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After yesterday's defeat in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 against Turin's "Juventus," talks about a growing revolution in the Royal Club have begun in Madrid.
Spain's sports newspaper "Marca" today discussed possible changes in the Madrid "Real" team - it is claimed that the club's president Florentino Perez will take drastic actions after this season: not renewing contracts with three club stars or selling them.
The most likely candidates to leave are the aging Portuguese Luis Figo, whose contract ends next summer, and the Brazilian Ronaldo, who has been in constant conflict with the club recently. The situation of the third "candidate" is unclear, but among them even the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, considered a symbol of the club, is mentioned, whose contract with the club expires in the summer of 2007.
However, today "Marca" writes that Zidane will not be affected by the upcoming revolution this summer. To the surprise of many fans, the main candidate could be Raul. The newspaper also writes today that among the main targets for the summer could be not only Robinho but also... Jose Antonio Reyes, who has recently had some issues with Arsenal.
It is worth mentioning that speculations about Ronaldo's future at Real Madrid club were silenced a few days ago by the club's sports director Arrigo Sacchi, stating that "Ronaldo gives more than 100% of his abilities in difficult moments and is the best player in the world not only among forwards."
These possible steps by the Real leadership were pushed by the poor results of the club recently. The changes could be even bigger, as the prospects of the club's coach Wanderley Luxemburgo are unclear. Although this year the Brazilian raised the fading team of stars, achieved many victories, the failure of Real in the Champions League and an eight-point gap from Barcelona in the fight for the Spanish champions' title could lead the club's management not to renew the contract with this strategist.
Another predicted aspect of the "revolution" is the club's transfer policy. Arrigo Sacchi, responsible for it, has hinted multiple times that in search of players, unlike club president Florentino Perez, he will focus not on the player's popularity but on the level of their demonstrated play. One of the transfer policy priorities will likely be "lengthening the bench." The most realistic option would be for Sacchi to search for high-class players who could replace injured or otherwise incapable Real stars.
The latter decision would be the Royal Club's response to experts' claims that the main reason for Real's failures in recent years is the short bench. In other words, if a star drops out of the lineup, Real hardly has a substitute. Remember that EuroFootball.com has previously provided readers with a list of experts' forecasted summer targets for Real.
"Marca" states that the main priority for Real in the summer is a player described as "medium class but with a future star" and touted as the best Brazilian player, the young Robinho. It is believed that if there are no unforeseen events, the young Brazilian national team and Santos star will join the Royal Club next summer. Football experts say that the arrival of this wonderkid could become a symbol of a new era for Real.
