Real Madrid's David Beckham runs at the end of a Spanish league match - AP Photo/Paul White
Football’s silly season has been set off with a bang by the announcement that Kaka is leaving the San Siro for the Bernabéu. His £56m transfer fee is a new world record.
Many clubs were chasing the signature of Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite and ultimately it was the glitz and glamour of Real Madrid which seduced him.
It is interesting that Real Madrid are claiming that they want to launch Galactico Part II because the first one wasn’t exactly a resounding success.
It is bad enough for them that it has been seven years since they won the Champions League. The fact that Barcelona has won it twice since then is simply unacceptable.
The final of next year’s Champions League is going to be in Madrid and they are doing everything they can to ensure they will be there.
When I say everything, I mean throw around as much money as they can.
Real Madrid is able to treat the game like fantasy football. It is not out of the question that they sign all of David Villa, Franck Ribery and Carlos Tevez.
The question is – how does a fantasy team translate into reality?
All those zeroes in the paycheck translate to some massive egos. You may have a huge squad of stars, but you still can only pick 11 of them to start. The ones on the bench won’t be happy, the ones not even on the bench much less so.
Politics starts to play a huge part with agents and team officials having an opinion as to who should play and who shouldn’t.
The pressure then starts to build.
On the field, the problem when everyone is a superstar is that there are too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. Someone has to be prepared to do the grunt work and be prepared to stain their white uniform and mess up their hair.
There is nothing the no-names of La Liga love more than making the celebrities look foolish.
Real Madrid may have a lot of money, but all that does is buy them a more expensive type of headache. The expectations for them couldn’t be higher.
Only trophies will satisfy the masses and recently the well has gone dry, especially in Europe. They haven’t even made it past the first knockout round of the Champions League since 2004.
The pressure is definitely going to be on Kaka and whoever his new team-mates are going to be.
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