So the spotlight is well and truly shining over Madrid this morning after getting their asses handed to them by Ajax. Headlines are going with “humbling”, others with “humiliating”. The first is hinting towards Madrid still being an excellent team, the latter hinting at Ajax being minnows. Let’s just be 100% honest and call it an ass whooping, because that’s what I saw.
This Madrid squad is crumbling now, the defeats are mounting up, the confidence is gone, and they don’t have a Ronaldo to bail them out. Their actual bail out superstar is constantly injured, they’re management situation is a shambles. And let’s be honest it always has been in the modern era.
They’ll soon be the Man Utd of Spain, with the noisy neighbors of Atleti gaining more and more power and success in the Spanish capital.
And while it’s easy to pile on and kick a team when they are down, what we should all be focused on is how superb that Ajax performance was. It was almost a throwback to total football. They played with so much flair, skill, and seemed to possess so much more technical ability than I’ve seen in a long time from any team. The downside being that any success in this competition for Ajax always leads to the squad being raided for the best talent, and we know at least 5 players will be going in the summer transfer window. But as we’ve seen time and again from this team, they know how to handle it and show that it’s not all about moneybags. It’s about culture, and coaching and team building.