Thursday, June 18, 2009

Will he regret being CR9?


Christiano Ronaldo has left Manchester United for Real Madrid with a world record transfer fee of about 80mil pounds. By the end of his contract (because every footballer honors their contract nowadays) he'll be earning over a half a million a week. The question on everyone's mind is will he regret leaving Manchester?

In a financial standpoint, you would be an idiot to say that this isn't the best idea for him. One could say that if he stayed with United that it could have been possible for him to get as much money there. He's starting off at about 200,000 pounds a week in Madrid. And knowing what he spends on cash, I don't think he's going to regret getting bigger and bigger checks every week.

For him personally, his boyhood dream is to play for Real Madrid. I respect that, we all have dreams to be at the perfect place and now he is able to play out his boyhood dream. I've never been to Spain but I'm sure the surroundings from his standpoint will be a better fit for him than it would be in Manchester. He can get his tan game up tenfold if he goes to Madrid.....wait pause....

The only thing I will see him regretting is the club he is leaving for Madrid. Man Utd has been the model of stability. Sir Alex Ferguson has stayed in United for over 20 years. He is still able to get the most out of players while others begin to tune out their managers, ask Arsene Wenger (everybody loves a little jab at Arsenal, even though I'm not an EPL fan anyways).

Could anybody name me a manager of Real Madrid that has been successful for 10 years? let alone 20.

Don't worry I'll wait....

There is no stability in the Bernabeau. Hell even when they win the La Liga trophy they do not keep their manager. This season alone they went through three managers. Schuster, Ramos and now Pellegrini. And Juande Ramos brought Madrid back to keep the La Liga race close but still he wasn't able to keep his job. Personally I think he's a better manager than Manny Pellgrini but that's a different subject for a different day.

Even though Florentino Perez plans on bringing a renewed Galaticos era, it is still debated how this crop of players will develop with each other. He brought in Ronaldo and Kaka with the impending signing of David Villa ahead (as a Valencia fan.....SHIT!!!), the forward line will be formidable. However unlike players like Zidane, who only needed the ball some of the time. Most of these current players need the ball ALL the time. We haven't put in the equation of Arjen Robben into this current side (unless he's transferred). He is the alpha ball-hog on this team. He shows greatness himself but he needs to be on the ball also. I think Christiano Ronaldo and him will clash because there's only one ball and both of them feel like they need it.

I think the King of Madrid [Raul] and Ronaldo will clash too, because even though it's Ronaldo's boyhood dream to be a Madrid player. Raul will certainly have a problem with CR's partying lifestyle. And the Portuguese's commitment to the side will be tested like no other.

Another aspect will be the expectation of him to replicate what he did in Manchester. Madrid fans will expect him to score 40 goals a season like he did with Man U a couple of seasons ago. There's no way that'll happen. I'm sure him, Kaka, and Villa could do what Eto'o, Henry, and Messi did this last season. However Christino's expectation is to score 30 goals and it doesn't matter how many goals the others get, he has to get his. Of course that will lead to more disharmony because they won't conform to him like Rooney and company did for him.

Of course time will tell and probably more managers will be sacked before we figure out if this is a regrettable decision. Knowing him, he won't see it as a regret, he'll see it as a new challenge because it is true that he's won all he could with Manchester. He'll have to deal with figures that on a given day can be on par with his ability. I wonder how he'll react to that and the comparisons with Messi will continue more now than ever. There will be more and more expectations, it's different to tell the media that you can handle it and then actually do it. This will be the first time that he'll expect to be the alpha dog in his new club. I think this may be too much pressure even for him.


All I know is that the real Ronaldo will smack him in the face if he ever sees him. That's the Phenomenon's number and his only....

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