Who will put order to the new world?

So there is some semblance of an opposition to the Florentino bandwagon. Marca and AS have already declared their loyalties, turning on the court-appearing Calderón and in one fell swoop finding themselves face-to-face and writhing around in the bed of mutual love which implies improved-sales and no bad press for the two lovers - the madrileño press and Florentino. The last time anyone published anything remotely risqué about Florentino there were death threats, you may recall. 

Anyway, Juan Onieva is standing as candidate. As if we needed any further proof that the pool of phenomenally wealthy men from Madrid who are likely to run for president of Real Madrid is a tight-knit and corru, er, exclusive community, Onieva was Lorenzo Sanz' vice-president. 'Don't you worry about my bank guarantee,' he assured the press. Onieva says he has no problem stumping up the 55 million euros that are needed to stand for the Real Madrid presidency.

Onieva says that Hugo Sánchez will be his coach - interesting call - and that at least three squad numbers are for players who spent the year with Castilla. He's already played the cantera card - too early as far as this blogger is concerned.

With Onieva's announcement, there is now no absolutely chance that Hugo Sánchez will be the next Real Madrid coach, so let's concentrate on the hyperactive speculation that is taking place surrounding who will be Madrid's next coach. Sorry, that should be 'lets concentrate on the hyperactive speculation that is taking place surrounding who will be Florentino's choice should he win the elections'. But are we going to continue this charade for long?

AS conducted one of those surveys that makes you ponder just how many interns were ordered to tap at the vote icon for eight and a half hours? According to them, Juande is the fans favourite, with 29% of the votes 'cast'. The other candidates, along with their percentage, and a brief description of their style of play, are as follows:

29% Juande (whatever his boss tells him to do)

15% Mourinho (catenaccio), Valdano (utopian)

14% Arsene Wegner (utopian)

13 Michael Laudrup (not very good)

12% Manuel Pelegrini (passing)

2% Ancelotti (catenaccio)

The situation is this: Juande's agent has been told to hang on for a couple of weeks just in case nothing better comes up, which is a real vote of approval!; Mourinho isn't sure about it, but is probably staying at Inter; Wenger is definitely not coming; Laudrup lost his job somewhere in the Eastern Block for being rubbish a few months ago; Ancelotti is going to Chelsea; and Pelegrini is viewed as being a bit of a limp wrist when it comes to dealing with big names and big egos. Oh, and Valdano hasn't coached for ages and has preferred to read and commentate games for the last few years.

More than the question of who is the best-placed candidate of the bunch, is this question. How does Florentino want his team to play? Do these coaches have anything in common? The only thing they have in common is that they are big names. And that means one thing. Poor results come November, and it'll be no turrón for the poor soul who believed Florentino's promises of autonomy, respect and control of the transfer policy.