Part Two – Real Madrid
Having failed miserably in my hunt for glory at
Arsenal, it is time to change countries and take charge of the overpaid Galacticos at the mighty
Real Madrid. I take over on July 20th 2003 to find that I am expected to win the Primera Liga. I have a transfer budget of nearly £40M but that is irrelevant as according to my rules I will make no transfers during my sole season in charge. Real play at the 75,000 seater
Santiago Bernabeu. I have half a dozen players on long term loans that cannot be recalled and with only 18 players in my A squad I am looking a bit light but frankly the B squad is so full of dross that it’s hard to see who to move to the seniors. I will need to evaluate this after they have had a few games and see who is playing well.
My first game isn’t until the
Spanish Super Cup in mid-August so having established my 4-4-2 tactics I concentrate on some serious training until then. We win the home leg of the Super Cup 2-0 thanks to a penalty from
Ronaldo and a goal from substitute
Guti. In the return match
Zidane and
Raul both score as we draw 2-2 to lift our first trophy of the season.
The bookies make
Deportivo 5-2 favourites for the title with
Real priced at 5-1. Our opening league match at
Murcia ends in a disappointing 1-1 draw with none of our famed superstars exactly setting the world alight with their performances. Another draw follows in midweek as visiting
Espanyol keep us at bay and the game ends scoreless. We are still not firing on all cylinders when
Albacete come to town and we get another draw, 1-1 this time. Before our opening
Champions League game at
Lazio I see that the bookies have made us 5-2 favourites to win the trophy. If the result in Rome is anything to go on then they could be right as we win 4-0 even with the luxury of a missed penalty. We then get our first league win of the season with a 2-1 victory at
Athletic Bilbao but follow this with our first defeat. A poor first half performance at home to
Betis sees us go into half time a goal down. We play much better after the break but can’t convert pressure and chances into goals and lose 1-0. Thankfully we play better in our Champions League game at home to
Vardar of Macedonia,
Ronaldo scoring a hat trick in our 5-1 win. So at the end of my first month in charge we have shown some middling domestic form but are looking better in European competition. A win and three draws in the league puts us in 14th place but we head our Champions League group.
Raul and
Ronaldo both hit the target on our trip to
Osasuna but some poor defending allowed the home side back into the game but thankfully a second from
Ronaldo was enough for the win. We then scrape through our
Spanish Cup tie at
Murcia on penalties before getting a lucky 0-0 draw at
Valladolid. I see some improvement in our 3-0 defeat of
Celta where
Ronaldo scores a hat trick but the form of our galacticos is still very erratic. Our good form in Europe continues with a 2-1 win at
VfB Stuttgart and I am pleased by our 2-0 defeat of
Valencia. Unfortunately we end the month with a disappointing 2-0 loss at
Deportivo and sit in 5th place in the table. Thus far
Ronaldo has been our most effective player and he has 10 goals to his name.
November begins with a huge grudge match at home to
Barcelona and the fans are distraught with our 2-1 defeat. However, they are much happier with our 3-0 defeat of
Vfb Stuttgart that sees us qualify from our group with 2 games to spare and their good humour improves further when we win the
Madrid derby at
Atletico 2-1. Then in one of our best performances of the season we beat
Real Sociedad 4-0.
David Beckham stars in our
Champions League game at home to
Lazio, scoring his first goal of the season late on in the game to give us a 1-0 win. In our final game of the month at
Sevilla the home side have two men sent off as we win 2-0 and we now find ourselves in 4th place, 5 points behind surprise leaders
Betis.
Our brief run of form is interrupted by a 1-1 draw with
Malaga in La Liga but then our second string come back from Macedonia with a 0-0 draw against
Vardar to preserve our unbeaten Champions League record. On our trip to bottom club
Mallorca we recovered from a poor first half to eventually win 3-1. In the
Spanish Cup we travel to D2B side
Fuenlabrada, shock victors over
Valencia in the previous round, and but for some profligate finishing our 2-0 winning margin would have much greater. With several first choice players missing through injury we still manage to beat
Racing Santander 2-1 before being held to a scoreless draw with
Villarreal in our final game of the year.
We go into the New Year 3rd in La Liga, 8 points behind leaders
Betis and 5 adrift of
Barcelona. Ronaldo and
Raul have a dozen goals apiece but my highly paid superstars are still not doing themselves justice on a regular basis (how realistic is that?). A poor start to the year sees us lose 2-1 at Second Division
Alaves in the first leg of our
Spanish Cup tie and then lose 3-1 at
Zaragoza, finishing the match with ten men when
Raul is injured after I have used all of my subs. I am so frustrated with my players that I openly criticise both
Zidane and
Beckham in the press – maybe that will improve their performances. Perhaps stung by my attack, the team plays much better in the second leg of the cup-tie, winning 5-0 to go through to the
Quarter Final with both
Zizou and
Becks scoring. Rather unusually we are straight back into cup action with the home leg against
Athletic Bilbao and we record an excellent 3-0 win. The bad news is that we lose
Ronaldo for a fortnight with a knee injury. Back in La Liga our form dips again as we lose 1-0 at
Espanyol with winger
Solari sent off. As the month closes we win the return leg at
Bilbao 2-0 to go through to the
Cup Semi Final. The Spanish FA must be keen to get this competition out of the way for our last game of the month was the home leg of the Semi against
Leganes of the Second Division and a 4-0 win leaves us in good shape for the return. So in a month dominated by the Cup our lack of activity in La Liga sees us drop to 5th place in the table and there is increasing disquiet amongst the clubs supporters.
Four more goals follow in our opening game in February with a rare brace from
Becks in the 4-2 defeat of recent Cup opponents
Athletic Bilbao. A 0-0 draw at
Leganes sees us safely into the
Cup Final but
Ronaldo rather needlessly gets himself sent off so he will miss that game. Our faint hopes of lifting the Primera Liga title evaporate after our 3-2 defeat at leaders
Betis in as exciting a game as you will see all season. Our fluctuating form sees us beat
Osasuna 2-0 and then lose 2-1 at
Albacete before an ill-tempered affair at
Valencia finishes 1-0 in our favour. With the League title now out of reach we really needed a good performance in the away leg of our
Champions League tie in
Dortmund and got just the opposite – a very poor display and a 2-0 defeat. The month ends with another stumbling display as we are held 1-1 at home by struggling
Valladolid, we have now dropped to 6th in the table, the board and the fans aren’t happy and the player’s morale is low – I feel that I will be lucky to see the end of the season at this rate.
March starts in pleasing style with an extraordinary hat trick of long-range strikes from Argentinean midfielder
Esteban Cambiasso giving us a 3-0 win at home to
Murcia. But I am now finding that Real have such an unbalanced squad that the first team players are all becoming very tired with the list of players in need of a rest growing game by game. But their understudies are of such poor quality that it’s almost impossible to let them sit it out for a game or two. But with our league campaign in tatters I decide to go with a full second string for the trip to
Celta in the hope that my superstars will be raring to go in midweek against Dortmund. To no one’s great surprise we lose 2-1, although the scoreline was closer than many may have expected.
Dortmund came to town defending a two-goal lead and defend they did. With the stadium clock showing 81 minutes the game is still scoreless – but first captain
Raul pulls a goal back and then
Ronaldo equalises three minutes later. At the end of 90 minutes the score is tied at 2-2 and we go into extra time. Despite subjecting the Germans to a further 30 minutes of all-out attack we can’t find another goal and so it all comes down to penalties. 22-year-old keeper
Iker Casillas, a local boy from Madrid, is the hero, saving Dortmund’s first three penalties and our season is still alive.
In La Liga I decide to rest the first team again for the visit of
Deportivo and get an amazing 5-1 win. Now clearly the
Spanish Cup is not the big deal that it is in England as the
Cup Final is held on a Wednesday night in Valencia.
Ronaldo is suspended but that apart I field my best 11 for the game against
Barcelona and 120 minutes of drama follows. We take an early lead when
Ronaldo’s replacement, 21-year-old
Portillo, converts a penalty. On the hour mark
Kluivert equalises for Barca and with no further scoring we go into extra time. Within two minutes Barcelona are in front when a free kick took a double deflection, unlucky substitute
Solari finally credited with an own goal. As we entered the last 5 minutes of the additional period we squared the game as
Roberto Trashorras, on for an exhausted
Raul, found the net. Then in the 120th minute
Portillo won the Cup for us with a last-second goal.
In one of those coincidences that football throws up our next game in La Liga is at
Barcelona. I have no hesitation in going with the second string, knowing that in 4 days time we will be at
Old Trafford for the first leg of our
Champions League Quarter Final. Barca revenge their Cup defeat with a 2-1 win and given their superiority the scoreline flatters us. It was a wet night in Manchester as we face United and we got off to a great start when
Figo fired home a free kick inside the first ten minutes. But they came back strongly and we kept our lead solely due to the brilliance of
Casillas in goal. But we just couldn’t contain
Ruud van Nistelrooy and the Dutch striker turned the game around by scoring twice in the second half. But a 2-1 defeat isn’t the end of the world and we can still turn it around in the second leg.
My only focus now is on the
Champions League so the second string are selected for our trip to
Real Sociedad and a 2-0 defeat is the result. It may be that my top men are benefiting from only playing once a week as our performance in the home tie against
Man United was impressive. Roared on by a huge crowd we set about the visitors with a vengeance looking to overturn the deficit. Our hopes took a blow midway through the first half when
Paul Scholes calmly put away a penalty and we reached the break 3-1 behind on aggregate. But after the break we really started to play and goals from
Ronaldo and
Solari tied the overall scores. With extra time looming Madrid demi-god
Raul then found the back of the net deep in stoppage time to send the Bernabeu wild and take us into the Semi Finals.
I am now gambling everything on
Champions League success so the second string play in our next two league games, a 2-0 defeat by
Sevilla and a 1-0 loss to neighbours
Atletico Madrid. We face
Inter in the CL Semi Final and return from Milan with an excellent 1-1 draw. We fell behind early on but captain
Raul found an equaliser in the second half. But the game is marred by the late dismissal of
Ronaldo for an innocuous push – I will be appealing against his ban but have no great hopes of success. Indeed I was right to be doubtful – the appeal is ignored and he gets a two-match ban so he will miss the return leg and the final (if we get there). There are two more league games contested before then though and we win 2-0 at
Malaga and draw 1-1 at home to relegated
Mallorca.
Some 75,000 fans fill the Bernabeu for the visit of
Inter. The visitors look dangerous throughout the game but we take the lead after half an hour through
Cambiasso. From then on Inter have the better of the game but they can’t find a way past young
Casillas and we hold on for a 2-1 aggregate win. We will face
Juventus in the final after they destroyed
Arsenal 5-1 in Italy to overturn a 2-0 deficit.
Barcelona are also chasing European glory, having reached the
UEFA Cup Final by beating dark horses
Southampton on penalties in the Semi Final and the will face
Schalke 04.
In the 2 and a half weeks before the
Champions League Final we finish our league campaign with three straight wins, including victories over top-5 teams
Racing Santander and
Villarreal, and we grab 3rd place in La Liga. We end up 15 points behind
Barca and 20 points adrift of surprise champions
Betis. Barcelona are successful in the
UEFA Cup Final and this makes us all the more determined to win the Champions League.
Finally the big day arrives – the
Champions League Final. There is a feeling of nervous anticipation amongst the players as they realise that this is it – make or break. Looking back on the game, we are rather fortunate – certainly the press say that
Juventus were the better team. We took the lead on 25 minutes through
Cambiasso but then concede a penalty 5 minutes later and reach the break tied at 1-1. Young
Portillo, in for the suspended
Ronaldo, is having a serious case of nerves so he is replaced, and
Beckham is having a stinker (not unusual that one) so he too comes off. There is no further scoring in normal time, thanks mainly to our keeper
Casillas, and so we go into extra time.
Raul has been pretty anonymous during the game but in the 114th minute he sneaks into the area and nets the winner.
So the season ends with glory after all. Three trophies are won –
The Spanish Super Cup, The Spanish Cup and, most importantly, the
Champions League. Despite that I feel that it has been a disappointing season. None of my major stars has really impressed, although
Raul has managed 27 goals and
Ronaldo 19, but frankly I expected much more from the galacticos. The squad is very weak with no real backup for the star names and if I was playing on I would be investing some of the club’s millions to establish some strength in depth.
My overall record for the season is
Played 62, Won 34, Drawn 13, Lost 15, Scored 107, Conceded 54.
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pos | Inf | Team | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Betis | 38 | 26 | 4 | 8 | 80 | 36 | +44 | 82 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Barcelona | 38 | 23 | 8 | 7 | 83 | 53 | +30 | 77 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Real Madrid | 38 | 18 | 8 | 12 | 57 | 37 | +20 | 62 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Villarreal | 38 | 14 | 16 | 8 | 53 | 43 | +10 | 58 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Real Sociedad | 38 | 17 | 6 | 15 | 58 | 50 | +8 | 57 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Racing Santander | 38 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 52 | 44 | +8 | 56 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Málaga | 38 | 16 | 8 | 14 | 66 | 51 | +15 | 56 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Atlético Madrid | 38 | 16 | 7 | 15 | 47 | 50 | -3 | 55 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Albacete | 38 | 16 | 7 | 15 | 51 | 51 | 0 | 55 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Valencia | 38 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 42 | 37 | +5 | 53 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Espanyol | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 35 | 36 | -1 | 52 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Zaragoza | 38 | 15 | 7 | 16 | 43 | 46 | -3 | 52 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Osasuna | 38 | 12 | 14 | 12 | 50 | 53 | -3 | 50 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Celta | 38 | 14 | 7 | 17 | 42 | 55 | -13 | 49 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Sevilla | 38 | 14 | 7 | 17 | 55 | 58 | -3 | 49 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | Murcia | 38 | 13 | 10 | 15 | 47 | 55 | -8 | 49 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Valladolid | 38 | 10 | 15 | 13 | 56 | 60 | -4 | 45 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | R | Deportivo | 38 | 12 | 3 | 23 | 36 | 71 | -35 | 39 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | R | Athletic Bilbao | 38 | 7 | 10 | 21 | 42 | 68 | -26 | 31 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | R | Mallorca | 38 | 5 | 9 | 24 | 41 | 82 | -41 | 24 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|</pre>
The Glory Hunter 
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