Leave us alone, Real Madrid!
According to Slasheramania.com the first rule of surviving a horror film is never check to see if the monster is dead. After seeing Real Madrid bludgeoned at Anfield and torn to shreds by Barcelona, it would have been wise to prepare for them to storm from the grave. Like a monster with blood vengeance Madrid stormed into the summer transfer market. As the Premiership opens, a quick look around the top four looks more like victims from a horror film than surging power brokers of world football.
Madrid put 80,000 in the stadium to put Ronaldo on display.
Two games, one goal and a loss to Burnley later and the effects of losing Cristiano Ronaldo to Madrid are pretty glaring. United have looked fairly tame in attack. If this were a horror film LL Cool J would have been cast as ManU. The sale of Ronaldo came so early and with such a hefty price tag it seemed clear United would be able to re-load. Rumors poured in, Karim Benzema, Franck Ribery or one of Valencia’s Davids. Instead Sir Alex Ferguson, a man who in 2001 paid 28 Million pound for Juan Sebastian Veron, turned miser, opting for Michael Owen’s corpse on a free.
In the Premiership horror summer, Arsenal fell victim to a different villain. The Gunners found themselves at the end of Man City’s claws and not Real Madrid’s knife. Nonetheless the Gunners start the season incredibly thin. If I were an Arsenal supporter it would make me quite nervous thinking of Theo Walcott’s body of glass, Jack Wilshire’s age, William Gallas’ tears, and Cesc Fabregas’ wandering eyes. In spite of all the off season losses and lack of squad depth Arsenal are off to a flying start. In horror film terms they are Neve Campbell in Scream.
Slashermania offers this piece of advice: “although you are running and the monster is merely shambling along, it’s still moving fast enough to catch up with you.” I think that is what happened to Liverpool. The Reds had done things the right way, mixed home grown talent (Gerrard and Carragher) with smart buys (Alonso for 10 million) and one big splashy move (Fernando Torres). As the season approached Liverpool appeared on paper to finally have a squad to challenge for the title. But, the monster eventually caught them from behind. Madrid may have paid more than they wanted but, the Reds were forced to sell a man they hoped to keep. It remains to be seen how they will fill the massive hole left by the departure of Xabi Alonso.
Lastly Chelsea, at first glance they seemed unaffected by the summer transfers. Chelesea were attached to many big name start from Kun Aguero to Alexandre Pato. In the end they came up with nothing. At the end of the day Chelsea may have survived the Horror Show by following one of the rules. That being: “People arriving to rescue you generally get ambushed by the monster, so don’t rely on them” Time will tell who the real victims of this summer will be. It maybe they lack of changes will allow this group to regain top spot. Chelsea have created a team that rightly or wrongly is known for their toughness (read: bullying). Plays like this one from Michael Ballack do nothing to enhance their reputation.