About a month ago, your correspondent wrote a hand-wringing, party-pooping killjoy of an article fretting over the perils of Florentino Pérez' Galactico Reboot.
It was a miserable, moralising, lecturing and hectoring piece of offal worthy of a front page finger-wag in The Independent.
The article consisted of several rambling pages wondering how Real Madrid were going to pay for their transfer splurges and whether the potential 300m spend would threaten the club's financial future. "This is not how you build a team" it whined.
30 odd days and around 211 million Euros later, the official line from the Spanish Thing is 'Screw it. This is brilliant.'
The column has finally embraced the sentiments of a colleague who quickly saw the arrival of Florentino Pérez as heralding a golden age for la Liga, irrespective of Real Madrid's immediate future. "This is showbiz!" was the explanation.
But it has taken a few weeks before your correspondent began drinking from the same water cooler and got down with the Pérez programme.
Madrid's new president promised to blow gazillians on bringing some of the world's best players to the Bernabeu, and that's exactly what's happened with arrival of the cool-as-a-cucumber Kaká and the car-kicking bad-boy called Cristiano Ronaldo.
Yes, this insane, ludicrous, outrageous project may well backfire in spectacular fashion.
Yes, it may bankrupt the club, force Madrid to sell the Bernabeu and play in a local park.
And yes, there is every likelihood that Real will win diddly-squat over the next few years.
But who cares? That's their problem. What's happening now is one of the most exciting sporting projects ever seen. It's like throwing plutonium into a microwave to see what will happen. It's running naked through the streets of Northampton. It's sticking your head out of the Space Shuttle window during takeoff.
Real Madrid's current rampage through the transfer market is the real-life equivalent of activating a cheat on Championship Manager.
It has given a much-needed media boost to the Spanish game, slapped a wet fish in the face of the Premier League and probably annoyed the hell out of Manchester United - three very good things.
What's more, with Karim Benzema due to be unveiled next week and the arrival of Xabi Alonso now being spoken of as a done deal the club may only be halfway through its summer spending. David Silva, Alvaro Arbeloa and Frank Ribery are still targets according to the Madridista press.
The first Hollywood-sized presentation took place at the Bernabeu on Tuesday night when a bemused Kaká gave a wave and put on his new number 8 shirt in front of 55,000 fans.
Few would be surprised if the 80,000 capacity stadium will be full for Cristiano Ronaldo's arrival on Monday, which will almost certainly trigger media mayhem in the Spanish capital.
Poor old Raul Albiol, a defender signed from Valencia for a mere 15 million Euros, is being offered up to the Madrid masses in between the two superstars. "I'm worth less than half of those who turned up for Kaká" admitted the Spanish international.
Whilst one must always try to remain stiff upper-lipped and impartial when facing such craziness, it is hard to live in the Spanish capital and not be genuinely excited about what is going on at the Bernabeu, once the extremely large seeds of doubt are put into storage at the back the mind.
Madrid's starting line-up next season, is set to see Benzema and Kaká upfront, backed up by Arjen Robben or Ribery and Ronaldo on the wings, with Lassana Diarra and Xabi Alonso in midfield.
A fairly hefty bench could see Wesley Sneijder, Silva, Raúl, Gonzalo Higuaín and Fernando Gago ready to step in. Even a defence of Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Albiol and Marcelo backed up by Iker Casillas is not too shabby.
Fans often grumble that football feels more like an arm of the entertainment industry rather than a sport, these days. But sometimes this can be a positive thing.
What Florentino Pérez has done is make real the conversation held in pubs all over the world - who would you buy if you had unlimited funds?
There will almost certainly be a day of reckoning for Real Madrid and their insane summer splurge. But that day has yet to arrive.
Until then, just sit back and embrace the madness in Madrid. Unless your club wants to buy any of their targets, of course.
Tim Stannard
Embracing The Madness In Madrid
Now let's hear what you've got to say about this item... or anything else happening in the world of football. Send in your opinions, rants, praise or abuse to: theeditor@football365.com
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- Back To Future For Florentino Pérez
- Wanted: More Cheers, Less Jeers
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Your Comments
hoarse_trojan
""What's happening now is one of the most exciting sporting projects ever seen"
It's not new and not exciting, unless you are from Madrid. Thye've done it before, Chelsea have just tried it, and Man City are just about to. The difference being that Real have more money this time, and the confidence to know that players will come.
I think many people are worried because there is the very real possibility that it will work. Superstars don't guarantee success, but they make it exceedingly easier. And if it works, then where is the excitement? Oh shock, spunking tons of money on superstars wins us lots of trophies.
I think what's more depressing though, is that seemingly every player wants to go to Real. They don't seem to mind that they will be part of a project. They don't seem to mind that it might be harder to shine with 10 other superstars around you. It's just a massive ego boost = "You have been selected to be part of the World XI"
I don't know why this annoys me so much, but it does. Instead of jumping ship, the players should want to help their current team keep cash-rich giants like Real off the top."
Humakt
"Harry Boulton you are so ignare than you should wonder about closing your mouth sometimes. When you are in Spain, you would never have any government helping a Club like Madrid when you could have HUGE political problem in Catalunya for that.
And anyway the First in Spain, Zapatero, is a well known Barca fan. And I do not see any Barca fan helping a Real Madrid rebuilding in such scale.
No more than I see a Liverpool fan giving money to help refund the MU debt or the other way around. "
PCPOnline
"If we look at this logically Real Madrid needed to do something crazy to get back in contention. The Barca team was so good that they had to do a surgical procedure to even stand the chance of competing; let alone getting some much needed back page mileage. Real need to dominate the backpages of the world press more than Barcelona, otherwise they were going to lose their global apeal. This is the same situation that Man Utd will find themselves in if LPool got to win everything. You can ignore Valencia, Chelsea and Arsenal in terms of threatening your global apeal, but you cannot ignore a club like Barcelona or LPool. So they had to no choice but to go crazy; football is now showbiz."
buttocks
"Tim,
being from Northampton myself i was wondering how on earth you have managed to liken running through the streets of Northampton naked with Real's project, plutonium in microwaves and sticking your head out of moving space shuttle?"
harryboulton
"This kind of recruitment will have zero effect on Real Madrid financially. Everyone knows their spending is under-written by the Spanish government so they're free to spend as they like, regardless of what possible consequences might befall any "lesser" team. They don't play by the same rules as everyone else. This has been known for years."
pickarooney
"Why don't they just do a Barça and appoint Raul as manager already?"
goonigoogoo
"tell you who's laughing loudest, it's the TV companies that've bought the rights to La Liga next season .. they can triple their advertising rates now!"
gizmoney
"Amazing what an appearance on RM tv can do for ones opinions eh Tim?
Seriously, I find it amusing that Real are still in the hunt for yet more players. The Benzema signing is just stupid and for me it is a signing made so no one else can. Not that anyone else wanted him by the looks. Could work out great for all as Higuain may get the hump and move on. Higuain is twice the player Benzema ever will be by the way.
Juande Ramos was right in what he said the other day - Barcelona may not be as good player for player, but are a far better TEAM than Real.
I look forward to the circus commencing in earnest. I give Pelligrini until Christmas before Rauls influence shines through eventually leading to the over rated one shafting yet another manager. Real may then admit what we all know, Raul is actually the manager, what he says goes. The implosion is going to be fantastic.
"
Alokazo
"I can see them signing Ribery and then himself, Benzema Kaka and Ronaldo hanging out before they all head out one night and kaka gets more attention form the local chicas so he throws a strop and flaps his arms around before Madrid's newest, scarred hardman Ribery, gets sick of him and beats the s**t out of him. "
MARKKELLYWAGGLE
"Barca will still win it all again and Madrid will be standing outside the Northern Rock counting their pennies after it all goes tits up..............again"
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