Nobody told me they moved to Spain…
It’s official–Real Madrid is the New York Yankees of international Soccer. It didn’t take long after their loss in the Round of 16 in the Champion’s League for “vote of confidence” to come out and not much longer for the rumors about a new manager.
Apparently, Arsene Wenger is the first–of a probable many–manager who will have to tell Real “Thanks, but not thanks”. He even said:
“£240 million doesn’t buy you the Champions League necessarily. If you can spend it every year, you will get there but it is the first year of Perez back and you have to give him time. He only has to invest again next year, so I think they will be a force again. But at the moment it’s difficult to take for them.”
“In the last five years we have been in the [Champions League] final, the semi-final, two times the quarter-final. It is the consistency that is the most difficult to achieve at the top level because you have so many teams that want to be in there. When you just turn up regularly, in England, we don’t rate that any more because we are used to it. But it’s not easy.”
He’s know they’re going “Yankees” too. Trying to find every big name, every superstar, and trying to find a way to spend every Euro they can to make their team better when money isn’t the answer.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Take a lesson from the Yankees. They did this “overspending” thing for almost a decade until they realized it wasn’t working. Right after they changed their mindset–if even slightly–they won the World Series.
Real Madrid–you can do the same. You can spend, but develop talent. You can spend, but preach consistency. You can spend, but develop leaders. You can spend, but demand excellence–not fame.
It can work. Please try it.