Thursday, July 23, 2009

Manchester United and their way of doing business

Manchester United, is the modern example of how a club SHOULD do business. Manchester united rarely spends obscene amounts of money in players, and always develops their own talent on a middle and long term basis.
When United sold Ronaldo to Real Madrid, everyone was thinking that they would bring something similar in spending.
Nevertheless they let go Ronaldo and Tevez, and incorporated Gabriel Oberthan, Antonio Valencia and Michael owen as their only summer spending totaling less than 17 M usd. This club manages to spend their money developing young talent, and spending little to obtain them, they have an impressive clinical eye for distinguishing potential and a very exemplary way of developing it.
Real Madrid in relatively recent times have acquired Gabriel Heinze, Ruud Vannistelrooy, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo for extreme amounts of cash, yet United have not payed near that to obtain these players in the first place.
United have a way of having a great team always in the first places bringing in talent from their own stocks, and also bringing in big amounts of cash when they sell them making them a very profitable institution.
David Gill, CEO of Manchester United, speaking to The Guardian stated te following:
"I don't know if I would call [the wages paid by Madrid and City] obscene but it has certainly gone to very high levels."
"We have our own models and targets and are operating within those. We are not at the whim of some owner pulling out because he has lost interest."You read about how Mr Abramovich is feeling. I haven't spoken to him about it but they say Chelsea have to bring in money before they do any transfers.
"I just feel that Manchester United has been around since 1878 and our job is to make sure it is still around for many more years by operating in a sensible fashion, and that is by generating our own income"
There is no doubt that United knows how to do business, and the results are also clearly reflected on their sports results. This business model and its consistency guarantees that United will be one of the top players in the business for many years to come.

Monday, July 20, 2009

New faces for the Mexican Apertura 2009-2010

For this particular post I will re-focus on a more down to earth level and talk about our Mexican Apertura.
This next weekend we have all the Mexican football fans and their hopes renewed, eager and ready to see how their teams will perform for this new 4 month tournament or "Torneo Corto". Some new names have arrived into our scene promising to impress our expectators. Players such as Darwin Quintero and his unmatched right-winged velocity, Damian Escudero and his tremendous creative playing, Emanuel Villa and his powerful approaches, as well as Santiago Solari, which is perhaps by resume the most renowed transfer of the summer. Moreover we have Gastón Fernandez recently crowned with the "Copa Libertadores", Aquivaldo Mosquera, and Adolfo Rosinei.
As always we hope this new players bring quality and skill into our league as well as many happy saturday afternoons.


Friday, July 17, 2009

Madrid or Barca - Who's the best of all time?

When speaking from the heart, there is never solid grounds to back your arguments, words are merely points of view of an individual perspective highlighted by adrenaline rushes or dominance desires. When it comes to deciding WHICH TEAM IS THE BEST OF ALL TIME? there could be millions of opinions and even statements signed with blood.
In this article I will try to objectively decide, backed with numbers and trophy's which colors are the most dominant of all time in the Spanish Football.

Here are the numbers:

Madrid:
Champions League: 9
La Liga : 31
Copa Del Rey: 17

Barca:
Champions League: 3
La Liga : 19
Copa Del Rey: 25

Clasico (wins):
Madrid:68
Barca:60

I think numbers are pretty solid and speak for themselves. There is not much room for me to discuss. The all-time winner of this statistical comparison is Real Madrid CF.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Manchester City FC - The New English Threat?

When someone normally utilizes the name "Manchester" in a football context, the first thing that comes to mind is a bright red shirt and the word "United". Nevertheless during the past year and a half there's been something brewing at their neighbors house. Manchester City FC a club that has lived under the shadow of the dominant neighbor seems unwilling to put up with staying in the darkness any more.
To the delightment of the fans, the Abu Dhabi United Group acquired Manchester City FC in September 2008, making it the wealthiest club in England at that very moment. Since then a careful plan was elaborated to make the club one of the top players in England, hence the world.
Manchester City made clear it is now a member of the "big spenders club" when it snatched from Chelsea on the last day of transfers, Real Madrid's international star, Robinho.
That was merely the start of the next era of the "Citizens". Recently Manchester City have signed a 5-year deal with former Manchester United striker Carlos Tevez, who was reported a bit unhappy at Old Tratford for not being an unconditional starter. Manchester City's attempt to become a serious English threat did not stop there.
Emmanuel Adebayor, the powerful Arsenal International striker is now linked with the Citizens as well, and is in the middle of a medical which should be the last step before signing his new contract which will bound him to the "Skyblues". City's Arab money has also made an attempt on Chelsea's Captain and England's favourite defender, John Terry who might consider the offer but Chelsea is unlikely to let him go under any circumstances.
With Tevez, Robinho and Adebayor in the attack, and assuming no other player is incorporated into the team, the Citizens will be an adversary not to be taken lightly during this next campaign.
Their chances of qualifying to Europe's league or Champions league have dramatically increased for this year with the new transfers, so all eyes are on the "Skyblues" and their renovated potential for this new season in the premiership. Everyone is eager to see what this new squad is capable of doing on the pitch for this next campaign.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Real Madrid - The transfer market predator

In terms of market stability in a time where stability is a rare "commodity" to come by, Real Madrid once again led by Mr. Florentino Pérez has managed to impress and disrupt the transfer market and the world of football by spending hundreds of millions of Euros in their new "Galactico" assets which are still to prove themselves dynamic and effective on the pitch.
First impressive transfer came with Kaká from AC Milan for whom they paid a sum of 65 Million Euros buying themselves not only the best creative, offensive mid-fielder in the business, but also the wrath of Milan's "Tiffosi".
The shopping spree was far from over, in fact it had just begun. Following Kaká's acquisition, Florentino announced the definite transfer of Madrid's long sought dream: Cristiano Ronaldo (CR7). Cristiano, a powerful right winger with multifacetic attacking variants, Fifpro player of the year, practically won every trophy that could be won at Old Tratford, Premiership, Champions, club world cup, so on and so forth. He is in my personal opinion the best player the world saw in 2008 by far, now a VIP member of the "Florenteam" by means of a 94 Million Euro cash deposit which Manchester United could not refuse.
Cristiano has still a long road to go if he wants to enter the immortal journals of history as one of the best players in our time. Anyone 3 months before Madrid acquired these 2 offensive players would have tought that hiring them to play in the same team was practically impossible, now the world is impressed, yet Florentino's summer mischief appears to know no limits.
After the acquisition of Karim Benzema (35 Million Euro), one of the best center forwards in Europe with a hihgly developed skill to constantly kiss the rivals net, Madrid's attack seems complete, more than complete I would say but im probably stepping into an offside trap if I was to believe this. Real's hunger, which at this point seems more like greed, has its aims on Franck Ribery from Bayern and Xabi Alonso from Liverpool, both of them yearning to leave their teams to be part of the all mighty"Florenteam".
Wether Florentino manages to get all the players he wants for this summer or in the next year there is no doubt we will see one of the greatest Real Madrids of all times, that is if the transfers live up to their names and most importantly, to the expectations of their people.
Moreover on a totally personal perspective there is much room for doubt in my head if this team will work like most people expect it to. Football is one of those industries in which hostile takeovers don't go well during their integration processes.
Madrid's Strategy is more than clearly focused on borrowing from the bank to buy highly developed talent. Talent developed by other teams whose vertical integration makes them natural producers of high performance players. These teams make much more sense as a profitable institution in the long run. Teams which have another "Ronaldo" ready to jump on to the first squad as soon as CR7 left a vacancy. I will write on this topic on my next post.
Please feel free to comment or give any opinions