FanNation - The Republic of Sport

So here is a list of players that can be considered surplus talent under the new Florentino re-design of Real Madrid; Guti, Gago, Ruud, Rafa van der Vaart, M. Diarra, and Miguel Torres.

Fair enough, no one wants to leave Real Madrid and that is understandable but out of all of those players who does Jorge Valdano decide to cut loose?  Wesley Sneijder.

The amount of expletives and four-letter words that want to spring out of my mouth would make me sound like Andrew "Dice" Clay with Tourette's Syndrome.

Guti, first of all, has never filled the role he was supposed to fill regularly.  He is a remarkable talent one minute and a traffic cone with a merengue jersey on it the next.  He has never been a consistent player and with Kaka', Alonso, the aforementioned Sneijder, Granero, and Lassana Diarra he is an excess this team does not need.

His heir apparent, Gago, hasn't delivered either.  To be clear, I would like nothing better than to see every player in merengue white contribute and succeed but Gago is either fouling too close to the box, laying on the ground, or playing with his hair much more often than he is making the right passes, fronting counter-attacking players, and sparking the attack from midfield.

Ruud is done.  This is his second major knee operation and although it has been a pleasure to see him play for this team he is in the same situation, right now, that every professional athlete will eventually be in - bodies tire, strength ebbs, quickness evaporates.  To hold on to Ruud and to divest ourselves of Sneijder, at half of the price we paid for him, is neither good for the squad or the balance sheet.  If we are going to jump at any prices that teams can offer then Valdano and company should let those players go who do not show an inherent and obvious promise for the future of the team.

Wesley Sneijder was everywhere in the DC United game.  I saw it, many of the fans in my section saw it, and even some of my friends in other seats texted me asking who number 10 (Sneijder's number during that game) was and where did he come from?  On a field with Ronaldo, Alonso and Kaka' - Sneijder's game was the one that stood out.  I know exactly how big of a deal that is when I write it and if you are one of my fellow soccer/Real enthusiasts then you do too, but I digress.

Comparatively with Sneijder, van der Vaart shouldn't even be living in Madrid anymore.  Rafa isn't nearly as complete a player as Sneijder.  In a perfect world Rafa would be a striker but we are replete with talent up front.  Higuain is as good, or better, as promised.  The Benz is lethal and to be perfectly honest - Pellegrini could put anyone up front alongside either one of those two, with Kaka' and Ronaldo on the field, and not miss a beat.  Furthermore, no one (certainly not me), is ready to claim that this is the year that Real Madrid should have begun without good old number 7.  Meet me back here next year around this time and the Raul debate will be in full swing.  So Rafa, thanks for playing.  You are surplus goods and Liverpool actually could use your help.

M. Diarra, likewise, shouldn't even be training at Valdebebas.  Even before his serious injury he wasn't that great of an addition anyway.  In Serie A or Ligue 1 Diarra would be worth his weight in Google stock options but in Liga, players just ran around him.  He also had a penchant for the very hard, and equally useless, foul (ask anyone who follows Sevilla FC about Diarra and then stand back, they're going to explode). Sneijder is just as tough as Diarra but Wesley is stronger, faster, and more creative facing the goal.

Miguel Torres, as much as I love watching dedicated Real Madrid canteranos shine, isn't going to contribute much.  He is a strong defender but that is it - no touch, no offensive capability, and not much speed with the ball in counter-attack.

So unless Snejider put himself in this precarious position by sleeping with Valdano's wife, girlfriend, daughter, or something equally telenovela-esque, there is no reason for Sneijder to be cut loose like this.  Period.  Full stop.  This is an utterly moronic move on Valdano's part and it is exactly this type of low-brow, knuckle-dragging stupidity that could come back to haunt Florentino Perez.