Kaká and Sergio were so cute on Monday with the piggyback ride, and now we have video! Kaká continued the cuteness on Tuesday, with this epic hug of Esteban Granero. I always wanted to rub Esteban’s head too, or at least run my fingers through his hair.
Madrid held their last training session before tonight’s game against Galatasaray in the Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu (22:30h – another game that will start on one day and end on another, much to Iker’s dismay). The absences from this session were Álvaro Arbeloa, Sami Khedira and Hamit Altintop, who continued with their recovery processes. Esteban Granero joined the team for the first part of the session, and then worked on his recovery after. The 19 first team players were joined by five Castilla players: Tomy, Álex, Nacho, Pedro and Álvaro.
Prior to the game, the five signings of this new season will be presented to the fans: Nuri Sahin, José Callejón, Hamit Altintop, Rafa Varane and Fábio Coentrão. Álex, MFC ABMM and Dani Carvajal will also be honored for helping Spain to win the U-19 Euro, ABMM for being the pichichi and ABMM and Álex for forming part of the ideal XI.
Mou called up every single first team player and these five canteranos, as well as Mandi, for the game. Real Madrid’s web site simply said “all the players of the first team” – so does that include the likes of Lass, Gago, Drenthe and Peter Lion? Or are they not considered part of the first team even though they still are legally? I can’t say that I like how they’re being treated – ostracized from the rest of the group to push them to seek a new team, even though that’s what they should be doing since they know that Mou does not want them. Anyway, the team won’t be taking a rest and will train again on Thursday afternoon in preparation for this weekend’s scheduled game against Zaragoza.
If the game goes ahead as scheduled, we won’t be seeing David Mateos, as he said in a press conference yesterday that he has a clause in his contract that will not allow him to play against Real Madrid “neither here (at La Romareda) nor there (at the Bernabéu) and for me that’s a shame because I have a lot of desire to start… I won’t be able to start because they won’t let me.” I assume Juan Carlos has the same clause in his contract…
However, the game may not be played anyway, since it appears that the football strike may continue into this weekend, after the LFP and AFE met yesterday for six hours without any results, meaning the strike is still in place for the second jornada. They’ll meet again this afternoon for the sixth time.
And I’m sure you all know about the soap opera involving José Mourinho, whether he wants to leave and the official announcement and letter that followed soon after. For those that don’t, here’s the sequence of events. The day started with the RFEF announcing that José Mourinho would be investigated for his actions in the Supercopa second leg game.
A journalist from Canal+ then tried to contact José Mourinho’s spokesperson, Eladio Paramés, to get an interview, calling this number for a Spanish mobile that he had. In response, he received a text message saying that it wasn’t the right time because “José doesn’t feel supported by the directors (of Madrid) and is considering abandoning the club.” When the journalist tried to confirm this by calling Paramés’ Portuguese number so that they could publish the information, Paramés answered the phone and denied sending the message, saying that this Spanish number was one he had purchased as a “prepaid” number (as opposed to a contract) more than one year ago and that he hadn’t put money on it in a while and had the phone in a safe in his house.
Canal+, along with their affiliate Cuatro (showing how they’ve been affected by the ownership change to Telecinco), then went public with all of this, calling Paramés a liar and saying they felt embarrassed by his explanation. But what they didn’t seem to know, and what everyone else did, making them look like idiots, was that for prepaid numbers, if you don’t keep adding money, the number eventually “expires” and the mobile company recycles that number and gives it to someone else. It’s entirely possible to have a phone with an expired SIM card in it. In this case, COPE found out that it now belongs to a woman in Gipuzcoa. And a Marca journalist also came out saying that eight months ago, he had tried to get a statement from Paramés via the Spanish mobile phone number, and found out that it no longer belongs to Paramés, so whoever owned now knew that it used to belong to Eladio Paramés. Then Punto Pelota got the real and fake Eladios together and the real one forgave the fake one, described as being “a boy from Gipuzcoa.” He told the real Eladio, “I only answered a text message that arrived on my phone, and went along with it. When I saw everything that developed, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.” Paramés responded, “I’m inclined to forgive you if you apologize and you identify yourself.” And so the kid apologized, though he still refused to identify himself, and Paramés accepted his apology.
All that led to Mou publishing a letteron Madrid’s web site stating the following (paragraph breaks taken out to save space):
I didn’t expect Mou to like using ellipses so much, since when he talks, he’s very direct and concise. En serio though, the statement was also very Mourinho, in that he managed to sneak in a reference about hypocrisy, only apologized to certain people and was bluntly honest. I liked that he apologized for his actions, and called out certain people for doing one thing and then saying another. And while I did not expect a direct apology to Barcelona/Vilanova, nor did they deserve one due to the provocations, it would have been nice if Mou had decided to be the bigger man and at least admitted he was wrong for resorting to physical violence. However, I can see Barcelona then using such an apology as proof that they’re oh so very innocent, so perhaps it’s better that Mou did not go down that path.
But I do not like the reference to “pseudomadridistas” – reading between the lines, Mou is basically saying that anyone who doesn’t agree with him cannot be a madridista. Plus, he’s only been a madridista for a year (though a very loyal one at that), compared to those madridistas who have been their entire lives, who have suffered and rejoiced, who will not be swayed by all the money in the world, and who might just possibly not like the tactics that Mou is employing, saying that it’s a departure from the señorío that has been synonymous with the club until this past year. And they’re right to a certain degree, that while Madrid has been hated by certain sectors even before Mou arrived, I have never seen the levels we’ve experienced in the past year. The image of the club has never been this bad either as it is now. However, I do believe that Mou is the right person for the club, that he has our best interests at heart. I just wish he would tone down his actions a bit and act with a bit more restraint. He can still get his points across in that way.
And then, in response to the RFEF opening an investigation into Mou’s conduct during the Supercopa vuelta, Madrid put out the following statement:
1.- Real Madrid CF has from the beginning opted to show prudence and responsibility so as not to feed the tense atmosphere created by such events.
2.- Real Madrid CF wishes to express how surprised it is to see this investigation is being ordered five days after the match, curiously just a few hours after the President of FC Barcelona publicly demanded the Spanish Football Federation to take action.
3.- Real Madrid CF wishes said investigation absolutely clarifies what happened during and after the match. The club wishes it throws light onto the provocations, humilations (sic), insults and aggressions that our first team squad and coaching staff were subjected to both on the pitch and inside the tunnel leading to the dressing rooms. These things regrettably gave way to the incidents that took place.
4.- Real Madrid CF will continue to defend this entity’s inherent values and will always strive for the greatest collaboration possible between clubs and institutions throughout the world.
I’m not sure this statement does anyone any favors. It is definitely not a prudent statement. For one, it just gives more ammunition to those who say that Madrid sees conspiracies everywhere. And it makes Madrid sound petty and immature, in that they justified their actions by saying, well they (Barcelona) started it, so we had to respond. However, I don’t think the response should ever be physical. The misspelling of the word “humiliations” also bugs me – you would think they would run official announcements through spell check! Plus, what is the point of the fourth statement? What does it have to do with anything?
(I’m not fully awake this morning, so I apologize if some of my observations don’t make too much sense.)