Real Madrid paying the price for club president Florentino Perez's follies
The "BBC" was back on the air Saturday as two goals from Karim Benzema, one from Gareth Bale and one from Cristiano Ronaldo helped Real Madrid end a difficult week with a convincing 4-1 win over Getafe.
Beating up on lowly Getafe is fine of course. But the good result could also be seen as merely papering over the cracks on a structure that's clearly been showing signs of decay.
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Outclassed by Barcelona in El Clasico. Disqualified from the Copa del Rey for fielding a suspended player. Continual rumors of discontent between players and manager Rafa Benitez. When taken all together, it looks increasingly like the current Real Madrid project – as begun by Florentino Perez when he returned for a second stint as club president in 2009 – could be coming off the rails.
Perez's model of amassing superstar attackers and leaving whoever the current coach is to find a way to field them all in the same team has never really been a reliable formula for success anyway. Carlo Ancelotti, the one manager who seemed to truly excel at it, was fired barely a year on from winning La Decima.
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Even beyond the on-pitch matters, there are other indications something has broken down within the club. Fielding the suspended Denis Cheryshev in the Copa del Rey, despite having received warnings from a Spanish referee via phone calls and a fax, and failing to file the paperwork for David De Gea's transfer imply some level of insulation from reality inside Real Madrid.
It could be nearing time to clear the decks and start all over again, just as Perez did when he took over and sold off the likes of Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben to bring in Ronaldo, Benzema and Kaka.
Already, it seems increasingly likely that Ronaldo will leave at the end of the season, either to return to Manchester United or to join Paris Saint-Germain. Bale has generally been touted as the man who will assume the mantle when Ronaldo goes, but some question whether he's really up to it – not just in terms of marketability but also with his on-field impact.
In his first two seasons in Spain, Bale scored 41 goals in all competitions. Ronaldo scored more than twice that many in his first two years at Real. There's a lingering suspicion among Madridistas that Bale might not be quite as good as everyone thought he was when he came over on a record transfer from Tottenham Hotspur.
Benzema, meanwhile, remains under the cloud of a scandal involving sex, blackmail and one of his France national teammates. None of that really distinguishes him as the sort of player an institution like Real Madrid would want to make a figurehead.
With Bale also being linked to Man United and Benzema facing the genuine possibility of jail time, none of the futures of the BBC at Real Madrid are etched in stone at the moment. So who could the team build around if one or more of them goes?
Moving James Rodriguez into a more central role in his preferred position behind the striker is one option. Jesé and Isco are two other players currently on the books who could be capable of stepping up into bigger roles.
But with the three players many consider the world's best at the moment all playing for Barça, there aren't that many obvious outside candidates for filling the boots of the BBC.
Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has been an on-again, off-again target. The prolific Argentine has the goal-scoring pedigree and the requisite complement of glamour to be a Real Madrid leading man. He also has La Liga experience.
Then there's Eden Hazard. The supremely talented Belgian midfielder seems to be wilting in his current role at Chelsea. Back in October, he fueled speculation about a Bernabeu move when he liked an Instagram post linking him with a transfer to Real Madrid.
The Bundesliga is another place Real could look to. Robert Lewandowski is rumored to be on the club's radar and is said to be open to a move to the Spanish capital, if he were to leave Bayern Munich that is.
Borussia Dortmund attacking midfielder Marco Reus is another player who's been linked with the club. Meanwhile, Reus' teammate and current leading Bundesliga scorer – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – has made no secret of his desire to move to Spain.
In terms of managers, if you believe the Spanish press, club legend and current youth coach Zinedine Zidane is already being groomed as Benitez's successor.
But what of the man behind virtually everything that has gone on at the club for the past six years?
In his two stints as president, Perez has helped Real Madrid reach new heights in global preeminence. The club has fans in every corner of the world and is now one of international sports' few truly global brands. Real's trophy haul during Perez's second tenure is nothing to sneeze at either: one La Liga title, one Champions League, and two Spanish Cups.
Although when you consider that the club has spent over half a billion euros in that time and that now, as then, Barcelona remains the dominant force in Spanish and European soccer, it's not totally unfounded to question just how successful Perez has really been. Especially when you consider that during the same period, Barcelona has won four La Ligas, two Champions Leagues and two Spanish Cups, mostly on the backs of a trio of players – Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi – who cost a combined total of nothing in transfer fees.
Despite the fact that he's grown hugely unpopular with a large section of Real Madrid fans, there's little indication that Perez intends to relinquish power anytime soon. Last time he was up for reelection, he changed the requirements for candidacy in a manner that conveniently disqualified three of his biggest rivals.
One of those rivals – former club president Vicente Boluda – is currently attempting to force a new election through the courts. If that doesn't succeed, the next election at Real Madrid isn't until 2017.
As long as Perez remains in charge, players and managers will come and go. However, the club's overall trajectory is likely to remain pretty much the same.
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