remains a club in search of an identity. And some commonsense.
Perhaps the way to differentiate between United and Real Madrid is to let you know a little bit of what has been going through Cristiano Ronaldo´s mind.
Towards the end of the season, during late April and most of May, I spent a lot of time talking to players and technical staff at Manchester United in preparation for the big final against Barca.
What I found was that Ronaldo was in regular contact with three of them and also with others around the Carrington training ground I don´t know.
Ronaldo was often on the phone, or would text, in order to get off his chest how frustrating a club he has found Madrid in comparison to United.
The in-fighting at the Bernabeu, the outrageously partisan media in Spain, the enormous and confusing chain of command at Madrid, the lack of major trophies, the defensive, counter-attack mentality that his coach José´ Mourinho used against Barcelona in the Champions league semi-final.
Ronaldo would even phone up the United kitman Albert Morgan for a natter.
In summary, he kept telling his former club mates that his ´´grass-might-be-greener´´ dream of playing for Real Madrid is a disappointment.
He finds Madrid less well run corporately than United, he feels far more exposed to media dog-fights than he did in England (´´is he happy?´´, ´´should he pass more?´´, ´´has Ronaldo had a bust-up with Iker Casillas?´´) and above all, he misses the 100 per cent authority that his old boss and, let´s face it, friend Sir Alex commands at United.
Several of the people who noted to me that Ronaldo was ´´homesick´´ for Old Trafford added that he would often use the phrase ´´if it wasn´t for the horrible weather over there then I´d actually consider …´´
But he stays to fight on and the question now is - is Madrid finally getting its attention properly on the prize? Like United is doing?