Where have the points gone?

Villarreal 3-2 Real Madrid

Thank god it's all over. If ever we needed a sign that Real Madrid need to just get this year over and done with it was the sight of Iker fumbling a cross and allowing Joan Capdevila to score a late winner at the Madrigal. So Barcelona have finally won the league. This blog certainly isn't going to descend into self-righteous condemning of the arrests and incidents in the celebrations in Barcelona that seems to be the trend in the virulently right-wing Madrid press. Congratulations Barcelona, you have played great football, blah blah blah, but that's enough. While there'll be no falangist propaganda here, The Real Liga is still not-so-privately praying for Sir Ferguson to do Real Madrid a favour in Rome...

So where to now then? Is it really such a herculean task that faces Real Madrid to return to the top spot of Spanish football? 

No.

Last year Real Madrid won the league title by eight points. They ended the season a full 18 ahead of Barcelona. Everybody's favourite club Villarreal (favourite because they're from a small town, have a small ground, are financially responsible, don't actually win anything but play good football, and they didn't stand for Riquelme's crap) were sandwiched in between the Big Two, but it was a freak. Real Madrid and Barcelona have finished 1st and 2nd in varying orders for the past 5 seasons (apart from last season...)

So the difference between the two was 18 points. The Porn Star managed to win 85 points in the 07/08 season, and break lots of records on the way. Fabio Capello won the league with just 76, didn't break many records, but won the title gracias to a superior head-to-head record after drawing at the Camp Nou and beating the culés at home. This year, Pep the Prophet has so far won 86 points - one more than last year's champions mustered - and could end the season on 92. They looked at the record book and decided to break all of them. Fair enough.

The way Juande's men are playing right now, Real Madrid are unlikely to add to their current haul of 78. For argument's sake lets say Barcelona win their two remaining games and Real Madrid don't. The two forces of Spanish football will be separated by 14 points. The pessimists amongst us should remember that it is four less than the amount that the Catalans managed to claw back in just the space of one year. So it can be done.

The problem is, however, of finding the how. Up in the Federal Republic of Joan Laporta, they simply removed the man who could no longer command the respect of the dressing room (Rijkaard), offloaded a trouble maker (Ronaldinho), tried to off-load another trouble maker (Eto'o) who ended up staying and ended up being La Liga's pichichi, brought in a club favourite to coach the team (Pep) and signed a couple of quality players (notably Dani Alves). 

Madrid's main problem right now is finding the right coach. Juande has completely given up and is already looking around for where he can get his next signing-on cheque from. The usual Wenger rumours are doing the rounds but this blogger just can't see that happening. 

Whoever does come in will, naturally have vast sums to spend on the squad for the forthcom... Hold on! Florentino will be the president! That means there will be lots of money to spend, but the coach who comes in won't choose who should be bought. That's up to Florentino!

The deal for Kaká is so finalised that both AS and Marca cite the same figure - a net yearly wage of over 9 million euros for Ricky. Zizou, meanwhile, has pretty much convinced Ribery to join. Another great signing - surely nobody can argue with either of those joining the club. They are both match-winners, and will no doubt help Real Madrid at least draw level with Barcelona on the points front. But let's just hope that whoever comes in as coach gets a say in other signings, or else that gap with Barcelona might just get bigger before it gets smaller.