Here's the good news. Cristiano Ronaldo has been voted FIFA World Player of the Year. It is well deserved and there's no need to debate that fact.
Now the bad news, despite Ronaldo recently stating there's no agreement with Florentino Perez to join Real Madrid in the summer of 2009, Spanish rumour monger Guillem Balague is claiming that the Portuguese winger will join Real as his agent has an agreement with Ramon Calderon.
United fans are sick and tired of hearing about this story and it's disappointing that it looks like we will have to put up with this tiresome saga again this summer.
Balague has added the rider that Ferguson is a major obstacle in the way of any potential deal.
While I'd like to completely dismiss this story, sadly I obviously cannot because it is the second time within the space of a week that it has surfaced, what's more, Ronaldo hasn't been at his deadly best this season, he looks to be holding back slightly, but he remains a very important player. It is therefore likely that Ferguson's resolve to keep the player will remain as strong as ever.
The United manager and Reds fans around the world will not be best pleased to learn that Balague is suggesting Ronaldo and his agent have a sealed this agreement with Ramon Calderon, and that the player is now prepared to request a transfer from Manchester United.
It is time for Ronaldo to tell truth about his future intentions.
Balague has always seemed to be fairly reliable to me so that is troubling about this whole situation. However, one thing that makes me think is what Balague's website says. The article first links him with Calderon as you indicate. That article is dated the 13th of January. Then he changes his tune and states that the deal is with Perez rather than Calderon and that is why he was able to specifically say that he does not have a deal with Calderon. However, that article is dated the 13th of January as well. How can this journalist, one who I have thought was half reliable in the past (though I may be a bit naive), get such a big detail wrong? Could it be that he got an "exclusive" that he thought was reliable, published it, then Ronaldo COMPLETELY discredited it, and now he is trying to save a bit of face because he knows by making that slight change, and considering the transfer climate surrounding Ronaldo, he won't look bad? His argument to justify his position in his "exclusive" is quite poor that the deal is with Calderon. The logic really doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteGuillem Balague is just another hack who claims to have contacts at Real Madrid. Remember how confidently he claimed that Ronaldo would be a Real player last summer, only for him to suddenly pipe down when it didn't happen....
ReplyDeleteYou will also recall that a Real Madrid source recently claimed Ronaldo was in the bag, but let us not forget Real Madrid will soon be holding yet another presidential election. Perez and Calderon will both be up for the vote.
Incidentally, Calderon has been caught up in vote-rigging allegations as I write this reply...
The elections and the political situation at Real mean that transfer rumours are always rife and with so much at stake for people like under-fire Calderon, it shouldn't be at all surprising that they use the media to do their bidding for them. But let us be honest - all clubs do this to some degree. The difference is Real Madrid are the world's worst at using the media to get what they want.
I suspect that Guillem Balague doesn't know any more than we do where hard facts are concerned, he knows he can write stories claiming that Ronaldo will sign without fear of any comeback, because after all Calderon will be delighted if Ronaldo does eventually sign and of course he's not saying anything - he doesn't have to when Guillem Balague is doing it for him!
Guillem Balague has recently started his own transfer rumour-mill site and so he has potentially much traffic to gain when claiming the Ronaldo deal is done...
Regarding these inconsistencies. I would like to point out another couple for you.
I have just read the same story, which is dated Jan 7th.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1106784/Manchester-United-braced-new-Ronaldo-raid-Real-Madrid-presidential-hopefuls-set-make-No-1-target.html
...the above story claims that Ronaldo has a verbal agreement and yet on Guillem Balague's own site today he is claiming it is a 'sealed agreement', which might be viewed as a small point, but nonetheles the whole thing smacks of speculation and mischief-making by the Spanish media.
Also note that on Guillem Balague's site, the author has stated (in bold text) that Fergie is a major obstacle in any potential deal - this is what I call arse covering, and here again I believe that Guillem Balague is purely kite flying - because on one hand he says that the player has agreed to hand in a transfer request, but then he wants to draw our attention to the fact that Fergie might stop it. Obviously he isn't that confident...
It's all part of the game. Guillem Balague might well get the drop on a big story hours before it happens via his contacts, but in this instance I seriously doubt it given we are talking some time in the future.
As I said in my blog post, I hope Ronaldo comes out and says he is staying at United and possibly signs a new deal and then perhaps we can put this to bed for a while.
There is another sub-plot being touted around, which is that the English media are trying to destablise Calderon's position at Real Madrid by floating these transfer rumours knowing that this could somehow potentially further damage Calderon's image - I wish the latter was true - but even if he goes no doubting Perez will be just as bad.
I have grown to despise everything about Real Madrid, I really cannot abide them.
Well you said that you would like Ronaldo come out and discredit these comments and I found it nice to check Sky this morning and get a quote of Ronaldo painting with a broad brush that says he plans on being at United for years and years. We will have to wait and see how true that is, but again I think it discredits Mr. Balague further.
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