Not all who wander are lost...

 
PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK...

Last week's Champions League shockers caused me to take a look at the BiteyTheShark archives. My post to this blog from September 3, 2003 in its entirety...

HEAR ME NOW, BELIEVE ME LATER...

If Real Madrid fail to win La Liga and make an early exit from the Champions League, this will be the reason.

BiteyTheShark knows a thing or two about the "beautiful game", and what I can tell you is this... when Real Madrid matched up against other top competition in recent years, Claude Makelele was their most important player. Bar none.

Say what you want about Ronaldo, Figo, and Zidane. Love or hate Raul and Roberto Carlos. Applaud or boo the signing of Beckham. None of that matters. It all pails in comparision to the significance of Makelele's departure.

The very first European football game I ever attended was a Champions League match against Moscow Lokomotiv at Estadio Bernabau in 2001. Zidane was the big new signing of that transfer season and I was excited to see for myself the magic of the World Cup winner. Not ten minutes into the match, Zidane might as well have hit the showers. I could not take my eyes off of the all-white number 24 shirt that seemed to be everywhere on the pitch. Shamefully, I knew little about Makelele at the time, and wasn't even sure who he was. But that all ended on that night. He controlled everything that night. Sure, he left the scoring to the big names, but every time Lokomotiv threatened, Makelele shut them down and launched the counter-attack. He was clearly the Man of the Match (a distinction eventually won by crowd favorite Raul).

Since that night in the summer of 2001, I've watched numerous Real Madrid matches. Each game, I focus on Makelele. How he goes, Real Madrid goes. If they produce a clean sheet defensively, it is largely due to the efforts of Makelele. If they give up 2 or 3 goals, it is because Makelele is either out of the line-up due to injury, or off his game (though rarely the latter).

Offensively, Real Madrid could not be more splendid. Defensively, they are a liability. Even before the unceremonious release of long-time captain Fernando Hierro at the outset of the summer, Real Madrid had a suspect defense. Now, they won't be much more effective than a line of cones.

Not surprisingly, money had a lot to do with Makelele's move to Chelsea. He wanted more, and Real Madrid didn't want to give it to him. While I'm no fan of athletes making millions and millions of dollars, even I side with Makelele on this point. He made roughly $1 million dollars a season in wages. That's undoubtedly a good amount of money, but Beckham, Ronaldo, Zidane and the like were making around $5 million. While he may not sell as many shirts, Makelele was equally, if not more important to the success of the team than any of those players. The fact that he was only making one-fifth the amount of the stars was a joke. Makelele should have been insulted, and he was.

When Real Madrid goes crashing out of the Champions League this season, much of the blame and speculation will be focused on who they added to the team this summer. That will be a shame, because the real Real focus should be on who they let go.

So today, with all the Galaticos at home watching the Champions League smei-finals, where is Claude Makelele? Battling on with Chelsea. Not only that, but this little tidbit of info from CNNSI's Gabrielle Marcotti...

"Chelsea, buoyed by Roman Abramovich's millions, was perhaps the only side to have used financial clout to gain success. Even then, it's interesting to note that, of the 11 men on the pitch in the second half, when the Blues finally outplayed Arsenal, just three -- Damien Duff, Claude Makelele and Wayne Bridge -- were bought with Abramovich's money."

I thinks that speaks volumes about Makelele's importance to the Chelsea side that I believe is sitting pretty with a good shot at winning the whole thing. I wonder how Real Madrid feels now about the millions they spent on Beckham and the pennies they saved by letting Makelele go?
posted by Sean McMahon at 4:22 PM