Real’s £80 Million Benchwarmers

By: Martha | December 10th, 2007

They do good hugs, if nothing else. There’s a great article by Gabriel Marcoti at Times Online today in which he details the contribution of Real Madrid’s massive haul of summer signings — in total, they added 10 players to their senior squad, at a cost of about £80 million, including one on a free and one who was returning from loan.

Of the 10, Pepe’s had injury problems, the group from the EPL (Arjen Robben, Gabriel Heinze, Júlio Baptista and Jerzy Dudek) haven’t even made 10 starts between them, former Barca striker Javier Saviola has hardly figured, and only Wesley Sneijder has started half the team’s matches this season, and yet Real are sitting pretty atop La Liga. So was the £80 million simply poorly considered, wasteful spending? Probably not.

As Marcoti points out, rather than relying on the much-hyped new signings, one of the reasons Real have shone this season is because of the old guard, specifically Raul and Guti, who are suddenly playing as well as they ever have, despite their respective advanced age and infuriating, career-long inability to live up to massive expectations. Plus, the 31-year-old Ruud van Nistelrooy has continued his absurd scoring record, in the face of endless talk about preparing to replace him as age takes its toll. And, sure, it could just be that they’ve found their form on their own, and it’s nothing to do with outside factors. At the same time, though, having several million pounds worth of possible replacements sitting on the bench does wonders when it comes to motivation, no matter who they’re sitting behind.

That’s not to say the 10 newboys were brought in to act purely as sticks for those whose spots they could take, but no one at Real could possibly be unhappy with the result. Now if only all of our favorite teams had the money to buy players just to glare at under-performing established players …

[via 101 Great Goals]

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john

All of these "bench warmers" are being given their turns on the field (with the exception of Dudek, and Dudek was just an idiot to sign up behind San Iker). It should be considered that they are all young players, playing behind aging stars; they will learn a lot from their mentors, learn to deal with the intense pressure that comes with being a Real Madrid player, and still may wind up being the new face of the Bernabeu. True, they aren't getting a ton of playing time up until now, but as the season goes on, and Real enters Copa del Rey, along with La Liga and CL matches, these players will see more and more time on the pitch.

Also, it's worth mentioning that several of these players (i.e. Drenthe, Pepe) were matters of speculation, having never played in Leagues comparitive to La Liga or Serie A. And while Pepe is finaly just begining to justify the money that was spent on him (he still has a long way to go - but there's promise) Drenthe is yet to impress in his performances, and may turn out to be a more hype than actual skill.
Gabriella

I love Marcotti, I also listen to his podcast.
Martha

I think the point was that 10 players came in for that total price Corey, not how much each on cost. (I'll check on the frees/loans when I have a moment, sorry if those numbers are wrong, I stole them from the article.)
Corey

Dudek, Metzelder and Saviola were all signed on free's, so there is the first false statement. Balboa, Baptista and Soldado were loan returns, theres the second. While Heinze was a small fee, Drenthe, Pepe and Robben were over priced. You also have to remember Diogo, Raul Bravo, Mejia, Pavon, De la Red and Sanchez were sold at a good value, I believe we made 30-40 million on transfers out. We also have two promising youngsters in Granero and Adrian on loan, while the loss of Juan Mata for no transfer fee and the eventual sale of De la Red was a mistake of the Perez era and Capello's stubborness to integrate youth.

I would hardly disagree with Dudek, Saviola, Heinze, and Robben were an absolute waste of money so far. Drenthe has age on his side and was not expected to produce much, while Pepe and Baptista are starting to show their worth. Metzelder came as a backup, while Soldado and Balboa, who could both easily start in other La Liga teams, havent figured much unfortunately. Real have not yet gotten a solid transfer policy, but I see it shaping up little by little, this winter will see Drenthe and Soldado out on loan, and possibly Saviola sold off at a profit.
Brian

Laurie, I kind of agree with you, but at the same time I feel a lot safer seeing Robben on the bench. I worry about him, you know? A stiff wind could break his legs like firewood.

It's been interesting over the past couple of years to watch the rise of a new class of player—the superstar benchwarmer. It's got to be one of the strangest consequences of the rich getting richer in the European domestic leagues. There are players who don't even seem like they particularly want to start, as long as they can make a fortune by watching from the bench. Robben excepted, I wouldn't have put anyone on the Real list in that class, but maybe they're recent converts.

Of course it works out beautifully for the rich clubs, because not only do they get super-talented backups, they also keep super-talented players out of the hands of other clubs.
Nolan

Puta Madrid
Laurie

This is such a waste of talent. The benchwarmers could be lighting fires in other teams, but instead they're twiddling their thumbs at Real. This is why guys like Jozy and [insert names of all young French players here] should think twice about going to these huge, high-budget teams, even if they'd get more money.