http://www.theoffside.com/world-football/quotes-from-the-man-behind-real-madrids-galactico-era.html League Football, Soccer News and Views from Around the World Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:45:33 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.theoffside.com/world-football/quotes-from-the-man-behind-real-madrids-galactico-era.html#comment-92545 Corey Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:07:34 +0000 http://www.theoffside.com/world-football/quotes-from-the-man-behind-real-madrids-galactico-era.html#comment-92545 Valdano is a sleaze bag sure, but he has some good insights into the game, and his plan of integrating stars into youth team prospects worked until they sold Makelele and Hierro retired and Del Bosque left. They oversaw two things, a manager who could deal with the egos and pressures and you cant always rely on goals to win matches, but you can rely on defense to give you the chance to win matches. If they adequately replaced Hierro, Makele and Del Bosque, it would have been a hugely succesful experiment, but even Valdano was out before the Galatico era ended, Florentino Perez just lost it at one point. Valdano is a sleaze bag sure, but he has some good insights into the game, and his plan of integrating stars into youth team prospects worked until they sold Makelele and Hierro retired and Del Bosque left. They oversaw two things, a manager who could deal with the egos and pressures and you cant always rely on goals to win matches, but you can rely on defense to give you the chance to win matches. If they adequately replaced Hierro, Makele and Del Bosque, it would have been a hugely succesful experiment, but even Valdano was out before the Galatico era ended, Florentino Perez just lost it at one point.

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